Soft Undercoat

It was a long hot day at the San Diego Zoo on Monday but I managed to take lots of pictures. Today's offering is the Guanaco. It looked like a fiber animal to me...and it is!

I wanted to grab a bit of fleece but obviously there was no way that could happen. I thought the big one in the picture was friendly and wanted me to have it's fleece. It's clearly shedding in the summer sun and would like to have it gone I imagine.

I have some llama fiber in my stash but I haven't spun it yet. It's soft! I have been known to touch it but for some reason I haven't spun it. I also have some camel but I'm avoiding that too. I don't have much else in the way of exotic fibers...I have some bamboo that needs to be carded and a handful of angora bunny too. When spinning, however, I tend to stick with utilitarian fiber, basic wool.

According to Wikipedia: "Like the llama, the guanaco is double coated with a coarse guard hair and soft undercoat, which is even finer and thus more highly prized than that of the alpaca, although they carry far less of it."

The article goes on to say they also have thick-skinned necks, which Bolivians use to make shoes. Ugh.

Later this week: Pandas!