This is the industry…..the end result…..a luxurious fiber.  Yes, raising and selling the animals is very important, but what are we doing it for – to build a viable alpaca fleece industry in North America.  So, here comes the BIG question – what do YOU do with your fiber?

I can tell you what I do with my fiber.  We are blessed to have some animals whose fleece is so nice that I hold them back and skirt them in order to enter them in competitive fleece shows.  So for one year those particular fleeces do not get processed or sold as they are winning ribbons (hopefully).  This last year I sent off about two years worth of collected fleeces, some show fleeces and some not,  to a fiber mill called Georgia Mountain Fiber.  I also had two particular fleeces that I kept separate and processed into yarn and sold specially as coming from that alpaca – Stonewall Jaxon and Shadow.  I had about four white fleeces, two light fawn fleeces, and two medium brown fleeces that were combined in their color groups and processed into yarn. 

                                               

I have found that the yarn sells nicely, especially when it is marketed as coming from it’s particular alpaca.  I like it that others are interested in buying, for example, the yarn made from Stonewall Jaxon’s fleece.  I had some of Stonewall’s fiber made in to rovings too, and have been selling that over the internet.  Read here, here, here and here what others have had to say about his fleece. 

I have also used some of the raw fiber, felted it and made hats.  Learning how to felt with raw fiber is extremely rewarding and it is really fun to wear your own creations!  Another project that I’ve really enjoyed doing lately is knitting beanie hats. 

                      

When our son, Ross, was visiting at Christmas he saw what I was doing and asked if I would make one for him.  I was thrilled that he wanted something that I made, then he asked if he could take one that I had already made and give it to his girlfriend.  If a couple of 24 year olds will wear a beanie, I figure others might too.  I find that I can make one beanie in an evening and now I feel like I am getting something done while I am relaxing and watching television.  Yeah!  I have also done some crocheting with the yarn.  I have taken some of the beanies and thrown them in the washing machine to felt them.  That is really interesting.  Still haven’t got that process totally figured out, I guess it takes just trying it over and over. 

Now I am learning how to needle felt.  I have had a try at it without any instructions (except from what I found on the internet) and really like the way it looks.  Needle felting is something I really think I’ll enjoy doing because it is totally creative and I like that.

These are just a few things that I have done with alpaca fiber.  If you have other ideas, please share them with me.