Another Great Suri Network Fiber Seminar

I was so jazzed to be able to participate in the Suri Network’s latest fiber-centric educational seminar, “The Facts about Your Fiber and Its Success in the Marketplace”. The seminar is being held at Suri Alpaca farms across the United States in order to give as many Suri breeders as possible the opportunity to participate and learn. I attended the seminar on Saturday, December 5 at Ravada Hills Suri Alpacas in Portland Indiana, hosted by owners Sandy and Hendricks. Fortunately this seminar was only a 2 hour drive away from Cincinnati, and even more fortunately for me it was being taught by The premier Suri fiber *Goddess* in America, Mary Lou Clingan. In my opinion, Mary Lou is a true Suri Fiber Diva, and I am convinced *no one* in America knows Suri fiber better than her. Mary Lou has been the manager of Alpaca Jack’s Suri Farm Country Store since the store opened in 1999. She is also the head of the Fiber Department at Alpaca Jack’s, responsible for all fiber and fiber related activities, on and off the animal, as well as special fiber projects such as skirting, sorting / grading, and preparation for processing. Each year Mary Lou typically prepares 30 – 50 Suri show fleeces, collects 400 representative fiber samples for micron testing, and shears and skirts 400 + fleeces for distribution into yarn, roving, and fabric. Mary Lou serves on the AOBA Judges Training and Certification Committee and is the past chairperson of the Suri Network Product Development Committee. She is currently on the Suri Network Research Committee working on the Suri Luster Study. Mary Lou provides workshops and seminars on a regular basis.

The seminar is a one-day course designed for us Suri alpaca breeders to give us a better connection between the fiber animals we produce and the end product that is sold in stores. It is a very “hands-on” course that covers several topics to give an overview of the entire fiber production process. We looked at individual locks as well as whole fleeces to understand uniformity, microns, lock structure, guard hairs, and other aspects of the raw fiber. We also studied the process of turning raw fiber into yarn with actual examples of fiber through every step of the milling process. Additionally, we received an overview of histograms and how they play a role in improving fiber production. We also reviewed negative fiber traits such as fiber breakage, too many guard hairs, lack of uniformity, etc and how these traits negatively impact the end product.

It was an incredibly fun, educational and invigorating day for me. As always, is was wonderful to be in the presence of a group of passionate Suri breeders, and intoxicating to be physically immersed in scrumptious, silky and lustrous raw Suri fleece all day. Those who know me are aware that I have a serious disease – its commonly called “Fiberholism”, and I seem to have a particularly severe reaction around anything Suri J Aside from leaving Sandy and Ron’s farm fiber drunk and happy, I also came away with a greater sense of how the decisions and direction of my breeding program will positively or negatively impact our national fiber clip.