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Beautiful Suri Alpaca FleeceEvery spring, starting the second weekend in May we shear all of our alpacas. We start with the large boys and work our way down to the smallest cria. Alpaca fleece (alpaca wool) is very soft. Suri alpaca fleece also shines. See the luster in Lilly's fleece (below) and Cassidy's fleece (right) Why is suri alpaca fleece so soft? What gives suri alpaca the cool hand? |
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| Suri alpaca fleece usually forms locks. Some locks are thin, some are thick, some are tightly twisted others are not. The type of lock does not contribute or detract from the quality of the fleece for making yarn and garments. Alpacas that compete in the showring are expected to have uniform locks all over their bodies. Mildred's locks (right) do not have any twist at all, which makes it very easy to clean and prepare for spinning. Luke, Darwin's Sire has large floppy locks (below). Those are my favorite. | |||||||||||||
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| After shearing the fleece from the alpaca we pick and wash the fleece so that it can be turned into batting and slivers for spinning. The picture below shows a light fawn fleece that has been washed. Take note of this lustrous fleece. | |||||||||||||
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| At Capital Alpacas we prepare suri alpaca fleece for spinning. There are two methods we use, depending on the fleece and the garment we wish to make from it. We comb the fleece into slivers, and we card the fleece into bats. | |||||||||||||