Getting Fleeced

I couldn’t help thinking of the nursery rhyme, “Bah, bah, black sheep,” as we shopped last week for sheep, alpaca and llama fleeces. Instead of three bags full, we bought nine whole alpaca fleeces and two complete sheep skins – for a total of about $40 USD.

It’s shearing time here. Once a year, farmers shear their wooly animals, and take the bales of fleece to a huge market at Kasani, a small border town that straddles Peru and Bolivia. We could have walked the 8 kilometers (about 4 miles) from our home, but because of the massive crowds and the bulky wool, we took a minibus both ways – for about 60 cents roundtrip!

Textile lovers that we are, we were thrilled to learn of this market – and to be able to shop there with an expert in natural fibers. Justina, Pastor Juan Paz’s wife, taught us a lot about shopping for alpaca and sheep’s wool.There were literally acres of alpaca, llama, and sheep fleeces and hides. They were sold “raw,” (fresh off the animal, burs, grass bits and dirt intact). The price per pound hinged on quality – length of fibers, and absence of knots and tangles -- and ranged from $3 to $5. By the way, the kinkier wool from the two sheep fleeces we bought, one black, one white, will be blended with the alpaca fibers during spinning to add strength.

We bought all this alpaca and wool for the women of the five Bolivian churches we serve. They’ll clean the fleeces by hand, spin it into yarn, then crochet or knit scarves, hats, stoles, slippers, leg warmers, baby clothes, hacky sack balls … for you!

When we return to the States, Nov. 20 to Dec. 27, we’ll be selling all sorts of natural-fiber, hand-made, wearable art. (Watch for details in future posts.) Money raised in this effort will go toward the local churches’ goal of raising 20%, or $5,000, to help build a residential center for “abandanados” (extremely poor people abandoned by their families; usually these are seniors too old to work, but often children are also abandoned).

In the photos, the woman in pink with the blue stole is Justina, inspecting fleeces and bartering with vendors. Her husband, Pastor Juan Paz, is wearing a cowboy hat.