After shearing in May I meticulously skirt and sort the fleece into its different colours and grades (see About Alpaca Fleece) since the nicest yarn is made by having all the fleece in a similar range of fineness. I occasionally supplement fleece from my herd with fleece from a few other alpaca farms in Ontario. The fleece is spun into yarn at a small mill, Wellington Fibres, in Ontario. When it is returned I wash it to remove any spinning oils and dirt from the spinning process.
Hand Dyed Yarn: Many people love the large range of natural colours that alpaca comes in with no need for dyeing. However, white and light fawn alpaca takes dye beautifully and I hand dye a lot of the white and light fawn yarn. I dye only 4 skeins at a time and use a large syringe to apply the dye, resulting in subtly variegated colours.