Spinning Journal – Log Nº2
Black Alpaca

Log Nº 2 and we are going dark. Literally !!

Flashback to Barcelona Knit Festival 2023, at the stand of my friend Arsenio from Alpacas El Camino in Cantabria. Some of you might already know El Camino from Terra, the corset in Arvum et Litus, where the alpaca fibre came directly from Amycus, one of his own animals. That time, I came home with a lot of yarn and with 200 grams of pure black 100% alpaca.

And when I say black, I mean blaaaaack. Natural black. No dye, nothing added, just the void. It is honestly the only natural black fibre I have ever found. Most fibre out there is white or light, because that is what takes dye best, so a fleece that is truly, deeply black is something special. And all of it comes from one single alpaca: Neptus. Every gram of this yarn, he grew.

It came as combed top, already beautifully prepared, all the fibres lying parallel and ready to spin. Alpaca is very different from merino in the hands. It has much less crimp, those natural little waves sheep’s wool has, so it feels smoother and more slippery, and it does not grip onto itself in the same way. You have to pay attention to how much twist you give it.

Spinning time

I did not want to use all 200 grams straight away, so I started with a test of 70 grams.

I split it in two and spun two singles of 35 grams each, both S twist, on my Ashford Kiwi. Then I plied them together Z. If you read Log Nº 1, you will notice this is the opposite of my first yarn, which was Z singles plied S. Same logic, mirrored: the ply goes in the opposite direction to the singles so the twist balances out.

A couple of tips if you are spinning alpaca. I lowered the tension, so the wheel was not pulling the fibre out of my hands before it had enough twist. At first the singles were like “goodbye” and slipped into the bobbin. Alpaca is slippery so if you use too much pull it just slides away. Then I went a bit faster than usual, to give it that extra twist it needs to hold together. Lower tension, a bit more speed. That combination made all the difference.

The result: around 37 metres of yarn from those 70 grams. Thick, but incredibly airy and soft. Mushy, in the best way. I just kept squeezing the yarn cuz it felt so good.

In total it took me around 3 hours, from top to finished skein.

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