I almost forgot to mention this! I tried spinning some yak fiber. It is amazingly soft and beautiful… I’ve read it’s comparable to cashmere. I had some trouble spinning it by itself, though, because the staple is so short, so I hand carded it with some undyed merino and here is my resulting skein:
Not all the guard hairs got removed, you can see the little dark wiry hairs sticking out in the first photo, but it’s still lovely and soft. I don’t like hand carding — probably because I suck at it… see the barber pole effect? — so it’s a small skein. Am not sure yet what I will do with it.
Wow, that is gorgeous!