Meet my new friends!
My new Llama friends
Aren't they cute!!!
So here is my story of the year. This is a big one.
Monday morning I get an email from my Dad, it is a forward of a Craiglist posting from late Sunday night that reads:
FREE LLAMA WOOL
I have 3 huge garbage bags full of raw Llama wool. This wool has been sheared from my Llamas. I am moving out of state and do not have room to take this wool with me. It is beautiful quality 2 bags are baby wool and the 1 bag is their 2nd shearing. I have 4 colors Rose gray, reddish brown, chocolate brown and white. It is uncleaned raw wool, so there is debris in it. If no one comes to get it by the Aug. 24 it will all be thrown away and it is to nice to do that with it, so come and pick it up soon. FREE
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah.
So I immediately call the phone number and leave a message that I am TOTALLY interested and will come and get it ASAP! All afternoon I carried my cell phone around the office, waiting for a call. Then I started to realize that I have NO CLUE what to do with this stuff. What if it has to be carded, how much of it is there, what am I going to do, WHY HASN”T SHE CALLED ME???
Fast forward to Tuesday morning and I am beginning to mourn the idea that I am not going to get this fiber. Well, I decided that I should try to call again in case she didn’t get my message or something. Well, the nice Llama lady told me that one other person had left a message first, but hasn’t returned Llama lady’s call. So, Llama lady told me it is mine if she doesn’t get back to her soon or if she doesn’t want all of it. To add to my anticipation Llama lady reiterated that this is really nice fiber and she is sad to have to get rid of it, but can not bring it with her.
Tuesday night was cleaning night, which lasted a little long, and my cell rang at about 9:00pm from an unknown number….could it be? It was the Llama lady, and the other lady never got back to her, so it is ALL MINE! COME AND GET IT! Oh my goodness. I danced around the house, Swiffer wet-jet in hand, singing, “Llama Llama Llama Llama Llama Llama Llama Llama Llama Llama”. I did some minor freaking out about what I was going to do with it, but then went to bed.
Wednesday I woke up again singing my new Llama song. I went to work and had to try REALLY HARD to concentrate, because as soon as I was done with work I was driving an hour away into the country/woods to get this stuff. Everyone at work was having fun joking with me about my Llama. I liked a quote that my Mother-in-Law said, “There are only so many people who could be deliriously happy about 3 big bags full of dirty llama wool.” This is so true.
Well, I hoped in my car after work and plugged the address into my Garmin. Why, one would ask, would you use the Garmin when the nice Llama lady gave you directions? Well, because I like my toy. Why, I do not know, because it told me I was “there” when I was obviously not. So, in the adventure I had an extra 15 minutes of finding my way to the road that I could then use the Llama lady’s directions and properly find her house. FINALLY! I saw my new friends watching me from their pen as I drove up.
This is what I got!!!!
Yes Sir, Yes Sir, Three bags full!
The Llama lady was so nice, she was telling me great stories about her animals and why they were moving and why she had to get rid of the fiber. I must say I hope I am a fitting home for it and I hope I can do it well. So, are you ready for the big reveal? This is what was in the bags…….
Beautiful brown baby llama
Baby brown and white llama
baby white llama
baby rose gray llama
more rose gray llama
Overall it is in great condition. Some pieces of woodchip curly things and leaves, but not too bad. Not too dirty overall either! Very little guard hairs from what I could see and it SO SOFT! Can you tell I am in love with this and so excited! Llama lady mentioned she always wanted to make herself something out of it, but she is not a spinner and had not gotten around to cleaning it and sending it off somewhere to be spun. Hmmm…. I sense a gift coming on, maybe a nice scarf or something like that?
So now the adventure is to pick all the garbage out of the fiber and wash it, I know I can handle those steps myself. I will see how it looks after that and what I have to do next. More to come 
Keri, if you don’t want to deal with washing and processing it yourself (sometimes it’s fun for awhile but when there’s too much, you start missing out on spinning and knitting time), you could always send it out to a mill for those steps and just get nice spinnable roving back. Don’t know where Patty is sending her alpaca now, but she’d probably have a couple of sources. Plus, with Wi S&W right around the corner you might be able to drop it off with a mill that has a booth there and avoid shipping charges one way. Morning Sun Fiber Barn in IA did a wonderful job with some wool fleece that I just picked up in MI over the weekend and also dehaired some cashmere for a friend and it turned out beautifully. Don’t know if she processes llama, though. Happy Spinning!
I know what you mean! I conned my mother into going to visit a local alpaca producer with me, who wanted me to spin for her. The whole day, I was chattering about aLPACA, ALPACA, ALPACA. Probably just about drove her nuts, but hey it’s ALPACA! Anyway, I came home with 4 trashbags full- 2 for me, and 2 to spin for the producer. Yeah! I can’t wait for the weekend! Where are you located? I’m on ravelry, look up shortsheepshepard.
Have lots of fun with it!