Fleece and skirting: it's not WOOL

First thing to remember: it's not WOOL. 

Alpaca fiber people get really annoyed when you call it 'wool'. I am sure I annoyed a few people my first week here, as I kept slipping up.

They refer to it as 'alpaca fiber' (or fleece). THIS however, caused much confusion when I was explaining things to a lady at the booth at the Green Festival. She seemed very very confused and kept asking odd questions. Turns out she was a dietician, and fiber for HER is something entirely different. I can only imagine what was going on in her head as she tried to figure out what fiber had to do with yarn. 

Here is a 'blanket' spread out on the skirting table. The table has rods covered in plastic pipe so the dirt can fall out to the floor. They have a table top they put on when it needs to be used as an actual table.

Another blanket. You can see the scale used for weighing to the right, and one of the looms behind the table.

Yep, it's another blanket. The spray bottle is water for your hands, in case there's too much static. You spray your hands, but they can't be too wet or the fiber sticks together.














Some of the fleeces are marked as 'show fleece'. The animals are examined before shearing time, and they decide who has potential for show fleece. The fleece has to stay intact, so it takes longer to clean. With the regular fleeces you take chunks of the fleece, pick through it for grass, straw, and icky coarse 'guard hairs'.