Remember that fiber that I've been processing?

It's a hat!

 It took me a year but I finally converted the first bits of hand-spinning into a hat :-)

This picture show all of the colors.

When I started learning about alpaca fiber, I was very curious to know what a spinner would think of it. So, as we visited some alpaca owners, I would ask if I could purchase some fiber. All of them just gave me fiber in various amount (sometimes A LOT).

The first, white, fiber I received was already processed into roving. That is the very top of the hat and was my very first attempt at spinning. The rest of the hat was either combed or carded by hand and then spun with a drop spindle into a single ply yarn. Here is a link to the blog post about processing suri fiber and processing huacaya fiber.

My hat is very heavy and very soft. And, best of all, it is all natural alpaca colors - nothing is dyed.

My next creations will be from our very own alpacas. Because they rolled in cockleburs in 2013, their 2014 shearing could not be sent out for mechanical processing. So when I brought them home, I also got their fiber (in seven large trash bags) for hand processing and spinning.

I have a lot of fun ahead of me :-)