How we process our alpaca fiber

Hand processing alpaca fiber from scratch is a very time consuming task, but our herd is still small enough to make it fun, managable, and certainly very satisfying. I'm sure that each farm has their own method of processing, but this is what works for me and I thought I'd pass it along for others to see.

• At shearing time:
  
  Our alpacas are shorn in the spring by Matt Gsellman from MaRachel's Alpacas of Ohio, who travels from Ohio with his wife Rachel and their bunch of kind and warmhearted kids. As Matt shears, we store the wool of each animal in two bags - one for the prime blanket, the other for the remainder of the wool. All of our wool is stored in lightweight gauze fabric for breathability. A bag of cedar shavings is dropped into each bag to keep the creepy crawlies out of there, and a tag containing the name of the alpaca and the shearing year is attached.
  
  
• Processing the raw wool:
  
  

  	A raw alpaca fleece is usually full of debris. Dirt, dried grass clippings, twigs, and even whole seed pods. My first step is to 'dry' clean the wool. I do not wash it at this stage, because alpaca wool does not contain the greasy lanolin like most other wools. Once I have spun a skein of yarn, I soak and gently (but thoroughly) hand wash it in hot water and Dawn dish detergent, rinsing it in cold water before hanging it to dry.
  	I begin by laying a piece of raw fleece on my lap with the shorn side underneath and the tips pointing up. Very carefully I begin to separate the naturally formed staples, a small handful at a time. These I stack in a basket, tips facing the same way. Be prepared for a dirty lap, for a lot of debris will fall from the wool during this step!
  	Now the 'dry' cleaning truly begins. With a fine fleacomb that you can find in the cat section of your supermarket or petstore, I comb the debris and second cuts from the staples. Take a large staple, or several small ones, and while holding the staple in the middle, run your fleacomb through one end of the staple several times. Then flip the staple around and fleacomb through the other end.
  	A lot of alpaca fiber is rather silky and slippery, and sometimes it helps to twist the staple on the end that you are holding so that you have a better grip and so that the comb does not pull chunks of usable fiber from the staple. You do need to hold it firmly!
  	The fleacombing not just removes debris from the wool, it also opens and 'fluffs' the the wool so that carding and blending it is an absolute breeze.
  	I stack the cleaned, opened staples in a basket, ready to card. More experienced hand spinners may find they can skip the carding altogether and spin these fluffly staples as they are.
  	After carding the wool, I hand roll the resulting batts from the carders into soft rolags. Because I hand roll, rather than use the carders, I am able to keep the fibers upright and pointed in the same direction. I will leave these stored in open baskets until I'm ready to spin them.
  	The rolags can be spun as is, or they can be pulled into long, soft rovings.
  	Pulling fibers gently from the center of the rolag, the rolag begins to turn itself into a roving. It is the same motion you use during pre-drafting of a tight roving.
  	Be sure to use a gentle touch. Continue to elongate the roving.
  	Ready for spinning! A very soft, light and airy alpaca fiber roving.