A few years ago we had accidental puppies, eight of them. They all found excellent homes and the parents are both spayed and neutered now. There was litigation pending so we had to wait to have them “fixed”.
We foster West Highland White Terriers for Little White Dog of Omaha and Westie Rescue of Missouri. A couple of years ago we had a pair we fostered for one of the local humane societies that came directly from a puppy mill. The female went into “heat” and I had thought we only had three days to go until we would be in the clear. I had the male and the female in “diapers” to keep the “issue” under control. My 16 year old daughter called me at work to tell me my dumb dogs were stuck together and she couldn’t get them apart. I evidently failed as a mother. I explained my methodology to my daughter then explained it was too late and we needed to plan for the inevitable. Westies typically have 3-4 puppies. This poor dog’s tummy was about one inch from the ground. She had eight little ones in there.
Puppies are destructive; that is why God made them so cute. These sweeties chewed through a baby gate and got into the room where I keep my spinning wheels and fiber. My dear daughter who was madly in love with all of them would come home from school and would clean up the entire disaster before I go home from work. What an amazing child! Some of the fiber was pretty expensive but when it is riddled with pieces of wooden basket and other items it is still just trash.
I recently took over my husband’s office space and filled it with quilting and fiber waiting to be cleaned and spun when I came across this fiber. I decided to use it first.
It originally was alpaca… well, it still is alpaca, that came striped lengthwise: beige, tan and brown to make a nice tweed. After the puppy clean-up the colors were pretty much blended. I spun it up and got 2/3 of a bobbin full. I then found some ultra purple wool in my stash from Luv Ewe in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and 4 ounces of medium brown alpaca from Alpaca Fibers of Arizona sold by Yarn Place on eBay for a $16.25 which is about right for pricing especially when I wanted it now and all of my brown alpaca was the wrong color. I 3 plied the two browns and the one purple.

70% alpaca/30% wool; 770 yards so far.
I am thrilled at the finished product. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It looks sunburnt in the middle. The true color is on the outside edges of the skein pictured. So far I have 770 yards of a solid fingering weight. I have over twisted just a bit but I am very impressed with my eveness. I need to spin the balance of the ebay alpaca to use up the rest of the purple and the other fiber. I don’t know what I will make from it but for now it just brings me joy.