Alpaca's!!

Ok, for most of you this might not be the most exciting thing, but for me it is. After a horrible few days (maybe more of that later) I got to visit some lovely alpaca's today. It's not so common over here as Alpaca's aren't held that often.

A few months ago I left this message on a site of a seller of Alpaca's. It just said that if someone didn't know what to do with the fleece of their alpaca's I was willing to take them. A few weeks ago I was contacted by someone who was going the sheer his alpaca's and I could have the fleeces! I was so happy.

So today I drove 45min to arrive at this lovely little house. I could see kangaroos at the side of the house, and as soon as the people let me in I could also see the alpaca's. Look at them :


The lady's, well, most of them!

The white one is the biggest, and the brown/white one is the youngest of those shorn.

The big male (silver grey) who has 7 ladies to his disposal!

The one not shorn is the youngest of the group, only 6 months old. The other one is a brown female.

They have 7 quite young females, and one male. The male is now turning 3 and apparently that's the age he's ready to reproduce. And he's free to do what he wants with the 7 females! Well, 5 actually, 'cause the youngest 2 aren't ready yet, still to young. But they were beautiful! And I was amazed to see them from so up close! Next year I'll be seeing, hopefully, a bunch of little ones!

This is what I actually brougth home with me :

Take your count! Yep, 7 bags of fleeces! And that for only €25! That's nothing of course. The guy did this for the first time and I have to say he did a great job! He tried to keep the locks as long as possible. I should check to make sure, but I'm supposed to have 2 silver greys, 1 white, 2 light brown (one brown/white from the young female) and one dark brown/black. The small 6months old is actually a black, but they haven't shorn her this year.

They are planning on shearing their alpaca's every 2 years, and I think they will offer me the fleece again! I'll be knitting them something over the winter I think!

Normally I should be visiting again in a few weeks 'cause then these 2 ladies will be relieved from their heavy hair as well :

Before they had the alpaca's they used to have Llama's. They still have 2 females. They haven't been shorn in 4 years so I'm aware that there might not be that much useable about the fleeces, but I just couldn't refuse. Whatever I have I just have, right? Oh, and apparently sometimes a male alpaca and a female Llama end up having a little one too, so I'm just curious how that might turn out!

In the coming days I'll be picking up a Clun Forest Fleece. I'm also awaiting news on a Gotland fleece, don't know when the animal will be shorn. And then during July I'll be picking up a few fleeces from Ouessant sheep! Looking forward to that! So lots of spinning in my future!!! :D

Off to bed now!