Carding alpaca and icelandic with bamboo

Carding today.  Icelandic wool with Alpaca fibre from my rescue boy Tyrone.  Tyrone's fibre is as soft as his personality - very.  A splash of bright copper coloured bamboo dyed by an artizan up island.  Both the sheep and the alpaca wool come from my farm.  Talk about local.


The copper is shiny and shimmers in the light.  This will make some lovely textured yarn.

Been a difficult year for the animals, especially sheep.  Drought makes it so we have to buy them more feed, and with the second and third hay crop being sparse, the cost for their keep has jumped.  No grass to munch on is hard on their teeth too, as they nibble at the scrubby bits of brown grass next to the ground, get dirt in their teeth that wear them down so quickly.  Don't know about the winter.  But I do know they need to do more to earn their keep or we will have to cull a good chunk of the flock.  Makes me sad, but that's farming.  Prices go up,  Income stays same.

But the good news is that the shearer is coming soon for the fall fleeces.  Yes, another expense, but worth it.  He does my fall health check for my grass munchers to catch anything I might have missed.  The fall fleece is the best, as it hasn't had the weather and winter rains beating at it.  5 Lambs fleeces to look forward to.  The adults suffered stress from the drought, so the fleeces there won't be very good for spinning, but maybe I can experiment with felt making.  Never made felt before, but it looks like fun.  Short fibre wool is suppose to felt well.