Snail Spirals

I got out the wool combs again today, to try out some alpaca I washed yesterday. This fiber is some that I bought off eBay last November, for a ridiculously low price-- $3.00 for 2 pounds of raw fiber, if I remember correctly. I was somewhat skeptical of what the quality would be, given the price, but couldn't pass up the pretty picture. It looked nice, and I figured that even if it turned out to be poor quality, I was only out three bucks.

I was pleased with it when I got the box, but then got sidetracked and put it away until now. I was even more pleased after I washed 6 ounces yesterday. I was going to wash more, but we were stuffing the mesh bags outside (because of all the dust in the fiber) and were chased inside by a sudden violent hailstorm!

It was very dusty, but washed up bright white with one soapy soak and one rinse. It's quite soft, the staple length is about 4", and there isn't too much VM. After three passes through the combs, it's lovely.



The only minor problem I have found is the amount of guard hair in parts of it, and even that isn't too big of a deal. I was initially going to leave it in, because it's quite pretty (for guard hair). It's bright white and very shiny and sparkly, but it's just a bit too coarse and detracts from the silky softness of the rest of the fiber.

So, I'm picking it out as I go. I pulled out most of it as I was packing the mesh bags for washing, then got the rest as I loaded the combs. It's fairly easy, since the guard hairs are longer than the rest, as well as shinier and not crimped.



I did 10 combfuls today, half the washed fiber, and tomorrow I hope to finish the rest.