Part of the idea of having a farm is being able to raise fiber animals and plants to feed my addiction. We aren't there yet, and so I have accumulated a number a of fleeces (purchased and received as gifts) to tide me over.

An alpaca fleece from a friend of my sister Mariluz

This is what alpaca last looks like straight off the animal. The dirt and weeds don't show, but they are there! I have washed alpaca fleece and then worked with it, but we now lack space to do that, so I worked with it as is.

The lovely carding machine Michael bought for me. It has finer teeth than my other carder, for finer fleece.

I usually put the fleece through two to three times. Not only does this take the tangles out, it removes short bits (slubs) and some of the weeds too.

Batts from the carder, rolled up for storage.

Different fibers have their preferences on how they feed. For the alpaca, I unrolled the batts, pulled off a hank and spun off the fold

Once I had a single spun, I then Navajo-plied it, resulting in a 3-ply yarn.

I then repeated the carding process with a cleaned Merino fleece I purchased a while ago. I did not spin the Merino, but pulled it into small lengths called "thrums". The knitting part took a couple of days. The mittens are made by adding a thrum in a regular pattern, fluffy ends toward the inside. I used Merino because it is soft, felts well, and has residual lanolin to treat hands well in cold weather. The felted inside stops wind, which makes these mittens extra toasty.

I even got them done in time for the party AND the cold weather. Mischief managed.