One of my many knitty gifts this Christmas was this gorgeous hand-spun llama yarn. Actually, my gift was much better than that. I got to visit the llama farm, meet the spinner, and pick out my favorite yarn!
Once I really started getting into knitting, I was just desperate to go to a knitting festival. Unfortanately, I live in the midwest and all the "big" fiber festivals seem to be on the east coast! So I started doing some research to see if there was anything closer to home, say... in Missouri? Turns out, I had quite the fiber enthusiast right in my backyard. Zelma Cleveland runs a small llama farm called near her home outside my hometown of Chillicothe, MO. She is involved in nearly every part of the fiber process - she raises the llamas, shears the wool (she does send it out for cleaning), cards the fiber, spins it, and also knits and weaves!
She takes her products to various agricultural fairs around the midwest, but she also keeps a little shop set up in her basement. This was my Christmas gift - I got to choose whatever I wanted! (For my mother's sake, I tried to stay somewhat under control in the budget department. Artisan yarn ain't cheap!)
I ended up selected the yarn pictured above - it's about 600 yards of sportweight 2-ply in the llama's natural color. Actually, all my yarn came from the first cut (which is apparently the softest and best) of a single llama, named Brocade. Zelma labels each skein with the name of the llama it came from, so it will match perfectly in case someone needs to get an additional skein later on.
I also got a tour of Zelma's workshop, which essentially takes up her entire basement (and she had some other spinning wheels in storage). She has at least 50 plastic storage bins full of fiber, and wheels, spindles, carders, and other spinning implements everywhere.
Of course, I couldn't get out of there without at least a tiny little spinning lesson. I've always told myself that I didn't want to spin, it would just cut into my limited knitting time, but.... I figure it doesn't hurt to try! The good news (for my husband, who is vehemently opposed to MORE fiber arts entering his home) is that I'm really crappy at it. Perhaps I can blame the freebie spindle, which is made of a couple of old AOL CDs and a dowel rod. But, like a true fiber enabler, Zelma sent me home with a gallon bag stuffed full of fiber to practice with, so I may give it another go.
More Christmas knitting news tomorrow... there's actually a hint in the first photo in this post - can you guess?
