2022 Harvest Report

Our annual fiber harvest was on Monday, April 25th. As usual, it was a bit of a whirlwind.

I’m always amazed that a long year growing the fiber comes to a swift conclusion on shearing day.

I’d like to say that I’m an old hand at it now, being that we’ve had alpacas for 9 years. But the reality of an annual harvest is… it only happens once a year!

So while 9 years may seem like a lot, that really means I’ve only done shearing 8 individual times!

As you might imagine, there’s a bit of rust that needs knocked off for a job that only comes around once a year. But since farming is my primary occupation now, I was able to really prepare.

Probably the biggest improvement this year was arranging for sufficient help.

In previous years, I’ve been reluctant to ask or accept (the many) offers of help. Mostly because I am still so very new at all of this…that the thought of someone else witnessing my amateur-ness…was something I didn’t want on top of the chaos & importance of shearing day.

But farming in my 40s has taught me that even if I could do it all myself, that’s not the best idea.

Besides, it’s a lot more fun with a crew. And fun we had!

Almost everyone went to the shearing standing willingly, except for a few. I’m looking at you Bella & Scout!

We saved the cria for last because we had the film crew out to capture harvest in action. I cannot wait to see the footage they got.

The cria all handled their very first haircut…as you might expect a toddler would.

There was some fussing but we averaged about 5 minutes per alpaca on the stand so it was over in a jiffy.

Watching the fiber come off each individual animal is always the highlight of my year.

It’s pretty impressive to see the alpacas “shrink” once it’s all shorn off. And the cria especially, since it was a bit of a harrowing summer getting them all born and through the intense heat…thick wildfire smoke…and all of their other firsts.

After everyone was trimmed up, we celebrated with a bit of champagne…and a deep sigh of relief knowing this important step in producing the 2022 Harvest Knitwear Collection was complete.

We took the male cria — Hammie, Bernie & Earl — along with every boys favorite “First Friend” Rocky, with his bestie, Ralf, to the pasture in front of the house.

The 5 of them will hang out and become friends this next month or so…while they keep the grass trimmed and grow up a bit. Over the rest of spring, I’ll slowly introduce a few of the full grown males…and eventually they’ll be fully integrated before the snow flies.

But for now, I’m sure enjoying their mop tops & noodle necks when I’m sitting on the porch, the couch or working in the garden!

The morning after harvest came swift, and it was back to the barn for me.

I spent several hours carefully reviewing and going through each fleece.

The crew did an excellent job at cleaning each alpaca so my review was limited to confirming which fleeces would be used in the Collection and which would be made into craft yarns.

From the 65+ pounds, I settled on about 40 for the Collection.

I got it all boxed up, and then me and the pups took it to the post office to get it shipped out to the fiber mill in Minnesota.

Harvest never truly feels complete until I’m taking the fiber off the farm and to the post office…because getting our fiber “in line” at the mill is such a critical step.

(Note — There will be a ‘Tasting Notes Blog’ coming soon, which will be all about how the Collection comes together: why on certain ones get included, why we don’t shear the legs & bangs, and all kinds of other details. Stay tuned!)

Because the cria fleeces had such a long staple length, the mill cannot process it. So that means I’ll hand process it over the summer like I did with RBG Ruthie’s first fleece.

All in all, I’m thrilled with our harvest and cannot wait for the finished yarn to return to the farm.

But for now, I’m enjoying all these neked babies…and watching them grow the 2023 Harvest Collection!