Ace of Hearts

Ace is one of Alpaca Joe's youngest alpacas. This year was his first shearing, and he handled it quite well. Since I was skirting, I had the opportunity to bury my hands in the ultra softness that is a yearling fleece. I've heard that the softest fiber an animal will ever have is the one it is born with; from there, maturity adds coarseness. Ace was bred to have a fine fleece, with good crimp. And his color is lovely; soft apricot, like an early morning cloud.

Very few hand spinners ever have the chance to spin a cria fleece (that's what a baby alpaca is called, cria, pronounced "kree-uh"). It's not that they are rare, it's that they are made of velcro, and every piece of hay or stray or debris that the animal has ever come in contact with is part of them. It's as if the young alpaca first rolled in glue and then rolled around in a feed bin. Unlike older animals, where the vm can be combed out, trying to comb debris out of the tips of cria fiber just spreads it around, contaminating the rest of the fleece. Processing mills won't take cria fleece, and most breeders won't try to sell it to spinners since it's all but impossible to clean.

But nothing compares for fineness. A well bred, young alpaca has a micron count that rivals cashmere, but with a longer staple length that makes it so much easier to spin. So what's a spinner, who covets that quality, but hates the vm, to do?

Why, trim the lock tips, of course. See that box next the the pile of locks? Those are the very tips of the locks, carefully removed from the fleece with very small, very sharp scissors. The majority of vegetation that was plastered to the outside of Ace came off with them, making the rest of the picking, if not easy, at least possible.



I took handfulls of the fluff, put them in my clothes dryer, and tumbled them on air fluff to shake out any loose vegetation. It worked much better than I had hoped, and a lot of sand and dirt and chaff was caught in the filter. Then I washed it, rinsed it, let it air dry just a little, and tumbled it in the dryer again.

And this is what the cleaned stuff looks like. Can't wait to start spinning. Ace has stolen my heart.