Francesca's Beautiful Fleece

I stopped by my parent's house the other day just to say hi.

I'm glad I did! My mom and Lizzie were skirting Francesca's fleece and getting it ready to send to a show. Alpaca fleece can be judged and it's a wonderful way to earn ribbons, increasing the breeding value of your animal. This fleece is from one of the new girls. She is a beauty!!!!!

I only had my cell phone on me, so the pictures aren't great quality, but you'll get the idea.

 What you see here is the fleece that was sheared off of the alpaca. 

I'm not the expert on this, but I'll do my best to explain.

You place it on a wire table that allows the dirt, hay, yucky stuff from the field to fall to the ground.

 After carefully going over the fleece, you flip it over. Ta Dah!

 Liz is gathering the fleece into something called a "mushroom". This is the best way to send it to the show. It will spill out beautifully for the judges to view.

Then it is oh so carefully placed into a clear bag.

 And this is how it looks.

The pictures don't do any of this justice!!!! The fleece was heavenly and we think we have a winner on our hands.

 For now, it will be stored and shipped to a show for judging. Good Luck Francesca!

 

 This is a sample of how the fleece is scored and what the judges look for.

And here is that pretty girl :)