Day 20: Seasonal
Time to make some roving.
With Spring comes shearing season. It is time to get that beautiful fiber off the alpacas and turned into some yarn! On the carder above I have Sanda's fleece. Unfortunately it is the only fleece we have from him before he died. I am going to do my best to make something extra special with it.
The alpacas are the most eager to have their fiber shorn. Warm weather and heavy winter coats don't mix. So they will be happy very soon and running around the fields feeling lighter and happier.
I can't wait to get my hands on their fiber!
Since they are so cuddly to look at you would think you can just grab them and give them a hug. But unfortunately they don't like that. So this is the time to soak up that luxurious fiber in my hands and enjoy every second of skirting, washing, picking, carding, spinning and knitting.
I am so excited that Miss Maggie made a clone of herself with Mr. Bates. Gray is my favorite color and I can't wait to see what we can turn her fleece into. His will have to wait until next year.
My parents don't have the farm open to the public on shearing day. It is a crazy, exhausting all hands on deck day. We don't have a good set up for on-lookers, but in the future with a different set up they might be able to invite more people to come watch the awesome transformations of these amazing animals. But for now it is just us and the professional shearers.
Here is a video taken on shearing day at our farm a few years ago so you can get a glimpse of what goes on. You can see Sanda in the video :( He looks almost white. Also Awan is the one getting sheared. He has so much fiber!
