Shearing, Spinning and Babies

August was a busy month for me, and I suspect September will be the same. My daughter and I did some alpaca shearing, and I have been learning how to process the fleece.

Shearing in itself was an experience; one that I am willing to improve on. Our first candidate was the cria that was born in early February. We presumed we could halter him, lay him on the table and shear. That did NOT go well! We did manage to shear most of him, but the majority of it was done when he was in a cushed position on the ground. He still looks funny as we missed a few places, but we did get some remarkable fleece from hi,.

Our second attempt was made with one of the males. We did not even try to lay him down, but tried to shear him standing up. We did his neck and that was all he would let us do. We got as much fleece from his neck as we did from the cria we had done. I learned after the fact from a an alpaca website I came across that it is best to hold their heads high and have someone pull gently on their ear; it apparently keeps their mind off the shearing, plus they cannot lay down.

I also did a fair bit of research in terms of washing, carding, spinning and felting alpaca fiber. I have come to the conclusion investing in a set of wool carders will be a good thing. I am currently using dog brushes, and although they do work I can only card small amounts at a time. A spinning wheel is also on my "to buy" list, but for the moment I am using a drop spindle, which I made myself using dowel, a wooden wheel and a cup hook. The drop spindle works (pictured below) well, and is quite portable.

The drop spindle I made for less than $3.

The highlight of the month was the new cria (pictured below) born on August 29 - a gray male weighing in at 11 lbs. I was very excited as this cria was the baby of one of my alpacas - the other two cria we have belong to my son and daughter. My daughter got to see the birth of this one, which was very exciting for her. When her alpaca had a baby it was a total surprise so we both missed the birth. When my son's alpaca had hers, I was the only one home and did get to see it.

Silver Storm - born August 29, 2012

The alpacas are my favorite part of living on an acreage. They are easy to care for, do not require a lot of space and are great at lowering blood pressure. The best part for me is they provide me with fiber to sell, which will eventually become my main source of income.

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