Decades later, I've done it. By accident. While 'stalking' another wild plant, I came across a patch of wild asparagus! Wow. I feel as though I have accomplished one of my life's secret goals (another of which is to climb Mt. Everest - but that, I'm sure, will never come to fruition, so a thing like this is made all the more meaningful :-)
Here is the wild asparagus:
I can't tell you what a thrill came over me when I practically ran into it. I'll wait with great anticipation until next spring when I'll return to this remote spot and gather a few of the early shoots for a yummy treat. It will tide me over unil my own asparagus, planted this past spring, begins to produce.And now for the alpaca. I got my hands on a raw alpaca fleece:
Here it is after two or three days of sorting:
And here are some of the bags of sorted fiber:
I've been washing it a few ounces at a time in some salad spinners. I let it soak a couple of times in hot, soapy water. Let it sit through a couple of rinse baths, and then spin the excess water out of it:
I let it dry on a screen in my garage. Here is some scoured fleece:
And here it is in the 'planking' stage of the combing process with my four-pitch wool combs:
Here it is after it's been pulled off of the combs through a diz. This is combed top, ready to spin:
The stuff that's left on the combs after I pull off the sliver is put away to be carded later. Why is it in baggies? I don't know. Just thought it was neater that way:
I've spun about 150 yards of double-ply yarn already. I'm anxious to see how much yarn I'll get out of one fleece, and how much out of each quality of sorted fiber.It's a long process, but I don't mind it.