Fondle this fibre!

[Photo: From top clockwise: Gray alpaca on spindle
and 2ply,  cream alpaca with cashmere and silk,
alpaca with nylon and wool]

At the Olds Fibre Week (last week of June, first few days of July) Alpaca Canada donated sample bags of Alpaca for the spinners to spin and samples of alpaca yarn for the knitters and weavers to use. Ooooooooh what beautiful fibre! This is fondle fibre. You just want to put one of those sample bags in your pocket to carry around all day to fondle ... or, as Jacey Boggs suggests (check out her blog, she is hilarious) .... I think it was Jacey ... if not it could have been Jacey...in any event, someone like Jacey, suggested that there are certain fibres, and alpaca is one of them, that you just want to stuff into your bra and fondle or squeeze a breast or both, all day.

[Photo: See the softness]

I spun some Kensigton Prairie Farm roving which was light fawn coloured 85% Alpaca and 15% Tussah silk. Exquisite! And the samples from Alpaca Farms Koksilah on Vancouver Island (I will be visiting this farm!) and Graycott Alpacas in Ontario were so silky and luxurious to spin. They were so soft and felt so good I did them all on a spindle to stretch out the fondle time.
Twisted Sisters Fibre Mill donated some rovings of an alpaca blend with wool and nylon. See the picture and you will get an idea of how the addition of wool adds loft. Sounds like a perfect sock yarn.

[Photo: The alpaca/wool/nylon blend on the
left and the silky suri alpaca on the right]

My Mother (Mom are you reading this?) offered to knit my niece, a pair of socks and let her pick the yarn. She picked a heathered blue alpaca yarn. Mother was horrified thinking these socks would wear out in weeks being made with such delicate yarn. So I checked out the characteristics of alpaca and was surprised to find it is 10 times stronger than wool, more shrink resistant, softer, smoother and with little or no lanolin it is perfect for those who suffer wool allergies. They should be perfect socks.  
And should they ever wear out, well, they will be good bra stuffing.