Skein #27 Yarn From Protein Fibers, Long, Hair Type

Image 1: Fiber Sample Image 2: Yarn Skein Image 3: Yarn Detail

Fiber

Camel

Type

Hair top

Reason for choice of this sample

A guild member graciously offered this well-aged relic. It is moderately fine for camel hair, with a good staple length. The lighter color is probably bleached.

Source

Gift, originally from Straw Into Gold of Berkeley, California.

Preparation for spinning

None needed

Equipment used

Flyer spinning wheel, drop spindle

Type of spinning

Short forward draft

Direction of Twist

Z/S/Z

Number of plies

4

Finishing

Washed and blocked

Suggested uses

This yarn is intended to be weft for everyday utility rugs. The cabled color pattern looks like 2-ply but as a 4-ply it is more abrasion resistant. It can also be used for crochet rugs and bags or household twine that won't break.

Notes

Maximum 54 points

Examiner 1: 51

Examiner 2: 54

Both liked this yarn, Examiner 2 noted that the fiber would usually be considered "too coarse." Maybe now, but this was hot stuff back in the 70s. I suspect the fiber is that old, too.

This was the most difficult fiber to locate. I tried mohair, but I didn't find anything that I would consider "long." All the long, hair-like fiber I had came from sheep. I wanted to use the rest of the llama, but the fleece I got had terrible chopped up hair. Some people think alpaca is a hair fiber, but if you talk to alpaca breeders h-a-i-r is clearly a four-letter word. It also varies by animal and I had already bought enough fiber sight unseen that wasn't what I thought it was. I wasn't interested in importing a container of horsehair from China, all I found on the Internet. Finally somebody dug this out of a back closet somewhere.