I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the fleece of two alpacas, fresher shorn, and smelled of barn. I have never tackled fleece through to sweater, but was ready to try. I put the fleece in small washing bags and gently soaked small batches in my kitchen sink. Two soapy soaks and three rinses resulted in soft fluffy white fibre. I was delighted. I used carding brushes and blended the alpaca with 25% merino top, and rolled into small rolags ready for spinning.
I spun and plied the yarn, and ended up with lots of huge 130gram skeins, some of which I dyed a bright yellow. After swatching and calculating, I knit a warm sweater in mostly yellow alpaca yarn, and every eighth row I added a lace weight red mohai as a knit along. It turned out better than I could imagine. I charted a white heart for the front and knit it, intarsia style. Simple, but fun. And seriously warm.
Then I still had some yarn, so I crocheted this little alpaca to remind me of the start of this adventure.
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