Here are some "before" shots of Mole' with his original Chia pet hairdo.
Unfortunately, our camelids are not halter trained. Mole' came to us as a rescue and had already been passed around a bit in his short life. He is the most skiddish of the three. Though, he will eat pellets from your hand, so that is sweet.
Sam and I got our workout in as we chased Mole' around the pen for a while trying to corner and capture him. He is fast! (And I was not wearing the correct shoes for being able to reverse directions as quickly as I needed to.) The llama halter was too big for him, so we ended up needing to use the goat halter. We were worried about stressing him out too much since we usually don't push him when he's feeling skiddish.
We had selected a nice soft grassy area in the shade for the location for the shearing. (We also had to find a place close to a power source, since we don't have power in our barn.) However, now that we had the halter on Mole', we were going to have to somehow get him from Point A to Point B.
It took the three of us to get Mole' from the pen to the shearing station in our front yard. He is deceptively strong! And of course one of our llamas also got out while we were trying to get Mole' out of the pen. Here's a little video snippet of us leading Mole' across the driveway, with Lomi the Lookie-Loo close at hand.
To shear Mole' safely without risk of injuring him with the blades, he was properly restrained while lying on the ground on his side. He quickly calmed down and did very well throughout the entire process. Good boy! One person also holds his neck down just so he does not try to struggle to get up. Even after the whole process was done and we were able to let him back up, he did not immediately rush off, so I like to think that means it wasn't a terrible ordeal for him.
We relished in the opportunity to actually be able to pet Mole' and feel how soft he is, since usually he does not allow us that close to him. He likes control of his personal space. (Doesn't everyone?)
Ohmygosh he is so soft! And the fiber that came off of him is so lush and luxurious! Well, minus the dust, dirt, bits of hay and straw, and other organic particles... It looks like a giant bear rug.
It also looks like a band of ewoks met a grave ending during an epic and fateful battle on our front lawn.
Wicket, is that you?
We couldn't believe the volume of fiber that he shed. He easily had to have lost at least a few pounds with his shearing. He definitely must feel a lot cooler, too. Lomi and Paisley, our two llamas, also have their shearing coming up soon, but they seem to tolerate the heat a bit better. Mole' is the one always standing in the pool! Or a bucket.
I thought it would be fun to learn about the process of preparing raw fiber for use and actually make something with it. Ideally, it would be cool to watch someone first hand who knows what they are doing as they go through their normal process, but I've been watching a few YouTube videos in the meantime and picked up a few of the basics on how you can work with it manually to clean the fiber and start preparing it for spinning. There are more steps than you might think!
There are tools and equipment that make the process a whole lot easier and less labor intensive, but since I don't have any of those I can at least start with baby steps and use my own two hands to get familiar with the process. There is also something called a drop spindle that is much more affordable than an actual spinning wheel--as in $10 - $20 vs hundreds of dollars. I also think needle felting would be cool and I'm not sure if that requires any actual spinning. I will have to stay tuned, as I haven't advanced that far in my YouTube search yet to know!
Of course, if I end up making yarn, then I'm also going to have to learn how to make something WITH the yarn. I'll need a little crocheting or knitting 101. I have crocheted before, but probably not since I was a kid. A refresher is definitely in order!
Anyway, back to Mole'. Here he is sporting his new haircut. He always looks a bit like an alien deer when he first gets sheared.
He also looks tiny, now that he lost about 7"-10" in extra height from his hair. He looks like one person could scoop him up in their arms and carry him across the yard. It's hard to believe it took three of us to manage moving him. Looks can be deceiving in so many ways!
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