Fluffy stuff

Yesterday, while I was plying some alpaca in the schoolyard, a 3yo kid asked what I was doing and what it looked like before. Not knowing how much she knows about yarn and assuming she knows nothing about spinning, I simplified the source as "fluffy stuff".  That satisfied her as she ran off to play more.

Today I decided to make some more "fluffy stuff" from my washed fleece. I kept it simple. I grabbed a small hunk of fleece from the drying rack and my fibre-slickers (dollar store dog slickers not used on our pets). I did not clean the fibre further or pick anything out. I wanted to see what would happen with a bit of flicking on the ends (which were still a bit tacked together with dirt) and some quick carding on the brushes to pull the fibre apart.  I have no carding skills.

Fluffy. That was pretty simple.
Not the best fibre prep. Not fancy, but spinable. Was all rather consistent, which was good to learn.

For a quick test while I was sitting in the front with ice-cream-eating kids, I grabbed my heavy top whorl.

It was not a smooth spin, but what could I expect? Fibre is still a bit tacky - some grease in there yet. The feel of it reminded me of Country Roving or some other not-fine wool pin drafted roving. And you can see how yellowed the fibre is. Dyeable.

Whipped up a quick double-ended plying ball and plied to see the results.
Not too shabby.  A fluffy yarn. If I worked on my fat-spinning I could whip up a lot of lofty thick-thin bulky yarn with this free fibre.
And then sis and I could play with natural dyeing... I wonder what lovely stuff we'll find on the new farm this season.