Just look at this Yarn Candy !
This is indeed the blackest of black animal fiber I’ve ever seen. I bought it “raw” (weedy & dusty) from Debbie at Brookfarm last year, just over the mountain in Glen Ellen. She didn’t seem very excited to sell me raw unpicked fleece, but it was a special circumstance, and anyway, I nearly begged her. So here I am a year later, in dire need of black wool, or black anything, for Alejandro’s ski hat. Then I remembered this jet black alpaca I had stashed which I only spun up a sample last spring, washed, and noted it’s depth of total true black.
Sunday and today I filled a large bobbin , spinning from handfulls out of the bag (the technical term is called ‘spinning from locks’), then I washed & rinsed it 3 times, thwacked it, and hung it dry. It is absolutely glistening pitch black, and bloomed into soft gorgeousness. I can’t wait to knit it up.
You see, it’s winter in Patagonia, and Alejandro is training for ski, and I’ve promised him a basic ski hat, just in case the other ski hat I made for Ale doesn’t really work well on the slope. Let it be said by me that no other kind of hat belongs on an Argentinian who skis in the Andes more than one made of alpaca, and still more, one hand-spun and knit by a friend who bought the alpaca from another friend. This will be a hat of great character and integrity. I know Alejandro will like it a lot.
JjD 
Black as a black hat could be…………
Black looks so nice in the snow too. 🙂
Gorgeous!
Thank you Martha Dear !
Yeah !!!
Thank you all. I promise to send a photo wearing the hat in the Patagonean snow.
Gracias Alejandro ! Encanto ! Por favor un foto con vos con yerbe mate, mi gusta mucho mejor…veamos, si? 🙂
OK, then. Una foto mía tomando unos mates, for your lovely blog. Your got it.
Vos sos ‘dulce’ !
Your spinning is awesome. I have yet to master the fiber which is alpaca.
Thanks Morrie, but you’re ten times the spinner I am ! Well, anyway… I know where you can get some alpaca… really close by ! 😉 Welcome back from the sheep festival !!!!
Thanks for the mention, Jen. And for being a good friend, and spinner/knitter buddy; and a Brookfarm customer. You know where you can get more. 🙂
I am grateful for the resourceful bunch which are my spinning friends (and alpaca farmers)That really is some winner fleece Debbie !
Oh Deb… just for fun, what is the name of the alpaca from which this fleece grew? I’d like to ‘name’ the ski hat the same, a sort of little endearment for Alejandro. 🙂
Remind me when you got the raw fleece and then I can probably figure it out. K?
It was the day you sold us all the Schacht oils, a bunch of us crowded you out in your livingroom with our spinning wheels ~ last September , Oct or November???
I believe it is from Bica Surpresa, or Bica for short. I can send you a photo of her, if you like.
Lovely ! I will post Bica coming up when the ski hat is photographed with Alejandro and his yerbe mate ! 🙂 Thank you Deb.
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