Selfsufficientish.com

Just wondering if anyone has alpacas on this forum, it would be nice to hook up with other owners and talk alpaca stuff. I have two called Teddy and Tony, they do have their own Facebook page Teddy Tony Alpaca where they tell all their friends what they get up to. They have been with us for over 2 years now. I have two big bags of fibre from last year and the shearer is coming soon hopefully, they are quite fluffy now. Not sure what to do with the fibre at the moment, I had this really good idea of making duvets but I don't have a carder and I am crap at sewing, knitting, crocheting. I think you might need some kind of frame to make big duvets or a very long armed sewing machine, we made a baby sized one which was quite good. Has anyone any good ideas what I can do with it, don't want to sell it as it seems to be worth very little and I would like to make things for my home and friends. The manure is very good and they are tidy and have one or two places where they like to go to toilet, they eat all my trees, look lovely and fluffy but you can't really stroke them, I do talk to them quite a lot and they talk back to me, they look lovely walking about the place, they do eat lots of stuff sheep don't, rough grass, bindweed, stinging nettle roots, sheds, wooden posts. Perhaps you were thinking about getting some and want to know a bit more, not an expert though, but had a few heart stopping moments with them.

diggernotdreamer wrote:they do eat lots of stuff sheep don't, rough grass, bindweed, stinging nettle roots, sheds, wooden posts.

I'd love a couple, they're so cute, but I don't have enough room. Just off to visit them on facebook.

Zoe

If there is a group anywhere near you who spins fiber into yarn they would love alpaca fiber. Ask around at a local yarn store if you have one, they would probably know a spinner or two. You could sell it to them or perhaps work an exchange where they keep some and give you some back in the form of batts or maybe yarn.

Another option is mulch in the garden but that's a huge waste of lovely alpaca fiber. It's what we do with the un-spinnable bits of wool we have from angora, alpaca and sheep's wool when we are spinning but we don't usually put the good stuff there.