Brown llama fur...

[Suzee]

I was recently gifted with brown Llama fur. They saddle cut the male llama, and gave me the fur. I've never done anything with a HUGE bunch of fur like that. It's in a big trash bag in the garage. Where do I start? What do I do? HELP! I just don't know where to start.

[smyz64]

A friend of mine raises Llamas for the fur purpose, I know she sends it to her sister to actually spin, but she cards it first.

[Ladycrochat]

wow Suzee do you have work in front of you! I live in Morocco, and I have seen my Mil making yarn from sheeps' wool for 22 years now......first you have to brush it and brush it with special tools to get all the bits of garbage and knots and whatever out of it.....this takes a pretty long time......then you have to start spinning the wool/fur when it is all fluffy and clean....this takes time to master as the yarn has to be even-- places where the yarn goes thin will break easily......young girls are taught this stuff in early childhood here! And they use drop spindles no spinning wheels here! We really take for granted the work involved in producing yarn:yes

[sakurasaku]

Wow, I don't think I can ever complain about the price of yarn again. Especially natural fiber ones. Thanks for the info!

[jacqui]

I was recently gifted with brown Llama fur. They saddle cut the male llama, and gave me the fur. I've never done anything with a HUGE bunch of fur like that. It's in a big trash bag in the garage. Where do I start? What do I do? HELP! I just don't know where to start.

First thing first do you spin at all? Have you got a dog comb? You need to spread the fleece out and literally pull it apart into what is called staples (locks)put them into a box with all the tips facing the same direction. You don't need to wash it first but you do need to sort it like this to make it easier to handle.Then providing its not got to much vegitaion in it you can spin directly from the staples or you can get someone with a drumcarder to card it into roving for you.It isn't as daunting as you think if you start doing it a little at a time ok.I spin Alpaca fleece and i do this with it ,then i comb the staples with a dog comb, lay the combed staples in another box and when that is full i spin it. But i have a wheel. If you are still feeling overwhelmed you could contact a spinning guild near you and see if some one would like to buy the fleece from you,or if you can pay some one to spin it for you. If you have sorted the fleece out first and combed it, it should be cheaper to have spun ,as thats where the bulk of the work is, in the sorting and carding, not so much the spinning as people think. I hope this helps good luck.

[jacqui]

Oh and when you wash it i suggest warm water shampoo and conitioner and do not aggitate or it will felt on you.It can be washed before you spin but personally i would spin it first and wash after.

[Suzee]

Update on the fur...Went out in the garage looking for my bag of fur. DH thought it was trash and had thrown it out.

[MullersLaneFarm]

Grrrr!

 

Collect up old pillow cases to store your raw fiber in. Less likely to mistake for garbage and the fiber can breathe.

 

Most likely, if it was stored in a plastic bag through the summer, fall and into winter, it would have felted on itself because of the change of temps and the moisture in the bag.

 

I have a friend give me a trash bag of llama that had sat for a year (before they gave it to me). I call it my llama from **** because it was so full of felted fiber, snarls & knots.

[Llama_princess]

i have a 10 month old, brown black and white collored llama and i was wondering what prices i could sell her fiber for.