Alpaca World Magazine Spring 2005 - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

Fibre Spin Off
fi bre coming out of the carder can be
wrapped round a drum until the required
thickness for felting is achieved, or it can
be gathered and fed through a ‘false
twist tube’ to coil as rovings (also called
‘tops’ or ‘slivers’) into sliver cans, which,
after further drafting, are the input to
the spinner. Rovings can also be sold
to hand-spinners – saves them a lot of
work.
Drafting on the draw frame stretches
out and further aligns the fi bres, while
combining two or three rovings into
one, until the thickness required for the
spinner is reached. Combining rovings
helps to minimise small inconsistencies
along the length.
The sliver cans are then stood behind
the eight spindle spinner where the fi bre
uncoils upwards through further drafting,
spinning, and the controlled insertion of
twist (too loose and the yarn will fl uff up
and shed, too tight and it will feel like
string). The single yarn is wound on to
bobbins, which are then transferred to
the four spindle plyer, where two, three
(normally) or four-ply yarn is created,
with an opposite twist applied to make
it bind together. The spinner and plyer,
producing the fi ne-spun yarn which
our beautiful alpaca deserves, have a
throughput of up to 10kg per day, given
a fair wind and a following sea. That is
maybe three to four fl eeces.
At this point we have our fi nal yarn,
but it now goes to our ‘fi nishing room’,
where it is steamed and dried (to ‘set’
the twists) before being wound onto a
cone or cones and through a waxer if it
is to be machine-knitted. It is now ready
for return to the owner, unless it is to be
sold as hand-knitting wool, when it can
be wound from the cones into skeins as
a further service.
The felting table is another facility
offered, and all qualities of fi bre can
be felted. For those who like working
with felt the best fi bre can produce
beautiful results, but the second or third
quality (even the dirtiest rejects from the
de-hairer) can also be felted. Celia has
made rugs, dog and cat beds, hanging
basket liners, weed suppressing mats
– and a coat for a late-born cria. Most of
these were made from fi bre too coarse
for spinning into fi ne yarn.
Preparing a fl eece for processing
starts with the shearing. At this stage,
the shearer normally takes off the legs,
chest and belly as third quality and this
is bagged separately. Some upper leg
and neck, with the lower side-to-belly will
be bagged as seconds, and the rest - the
saddle or blanket - is bagged as fi rsts.
These should be spread out
individually on a sorting table where they
are shaken and picked over to remove as
much dirt, vegetation, hawthorn, barbed
wire (you think I’m joking?) as possible.
It should be dagged, and all coagulation
Alpaca World Magazine Spring 2005 | 41