Fiber Arts Friday - Sorting and Shearing

This week I had my first ever live sort.  What's a live sort?  Well, as a Certified Sorter Apprentice, I need to sort fiber for processing both out of the bag and at a shearing aka live sort to gain experience at training my eyes to see fiber diameter so I can grade the Alpaca fiber.  As an apprentice, I sort all the fiber then send samples to my instructor to double check my work.  This give my clients a true certified sort along with letting me gain knowledge.  I have to sort a total of 200  Huacaya and 75 Suri and of that half have to be in a live shearing situation.  This week I sorted 34 of my required 275 at a shearing.  Whew!

Working on a Huacaya Neck. I am showing Daneen what I found in the fleece.

I was really nervous about sorting as the fiber was coming off the Alpaca because it meant that I had to keep up with the shearer.  This week I worked with two experienced shearers who are fast.  I was freaking out but...I did it.  I gave it the ol' Wonder try and dove right in.  I've been working on fiber out of the bag for the last couple of months so I was feeling pretty good about assessing the fiber for color, length and grade.

Shearing is always a good time to take care of herd health like clipping toenails and giving shots

Before and After Shots are always fun

Hey, who's that?  It's Tamara from Via Verde showing off her noodled fiber and her beautiful farm logo.

Sometimes sorters can't be there for a live sort so we instruct our clients to "noodle" the fiber 

 (much like you would a show blanket) to cut down on contamination.  I met Tamara in Plainwell as I left Holland to head to Jonesville and picked up the few fleeces she had sheared last Saturday while I was at show.  I gave her instructions on how to properly "bag" her fleece.  I will be sorting them this weekend.

I had two wonderful farms to work with to start my Live Sort experience and I feel much better about working the rest of the month.  I have to admit that sorting when the fleece comes right off the Alpaca is so much better than sorting out of the bag.  I had less contamination to worry about which meant more usable fiber to make more profit for the farm.  I sure hope the farms I sorted for are happy.  I think they are.  At the end of the day they had a lot of bags sitting in the garage but unlike prior years these bags were labels and weighed ready to be sent off to processing.  No more stress for the farm about the overwhelming task of skirting and sorting.  I did it all for them, I even throw the stressing in for free.  Once I get my results back from my instructor then I can let the farm know of any adjustments that need to be made on the bag labels.  It's as easy as that....the only thing they have to do is box it up and ship it out.

 For more information on having your fleece Certified Sorted contact me or visit the NAAFP website for a list of Certified Sorters.

 Here I am again. Sorting beautiful Suri Alpacas.

So, that was the bulk of my fiber adventures this week...and believe me I was head to toe fiber. What have you been up to?
Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

To participate:

1. Submit your blog article to the next edition of fiber arts friday using our carnival submission form. Remember to submit your current blog address NOT your complete blog  i.e. you would submit 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/e-i-e-i-doh.html  

NOT 

http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com

1. Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Text link to  WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER!   
2. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!

Check out these cool blogs: