The southern roots alpaca project

The Southern Roots Alpaca Project: Phase 1 Results
Hi All! I wanted to go ahead and announce my newest project, the Southern Roots Alpaca Project, a partnership between me and my cousin Angel Rockwood. She runs a farm/animal rescue, her Ark, in Lower Alabama, where my Bobbie’s mother, Other Mama, and her daddy lived and raised their family, and our roots have spread from there. Bobbie moved to Atlanta, then with Granddaddy Longlegs to Jax Beach. Momma bopped all around Florida and Georgia but eventually our little family moved to my Dad’s family home place in Louisville, KY. We’re from all over the south, we are southerners.
When Angel heard that I am a fiber artist and I can work with raw fiber, she was thrilled to have someone who could use the alpaca fiber she’d been saving. She mailed me a great big box stuffed, stuffed, stuffed with the most lovely, luscious, cream-colored fiber. Oh my gosh! I spun some up right away, it was meant for spinning! And it made absolutely gorgeous yarn.
As the first phase in the project, I did two yarns. The first was a blend of the alpaca combed with some angora from the bunny project I did a few years ago. I spun the blend on my drop spindle, and entered it in the Kentucky State Fair. It won an Honorable Mention ribbon! The second yarn I spun was also spindle spun, and when I entered both in the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair contest later in the year, the alpaca won an honorable mention and the alpaca and angora blend won a third place ribbon.
I mailed these first yarns back to Angel so she could enjoy them and our little victories, and show the Alpaca’s hard work in her agrotourism education.
In the next phase of this project, I will be washing, blending, spinning, and knitting more yarns into some sweet little accessories to test out what breed blends we like for which purposes, and how they look dyed. Please stay tuned and enjoy the stories and pictures, and I’ll post here when I do a YouTube video hilighting this process. Blessings!