Yes, sir. Yes, sir, one bag full!

From front to back: Loredo, Merlin, Brittany, Dianna (hidden), and Morocco.

Wait. Alpacas don’t go “baa”. “Mmm Mmm Brittany, have you any wool?” just doesn’t have the same ring though.

Mom and Dad sent over pictures of our roving this morning! We have five bags of roving just in from the mill, totalling almost 10 pounds of yummy un-spun fiber.

Morocco's slightly orange tinged white roving is a highlight.

I can’t wait to work with Morocco’s fiber! It is the softest and most brilliant of our alpacas’ fiber.

To get a feeling for how luminous a fiber is, bend a small amount around your finger in bright natural light.

Over the Easter holiday, I’ll head down to the ranch to pick up my share. My Aunt Geri, who has been spinning alpaca fiber, will also get some of the fiber. We have black, white, off-white, and grey to choose from; it’s going to be fun!

Looking at the bags lined up in a row reminded me of a nursery rhyme my Mom used to sing to me and my brother. My grandma used to sing it to my Mom, and her mom (my great grandma) taught it to her. It’s an old English nursery rhyme, originally printed in 1744, and it’s sung to the tune of “twinkle twinkle, little star”:

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Amazing how these things stick with you, eh? It was the “three bags full” line that got me. I called Mom and I was like, “Do you remember that…like rhyme or something…involving sheep and bags of fleece? I think one of the sheep was black.” And that was enough to jolt her memory. She recited the whole thing. And I wikipedia’d the background info 🙂