Alpaca Advice

On 18 Oct 2006 15:56:54 -0700, "Vintage Purls" wrote:
I made an alpaca hat - just a toque - and it was too big. So I washed it and it felted a little. Not solidly, you could still see the stitches, but enough to make it fit better and be more "solid" and not so floppy. Just another thought.
Alison

Hi all,
I seek some of your fantastic advice. I've recently taken up spinning,
I've had my grandmother's wheel for many years gathering dust. I
cleaned it up, oiled it and have spun a couple of hundred grams of
sliver so far. My first efforts where with corriedale and not pretty -
lumpy and hard. But then I spun some merino - it was fantastic and I
have a 100g skein of a fairly consistent, reasonably fine yarn. Now one
of the reasons I decided to attempt spinning is that I like to knit
from vintage patterns and it's quite hard to get a good selection of
the finer yarns needed for many vintage patterns locally (i.e. that
won't break the bank and comes in more than just 'baby' colours). So
I'm trying to produce a yarn that's about the thickness of a commerical
3 or 4ply (which my merino effort is). I can get some Alpaca sliver but
I know very little about it. I've read that it's hard for spinners to
work with but I've also read that about Merino and I thought the merino
very easy to handle and really enjoyed working with it. Can anyone
share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable fiber to
attempt a fine yarn with?
Many thanks!

"Vintage Purls" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
alpaca yarn has NO memory. it stretches, bags & gets distorted. it's great to spin, great to knit, but i would *never* give an alpaca project as a gift... well, maybe if it was just a scarf, where the stretching & refusing to go back to shape doesn't matter. if you ply it with the merino, it might be ok, but i'd make a really big test swatch before knitting a fine vintage sweater from it. lee

Hmm, okay I think I'll stick with the merino for significant projects then (it's cheaper than Alpaca and plentiful here in NZ anyway). I just thought Alpaca might be a little special. Thanks!

It's true that alpaca yarn has no memory, but because it's so lightweight, I've never had the problems with it that I've had with cotton (or silk noil)--I gave away the sweaters I made with those because they kept falling off my shoulders, LOL. But my alpaca sweater (2nd row, far right at is one of my favorites.Neither loose nor tight, and my first choice for travel because it's solightweight and compresses (and recovers from it) so well.Georgia

"Vintage Purls" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:
ply it with the merino. that way you get some of the elasticity of the wool & the warmth of the alpaca. i just don't trust 100% alpaca yarns to behave. i'm sure twist & type/numbers of plies affects the behavior, but... it's still a very inelastic fiber. lee