Tag: clean alpaca

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How To Wash Alpaca Fiber / Fleece

The biggest concern with novice fiber workers is accidentally felting the beautiful fleece they just got. Not to worry, washing fiber isn’t as scary as it sounds. You just need to remember one thing. DO NOT AGITATE. To felt fiber you need 3 things, hot water, soap and agitation. If you neglect to agitate you won’t felt!

Here’s how I wash my fiber.

1.  Skirt 1 pound of fiber you plan on washing. Get rid of poop and large vegetable mater
2.  Loosely put ¼ of a pound into a lingerie bag 15”x18” – If you over stuff the bag, the center of the fiber won’t get clean. Repeat for 3 other bags.
Alpaca Fiber In Bags
3.  Fill up your washing machine with HOT water.
4.  Once the machine is full add in 1 cup of Dawn Original Dish Soap. Stir the water to evenly mix in the soap but not so hard it makes suds. TURN OFF YOUR WASHER!!!

5.  Place a bag into the water, use tongs to push the bag under 2-3 times until you see/feel the fiber loosen up in the bag and it is fully soaked. Repeat with your other 3 bags.

6.  Yup, the water is already dirty, ewww. Make sure your washer is OFF and close the lid. Let your fiber soak for 30 minutes.

7.  Remove the bags and let the water drain from them and set aside. Turn on your washer and have it drain the water out.
8.  Fill your washer with WARM water this time and NO soap. TURN OFF WASHER when full.
9.  Put in your first fiber bag into the warm water. I use my hands this time to submerge the bag and fluff up the fiber in it until it’s loose in the bag. Repeat for the 3 remaining bags
10.  Let sit for 30 minutes
11.  Repeat steps 7-9 until the rinse water is clear after 30 minutes.
12.  When your rinse water is finally clear, remove the bags and let drain for the last time. Turn on the washer and drain the water again.
13.  Place bags evenly in the empty washer.
14.  Put your washer on the SPIN cycle and turn on so it will squeeze the rest of the water out of your fiber.

Drying Your Washed Fiber:

There are several ways to dry your fiber. It all depends on what you have available to you. I’ve seen some folks lay the fiber out on a chair on their deck and let Mother Nature do her work. Sweater racks also work well.

I accidentally found a great way for me to dry my fiber when Mother Nature wasn’t cooperating. Rain and high humidity makes for slow fiber drying. So I laid out my fiber on an old coffee table covered in towels in my basement. I don’t have a sweater rack have plenty of cookie racks so I used those to get a little lift so air could flow under the fiber. I placed the table next to the dehumidifier and by the next morning it was dry!

Now that you have clean fiber let’s see what you’ve done with it at Fiber Arts Friday’s!

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Poor Man’s Skirting Table

***NEW-Click Here for recent post for PVC Skirting Table with Supply List***

I spent Sunday afternoon skirting alpaca fiber.  Like the majority of new alpaca owners I’m broke after purchasing my foundation herd.  I feel like the blue collar redneck alpaca owner sometimes but honestly, I wouldn’t trade this lifestyle for anything.  It is hard work but very satisfying.

So what is skirting fiber you ask? Once the animal is sheared and the prime, 2nd and 3rd cuts are sorted in their baggies the hard work actually begins.  Each fleece has to be laid out and picked through to remove any short cuts and vegetation before it’s ready to send to the mill for processing.  A skirting table is what you lay the fiber out on.  This special table has holes in it so when you shake the fiber dirt, debris, and short cuts fall through while the fleece rests on top.  They even make fiber tumbling drums which rotate and toss the fiber around and let the crud fall through to the floor.  Tables or tumbles usually cost between $2-400.  That’s $ I don’t have laying around at the moment.

I’ve got 36 lbs of fiber to skirt and no table which is a problem.  So I started digging around the barn trying to think of what I could do to put together something at 0 cost to me. 

The solution?

–          (2) 4×4 approx 5 feet long

–          Chicken wire 24” x 5’

–          Some staples 

Tada, I give you poor man’s skirting table!  I was afraid the chicken wire would catch the fiber but it didn’t, the fiber rested on tope nicely.  The hole size in the wire was good too an anything shorter than 1.5 inches fell through.  I was surprised to see the amount of dirt and dust that fell out of the fiber. 

I’m happy with my little skirting table until I can afford to build a better one. So far I’ve managed to skirt all the prime fiber and will start on the 2nds next weekend.

Here’s a photo of my “table.”  I apologize for the photo quality, it was taken with my cell phone.