Alpaca Advice

On 18 Oct 2006 15:56:54 -0700, "Vintage Purls"
wrote:


Georgia wrote:
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
http://www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm) is one of my favorites.
Neither loose nor tight, and my first choice for travel because it's so
lightweight and compresses (and recovers from it) so well.

Well I have ordered a little fibre to play with - I had thought of
making my man some winter gloves from it if it spun up okay but Lee
changed my mind on the glove front. It looks like I'll just have to
experiment. Thanks.

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
oups.com:

. Can anyone
share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable
fiber to attempt a fine yarn with?

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 and i raise llamas...
--
Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if
there be
one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of
blindfolded
fear. - Thomas Jefferson

enigma wrote:
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 and i raise llamas...

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!

Georgia wrote:
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
http://www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm) is one of my favorites.
Neither loose nor tight, and my first choice for travel because it's so
lightweight and compresses (and recovers from it) so well.

Well I have ordered a little fibre to play with - I had thought of
making my man some winter gloves from it if it spun up okay but Lee
changed my mind on the glove front. It looks like I'll just have to
experiment. 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
http://www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm) is one of my favorites.
Neither loose nor tight, and my first choice for travel because it's so
lightweight and compresses (and recovers from it) so well.

Georgia

"enigma" wrote in message
. ..
"Vintage Purls" wrote in
oups.com:

. Can anyone
share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable
fiber to attempt a fine yarn with?

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 and i raise llamas...
--
Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if
there be
one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of
blindfolded
fear. - Thomas Jefferson

"Vintage Purls" wrote in
ups.com:


Georgia wrote:
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 http://www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm)
is one of my favorites. Neither loose nor tight, and my
first choice for travel because it's so lightweight and
compresses (and recovers from it) so well.

Well I have ordered a little fibre to play with - I had
thought of making my man some winter gloves from it if it
spun up okay but Lee changed my mind on the glove front. It
looks like I'll just have to experiment. Thanks.

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
--
Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if
there be
one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of
blindfolded
fear. - Thomas Jefferson