Spinning 12:15-1pm, farm 2pm-7pm, spinning 7pm-930pm
Today... I had an alpaca spit in my face - just once! the second time I ducked.
First stop on the farm was to get acquainted with the alpacas. Cindy took me from pen to pen, introducing me to all her farm-mates. The carrots were a good icebreaker between the alpacas and me. We talked about alpacas, and what we wanted to do for my interning, then got to work sorting through last years fleece before it is time to shear again. We took one bag out of the back room (plus a few more for me to work with later) and brought it outside to a wire mesh table to skirt. Skirting consisted of shaking the fleece a little to get the hay out, then picking through to remove all the really dirty bits, the "seconds" which are a different texture from the other fiber (often from the neck?) and any other little bits of things that didn't belong. Next, we loaded the fleece into mesh washing bags and headed to the sink. A large portion of the day was devoted to soaking the bags one at a time in a sink full of hot soapy water, rinse, repeat, soaking in warm water with baking soda, vinegar, and fabric softener, rinse, repeat, then finally hanging in the bathroom to dry while we moved on to the second and third bag. While soaking we also demoed how to make a felt soap bar, used the internet to research ideas and prices such as at etsy.com, and discussed ideas for patterns, generals about alpaca farming, and a brief interruption to see why all of the alpacas from all of the fields were sprinting down the field filled with looks of curiosity. Once the last of the fleece bags had been hung to dry (only a little felted, but she assures me we can cart it out - good as new), we headed back out to the fields to distribute the water, hay, and pellets. Just as Cindy had told me, the young female alpacas all came running at the sound of the hose and pushed for their turn to have their feet sprayed down. Delivering the hay seemed to warm the alpacas up to me as they learned to see me not as their predator but as their waitress - some of the little ones even felt inclined to nibble away at the bundle of hay out of my arms while others decided to become particularly affectionate and let me cuddle a little, which I greatly appreciated. The final course was the pellets, carefully delivered in the prescribed method. A stack of plastic dog bowls were each given a scoop of food, then the tower was carried into each field of pushy alpacas and a dish was put down for each animal a couple meters apart. Some of the alpacas felt that they needed their dishes to be held up for them, which was okay because evidently this makes them more acclimated to people so we all win. ...sort of. One of the women having her alpacas boarded at Cindy's showed up in time for feeding and made sure to put her two alpacas bowls on opposite sides of the shelter so they wouldn't see each other while eating and steel food.
Once all was well on the farm, we headed out in a caravan, picking people up along the way, to Rolly's house for my first spinning circle. I tried to brush up my spinning skills a little before leaving for the farm, but was still having problems with my wheel unscrewing pieces as the wheel turned. I had little desire to break Rolly's beautiful wheel, so I gave up after my research and tinkering had no effect. Walking in to Rolly's house, one of the other women in my arrival party gave me an estimate on the worth of my borrowed wheel which suddenly made the thing feel heavier and which I tried hard to not think about. Sitting down to wine and cheesecake, Rolly quickly spotted my problem, and once I turned the bobbin the right way around, I understood why this wheel is so nice. While at the spinning circle, I got to feel a bag full of vicuna fiber, and saw some whorls from Peruvian drop spindles.
Sorry, no pictures yet, but I'll get to it soon!
