By Susan Phillips

I am a city girl turned farmer, turned fiber enthusiast. I’ve been doing fiber related jobs for upwards of ten years. At first I worked for other farms and then for myself starting my farm in 2001.  It began in 1995, when I met a llama, well 20-30 of them to be exact.  My life with llamas snowballed into a 24/7 job that is truly a labor of love because unless you truly love this work you cannot be in it!!!  It is too much work to be just a job.

I believe I have a unique business, in that we do everything on my farm.  We raise the animals and process our own fiber into usable product like roving, batts, felt sheets, handspun yarns and finished goods.  I don’t send my raw fiber to a mill to have it processed and I don’t blend my fibers with fiber from outside the country.  We are local. When I blend fibers I use some fleeces from other local NY fiber farms, and there are many of those in NY.

Fiber Processing - Animal to Saleable Product
There are a number of steps involved in taking raw fiber from the animal and turning it into the useful and often beautiful goods that can be sold.

-The first step is shearing. This is done in different parts of the spring for different animals. Some animals get an autumn shearing as well.  Shearing is very labor intensive. You need the right equipment, in good repair, or you need a professional who really knows their stuff. Shearing is one of the fiber jobs that I do. Most professionals that do shearing use some sort of stanchion when shearing llamas as this helps keep the shearer and the animal safe and somewhat confined.  Alpacas are usually shorn while stretched out and tied down on their sides on the ground or on a table specifically made for the job.  Angora and cashgora goats are much easier and don’t need the same restraint as the larger animals, at least in this shearer’s opinion.  Rabbits are typically easier to handle and can usually be done without much assistance. Many of them are just brushed to remove their fiber, although they can be shorn. Sheep are a whole other story. Sheep are usually tipped and take more strength than this little person can muster. I do shear a few pet sheep that I stand in my llama station and I have found that most will do well that way. In general, owners of the animals and any helpers that they have available will do the restraining as I shear the wool from the animal. It is always a multi-person job.  

-The next step is to skirt your fiber. The most sought after fiber is the blanket which is fiber from the base of the neck along the back to just before the tail, down the side tracing the rib cage. This is the prime blanket and the best fiber.  When you’re skirting you’re removing all undesirable things in the raw fiber like matts, manure, dry grass, and other large debris.

-Then you wash the fiber with warm to hot water with no agitation or stirring, using a good detergent. The fiber then must be dried completely. Fiber can mold and mildew and the types of mold and mildew that can grow in the fiber can be harmful to people who breathe them in.

-Coloring the fiber. Natural colors are beautiful, however many crafters and spinners LOVE color!  So you dye it. You can dye white fiber but you can also dye over some other natural colors to get deep, rich, and intense color.  Dying can also be done after spinning a yarn or making a roving, it just depends on the fiber artist’s idea of how this particular fiber or fiber blend should look or by what inspires them.

-The next step is carding. Different fibers have different properties. You can leave different fibers separate or do fiber blends such as alpaca with sheep or llama with mohair. Many fibers can blend together very well and you end up with a unique blend of properties for warmth, softness, water resistance or something else. This is done by carding the fiber with hand carders or drum carders, which can be hand cranked or electric. The hand carders resemble large paddle-like brushes used to pull apart, comb and clean the fiber.  Drum carders are machines that use drums covered with wire teeth to do the job. The hand crank carders are typically small and serve the hobbyists and most handspinners well. The electric drum carders are two to three times the size and serve the small processors very well. One of these is my key piece of equipment.  Fiber is usually put through a carder two or three times at which point it is ready to make into roving or to spin from the batts that just came from the carder.  Making roving requires a diz, a small piece of plastic curved with several different sized holes in it, or something similar will do the job.  The fiber is then pulled thru the diz which makes one long consecutive rope of fiber and this is typically rolled into a ball.

At this point it is now ready for sale to other fiber artists. These could be spinners who turn it into yarn for knitters and weavers, or people who felt and others. People who felt with needles may make things like sculpted figures, toys, ornaments, pin cushions, hats, and more. “Wet felters” may make sheets of felt, ornaments, toys, purses, scarves, hats and more.

Valuing the WNY Fiber Industry
The WNY fiber industry is loosely organized as a whole but there are many special interest groups at work. There are guilds for knitters and guilds for weavers. Breeders of the same animal form groups to educate the public about their animals and the fiber that comes from their animals or to market the fiber that comes from their breeds. The market for fiber in general is out there and it is vast, from big textile companies who need tons of fiber, to the spinner who just needs a few ounces. For some breed producers, such as alpaca and llama, all the breed producers in the entire United States can’t produce enough tonnage for the big guys who all go outside of the country for fiber.
There is a big push now to buy local. You see this push to buy local food and support local farms. Fiber is categorized as a specialty group within U.S. agriculture. In WNY we are very lucky to have so many fiber producers who raise the animals and turn their fiber into material for our fiber artists to use to make things for people to wear, to use in their homes as rugs, blankets, and other things, and to simply enjoy as art or toys. When you think about purchasing something made from fiber think about buying it from a local fiber producer or fiber artist. Besides getting a first quality product and supporting local farmers you’ll have purchased something that has plenty of handwork and labor in it done by someone or several someones who live and work in WNY. United we stand!

ALPACA Breeders of WNY   
ABWNY was formed in 2005 as a not for profit organization dedicated to facilitating communications between and among alpaca breeders in WNY,  to provide educational services and activities which inform the public as to the alpaca, its fiber, and its value as a domestic animal, to facilitate cooperative efforts for shearing and transportation between and among alpaca breeders, and to promote appropriate animal husbandry and ethical standards of the growing industry. Click on the logo to go to the ABWNY website.