Spinning Alpaca

I'm an alpaca breeder.  I am also a spinner, weaver and knitter.  I am on an alpaca team (Ravelry link) for this year's Tour de Fleece and I have three seasons of raw alpaca fleece in my shop. 

I have no alpaca prepared for spinning.

So when I realized I would finish spinning the 4 ounces of BFF Bamboo/Merino roving during the Tour de Fleece, I went to a (new to me) fiber shop in Fort Collins in search of Huacaya Alpaca roving.

I stopped at Your Daily Fiber which is a fun little shop.

There was a beautiful Japanese Kimono loom set up in the front room and drawers of roving in the back room.  There were yarn and other things, but I tend to get distracted by looms and roving.

The roving is displayed in the drawers of antique dressers.  Each drawer was full of roving... almost overflowing with soft, luscious potential.  It just begged me to reach in and feel.  Much of it was suri llama and suri alpaca which were both very soft.  Since I haven't spun llama before, the suri llama was very interesting... but I was on a mission for huacaya alpaca.

The drawers weren't well marked so I asked for some help which is how I met Elaine, the shop owner.

Turns out Elaine breeds llamas, alpacas and yaks.  Which means much of the roving was from her farm.

So after spending way too much time talking to her, I came home with 4 1/2 ounces of grey huacaya alpaca pencil roving, wound it into balls and embarked upon a lace weight yarn.