I Took The Opportunity...
Since I finished cleaning and sorting the white llama fleece (how many weeks ago?) there have been a total of two nice sunny days. One I spent washing and drying the white Icelandic fleece, the other, which happened to be yesterday, I was finally able to sit outside for the afternoon and clean and sort the black llama fleece. I fired up my little butane mosquito repeller, doused myself in Deep Woods Off and settled under a large umbrella on a stool.
The fiber turned out to be a real mixed bag of nearly-spotless and hopelessly dirty bundles. My aim was to pull out as much of the long outer hair as I could, since it was the dirtiest part, and shake out as much loose veg matter as I possibly could. It didn't take me long to shed my watch! I figured it was better to remove it than risk dislodging it's gears!
So I spent the afternoon pulling and shaking...
The fiber turned out to be a real mixed bag of nearly-spotless and hopelessly dirty bundles. My aim was to pull out as much of the long outer hair as I could, since it was the dirtiest part, and shake out as much loose veg matter as I possibly could. It didn't take me long to shed my watch! I figured it was better to remove it than risk dislodging it's gears!
So I spent the afternoon pulling and shaking...
The lighter colored pile on the right is pretty much all pulled hair. It's a rather fluffy pile, but you can see by my size 7 foot it's still a fair pile of trash. The darker pile on the left is fiber with waaaay too much veg matter in it. I think I could have shaken and pulled until Christmas and I still wouldn't have gotten it clean enough to process. It was nice soft fiber too, quite a disappointment, but I asked myself just how desperate I was for spinning fiber - and the answer was, not desperate enough to spend a bunch more hours trying to salvage that lot! LOL! There is going to be more next spring, hopefully cleaner and it's not like I didn't get any this year.
All told, I got about one and one half pillow cases of black llama fiber, I'm thinking between 3 and 4 pounds all together. My rule of thumb was, if I wasn't sending it away would I be willing to work with it? I'm hoping the end result means they'll be pleased to get it. If the color of my hands when I was done was any indication, it'll have to be washed a few times before they can do anything else with it! All I know is it's a relief to have that whole job behind me. Hopefully, the next time I handle this it will be for the pleasure of spinning it! Now to make that magic phone call early next week and arrange for processing! Cheers all! 
Posted by Gloria Patre at 7/10/2010 3:58 PM 
Categories: Spinning, Fiber
Tags: llama fleece black llama fleece dehairing llama fleece
Categories: Spinning, Fiber
Tags: llama fleece black llama fleece dehairing llama fleece
Hi, I was at an alpaca farm and they use a garden leaf blower to blow out the fleece, while it's on the animal before shearing. They get really clean fleeces that way. Try it. They also sheared on a contraption that sandwiches the animal and flips it on it's side, but on this thing so they are not shearing on the dirty ground. The hooves are bound and there were two people tending to the head of the animal. It went fast and the alpaca was no worse for the experience.
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I've seen photos of that and I think it would be great - just way too expensive for just one llama (llama sandwich... hmmmm). And I can tell you mine would leap half way to the next province if I started a leaf blower anywhere near him! LOL!!
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