Snickers....A Tale Of Dissapointment

I woke up this morning to find that the post that I had so meticulously crafted last night had disappeared into the ether. All that was left was this photo. Grrr.... Yes, I was pretty tired when I finished it up, and so who knows what happened?

So let's begin again.

What you see pictured above is my most recently completed bobbin of singles. I'm calling it Snickers because the colors remind me exactly of milk chocolate and nougat, and the name popped into my head shortly after I began spinning. During a subsequent conversation with my husband, we decided that Three Musketeers might be a more accurate name, but that it just wasn't as much fun as Snickers. Interestingly enough, the first yarn I spun from this farm reminded me of carmel and cream....

But I digress.

The fiber is suri alpaca from Alpacas D'Auxvasse, called Pleasure x3, and was prepared as a roving made up of three thin stripes of different color from the same alpaca. I purchased it several years ago at my guild's annual holiday sale and exhibition, along with several other lovely rovings from the same farm. They had come very highly recommended by several guild friends, and indeed my initial impression of the roving was lovely. In truth, I wound up buying quite a bit from both the 2006 and 2007 sales, and I ordered more fiber directly from their website. (I stayed away last year, knowing my stash was FULL!)

My first spinning experience with Alpacas D'Auxvasse was every bit as heavenly as I had hoped it would be. However, my second experience was anything but. Consequently, I have to admit that it was with a bit of trepidation that I approached my next batch of roving....but I was also excited as this time I would be working with 100% suri!

I was a bit nervous that perhaps the fiber had become a bit matted because it did appear to be a bit compacted despite my careful storage of it. So I unwound the entire roving into a basket, and was relieved to find that at least that one worry didn't pan out.

It soon became apparent, though, that Pleasure x3 was anything but a pleasure to spin. The fiber was riddled with second cuts, matts and varying fiber lengths. The woolen preparation had done the fiber no favors and exacerbated every little problem. My hopes were completely dashed, and I admit to having to fight the fiber through almost the entire batch to get a smooth, even single. (Please know that on a personal level I really hate having to give this fiber such a bad review. The folk at the farm are super-nice people who have a great reputation around here, and I've never heard another bad word about them.)

The good news is that the color is absolutely lovely. In some sections I divided the stripes for long runs of a single color, and in others I just let the colors barberpoll around each other for a subtle, heathery look. I have no doubt that the finished yarn will LOOK pretty....I just have no idea of what it's going to FEEL like.

The bad news is that I have two more batches of suri from Alpacas d'Auxvasse, and now I'm very skittish about using them. I absolutely will because I've invested too much money in this fiber to set it aside now, and because on the surface both of them appear to be nice. It's my sincere hope that both of them will turn out to be absolutely lovely.