Following on from part one...

I really dislike spinning pure white fibre; I find it boring and neverending. So after having spent DAYS picking through my washed white alpaca, I had to make a decision: To Dye or Not to Dye.

To be honest, on my last day of 'picking', I wasn't in the mood to dye and wait for the fibres to dry, I wanted to get to the spinning part as soon as possible...I remembered that I had come across some handspun yarn on one of the Ravelry forums that was made of a white Dorset/dyed green mohair blend that I loved, so I went back and took a look at the yarn (Ravelry link) and it all became clear. I grabbed a handful of hand-dyed yak down (from MandaCrafts) and my hand carders and started blending... alpa'yak' yarn was born...

The experiment was a success in my opinion, I carded and spun approximately 80g of fibres, enough to knit a 'test piece' so I can see how the yarn knitted up and draped. I spun the fibres semi-worsted, and fell in love with the little bumps of colour I ended up with. The singles were quite thin (above photo), with the occasional 'blob' of yak, which were then Nav-plied into a pretty awesome sport (13 wpi) weight yarn, if I may say so myself!

I knitted a sweater for Buca on 3.5mm needles; the yarn feels divine and ribs beautifully, I promise to show you a photo of him wearing it, I just haven't gotten round to sewing all the ends in!

Experiment over, I blended and spun some more alpa'yak' for my 'something', this time I spun from rolags and got a more airy yarn. Fine singles once again, and Navajo plied. The yarn ended up being a sock weight (15 wpi) I only managed to load 74g onto the bobbin though, I was really hoping to get at least 80g but there was just no more room!

Since I have no idea what I'm making with this yarn, I shall continue to spin my way through the fleece until it comes to me... 

Alpa'yak' : 70% Alpaca, 30% Yak down, 74g, 226m/247yds