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Beautiful Suri Alpaca Yarn
Once the fleece has been made into bats or rovings it is ready to spin into yarn.
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Return to Alpaca Fleece page
Making Suri Alpaca Slivers and Bats
See how we make Suri Alpaca Bats
See how we make Suri Alpaca Slivers
See how we Spin Fleece Into Yarn.
See Our Suri Alpaca Yarn.
Visit our store that features Suri Alpaca Design Garments
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| This is me spinning on my Beautiful Lendrum Saxony Spinning Wheel. It is a fine machine and a joy to spin on.
I'm wearing one of our Suri Alpaca Designs garments. True Black Maranta's Peruvian Maximillian gave me his fleece. I washed it, combed it, and spun it on my beautiful spinning wheel. My good friend Cheryl knit the garment on a Brothers knitting machine. I love this garment. It is a staple of my wardrobe.
Back to spinning, you don't have to have a spinning wheel to make your own yarn. You can make yarn with a drop spindle (pictured below). They sell for $15 or so or you can pick up the parts from your local craft store. Ladies in South America make yarn while they are watching their alpacas (and human children).
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I start my spinning with a roving or sliver. I draw the sliver into a triangular zone between the thumb and forefinger of each hand (see the pictures below). My left hand feeds the roving into the drafting zone. My right hand feeds the fleece from the drafting zone to the spinning wheel, where the yarn is made. |
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| I draw the fleece so the individual fibers are as parallel as I can make them. Because the individual fibers are smooth, I am can more tightly pack the strands of fleece. This makes the yarn surface even smoother than the batting surface. |
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| This spool of yarn is being made from the fleece of Ameripaca's Luke, sire to our handsome suri Chocolate Darwin. The spool spins on its axis putting twist into the yarn and winding it on the spool. Yarn in this state is called a "single", for a single strand of yarn. See the color of the yarn. It varies from white to light fawn. This yarn reflects the natural color of the donor's fleece. Singles can be wound together (in the opposite direction) to make two, and three ply yarn. |
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Return Home
Return to Alpaca Fleece page
Making Suri Alpaca Slivers and Bats
See how we make Suri Alpaca Bats
See how we make Suri Alpaca Slivers
See how we Spin Fleece Into Yarn.
See Our Suri Alpaca Yarn.
Visit our store that features Suri Alpaca Design Garments
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Yarn from the spool of the spinning wheel is usually wound into skeins on a knitty knotty (left). Yarn is presented in skeins so you can judge the quality of the yarn troughout. If you buy yarn in a ball you can have a hidden surprise.
I price alpaca yarn by the length because it takes just as much time to spin a yard of lace weight yarn as a yard of bulky yarn. To measure the length of a yarn I wind it on a 2-yard knitty knotty, count the strands, and multiply by 2.
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| Remember the smooth surface of the of the indiividual suri alpaca fibers? This physical trait allows me to pack the fibers into a very dense yarn. The tightly packed yarn presents a smoother surface to the incoming light. The outgoing light rays are well aligned with eachother giving the suri yarn the luster for which it is well known. I can't wait to see what Cathie makes with this yarn. |
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The Umbrella Swift (left) holds a skein of yarn while it is being wound into a ball. (husbands can also perform this function) See the ball winder attached to the table in the lower part of the picture? Balls of yarn wound on a ball winder have a distinct advantage over balls wound by hand. Ball winder wound balls let you access the yarn from the inside of the ball. If you pull from the inside the ball doesn’t roll around! I place my yarn balls in a small plastic bag which protects the integrity of the ball while I am crocheting. |
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Return Home
Return to Alpaca Fleece page
Making Suri Alpaca Slivers and Bats
See how we make Suri Alpaca Bats
See how we make Suri Alpaca Slivers
See how we Spin Fleece Into Yarn.
See Our Suri Alpaca Yarn.
Visit our store that features Suri Alpaca Design Garments
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| Hand spun suri alpaca yarn is different from any other yarn you have seen or felt. |
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