Skirting a Mess

That mess on the skirting board is Sindre's 2004 seconds -- fiber from his neck and upper legs that isn't quite as good as his prime blanket fiber. It's actually very good fiber -- and the reason I haven't done anything with it yet is that it's such a mess.

Yes, all those different colors come from the same alpaca -- Sindre -- the first cria born on our farm. You can see from his pictures that his neck ranges from black to gray to almost white, while his upper legs are still a different gray. That's the fiber you see on the skirting board.

Most of the light-colored specks in the fiber are pieces of hay and straw. You can also see some second cuts and other undesirables in this fleece. Because this is seconds, the length and softness of the fiber is variable. Sindre's blanket is very soft and has a uniform texture. For you alpaca people out there, his 2004 blanket (13 months of age) was 17.8 microns. Sindre's seconds range from softer than his blanket and very short to slightly longer than his blanket and not nearly so soft. This latter fiber is very long guard hair from the apron or bib area and I'm skirting it out of his seconds. Unfortunately, much of the super-soft fiber is really too short to use, so I find myself removing that as well.

(The bib is long guard hair found on the lower chest of camelids. Some vicunas have an exaggerated bib with fiber over ten inches long. I believe the alpaca's bib functions to allow water to drip off the alpaca much like the fringe on a buckskin garment.)

Sindre is one of those alpacas who very much believes the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. When the fencing allows -- and in his current pasture it doesn't -- he sticks his head through the fence to get the grass on the other side. When sticking his head through the fence, he tears up the fiber at the back of his neck. I'm discovering some of the fiber from the base of his neck is a rat's nest of hay, and short fiber. This fiber also gets removed.

Once this fiber is skirted, I'll probably offer it for sale as raw fiber. If you're looking for variable-color mostly gray alpaca fiber with excellent softness and can handle some variation in length, you might consider Sindre's seconds. I'll post a note here when I finish skirting this fiber and add it to the store.