Good morning – it’s Aunt Geri. After marling over a mile of Chimayo yarn, I decided to do some “simple” spinning.  The fiber I spun, Cliff House had purchased at the Estes Park Fiber Festival last year. It is from a rose-grey alpaca.  I have never spun this color and found it very interesting.  Rose-grey is a relatively rare alpaca color – actually it is rare in any species.  A horse this color would be called a strawberry roan, a dog would be “brindle”, etc.. It is a creamy grey with reddish-brown hairs – marled by nature to make a beautiful taupe fiber.

This is a very fine fiber so a lot of plucking of vegetation and nebs is required – these fine downy fibers lock onto grass and seeds.  I spin very thin singles, which don’t provide a lot of hiding places for foreign objects – but a few pieces always sneak through.  I have been spoiled by spinning Cliff House alpaca fiber which has minimal debris – all due to the cleanest barn and pens in the land!!  Yes – Jan (“Momma”) had admittedly vacuumed the barn on occasion!

The yarn is a 3-ply sport weight.  The fiber has a lot of loft so even these thin plies provide a wonderful grey halo.