WWG Challenge Finish

I finished spinning the Twill fur/alpaca yarn. It was an interesting experience. The challenge is to work with a fiber you have never worked with before. The dog fur was the fiber I chose. The staple length of Twill's fur is about 1 inch. A bit more than some of the cotton I have spun but definitely a challenge. Her fur or undercoat is a lovely soft golden color and I rummaged around in my stash for a compatible fiber to spin it with. I had a bit of golden brown alpaca. I have worked with alpaca before and have found it to be a lovely fiber. This batch though had a lot of vegetable matter that I didn't really notice at first. The vegetable matter made it really hard to spin. I chose to spin the fiber woolen* using a longdraw method. I would have to stop frequently to pull out bits of weed seeds from the alpaca. The yarn singles ended up uneven and over twisted. The fiber and resulting yarn has potential though. It has a soft fuzziness from the dog fur and strength from the alpaca. I am not sure I would do this again but at least I would know what I am in for. If I were to do it again, I would chose a nicely prepared fiber to blend the dog fur with. Challenges are for trying and learning something new. I would say mission accomplished! Tomorrow, the final results of the Cochineal bugs.
Have you completed any recent fiber challenges? -Renee
* see glossary