Washing Alpaca Fleece

I get so excited with all this freshly shorn fleece around that I just don't know what to do next. It's all weighed, staple length measured, recorded, and compared to last year's shear, so I can play. I don't know if there is a correct way to clean it, I'll just tell you what I do.
I work with about 4 or 5 ounces at a time. Running the hottest tap water that I can, I add a couple squirts of Dawn dishwashing soap, then gently sink the fiber in. I let this soak for about 20 minutes, every once in a while giving it a few pokes. I lift the fiber into a colander and drain out the dirty water. You will be amazed how filthy this is compared to the fairly clean look to the fleece. I repeat this wash, usually 2 washes are enough. Two rinses should finish it up.
I have never had my fleece felt but I think that it's important to know that you can go from cool to hot, but NEVER hot to cold......and as little handling and agitation as possible.

Above is some of Lyra (dark fawn) and Mira's (white) fleece washed up.

After washing and rinsing the fleece, I put it into mesh bags, and using the last spin cycle on my top loading washing machine, I spin it out. This cycle adds no water so my fiber is safe.

It will come out of the bags rather clumpy, so I pull it apart and sort of line up the fibers, and spread it on my counter to dry. By now most of the vegetation has disappeared and I pick out any remaining, along with second cuts that might have been missed.

Mira and Lyra's fleece is drying. Tomorrow I will show you how I'm going to card these two colors together.

Aimee, I would think that you could do the entire fleece in the bathtub, or even your washing machine, if you didn't agitate. I just don't like lugging around that much wet fleece.

The Alpaca Fiber Process from Humming in the Back Yard to Yarn

Orion (Slammie), Pollux (Luxie), and GunnyI'm thinking that it would be fun to give a very simple explanation of the process of making yarn from our alpacas. You need to imagine the step of shearing to get the fiber off the alpacas. I will have pictures in May when we actually do the shear.
This is what the raw fiber looks like. Our animals stay quite clean and free of vegetation because we don't bed with straw and I sweep up fallen hay everyday. When the 'pacas are inside, they live on rubber mats.
To clean the fleece, I spread it out on a screen stapled to a big square, and pick out the vegetation (VM) by hand. Dust and dirt falls through to the floor.
Then I wash it which I have talked about here in my blog. If I am going to immediately dye, I leave the fiber wet after a vinegar solution soak.


My favorite way to dye is in my crock pot. I sprinkle dry Jacquard powder over the wet fiber, pour boiling water over, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. This yellow and green isn't the fiber for the final skein. But this is ↓


Then spread the fiber out to dry. Riley Cat enjoys the drying too much so this usually goes into the tub in the spare bathroom.

The fiber can be spun as soon as it is dry, but I like to card it which lines all the fibers up nice and straight and makes the spinning easier. BTW, this isn't the fiber in the final skein either.

Now the fun part (well, it's all fun, but this is my favorite) SPINNING. For this particular yarn, I tried to make slubby areas and very thin strands. I added some of Rita's (Castleman) mauve Tussah yarn as I spun. Then I plied the single with Woolly Nylon serger thread that had some elasticity to enhance my slubs and bumps.
All this preparation for 50 yards of this ↓

Welcome to my World of Fleece Washing

Welcome to my home........ The big landslide waiting to happen over the door reminded me of the old bucket of water over the door trick that used to facinate me as a kid.

Well, our last storm is over. Schools and, well, everything were cancelled on Friday. We had to get out our driveway and road because we had an appointment with our tax man. Fortunately, both our vehicles have 4 wheel drive. I guess living in the country like we do, 4 wheel drive and a generator are a necessity. We humans could probably get along without electricity for a while but I worry too much about having water in the barn for our four legged friends.

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I have a rather large yarn order to be spun up from some raw black fleece from Black Knight and this is pretty much what is taking up my time right now. I weighed out 20 ounces of his fleece and washed it. This is the way I wash if you are interested. I fill the sink or bucket with the hottest tap water that I can get and add a big glug of Dawn dishwashing detergent. (This is what I use for dishes so it is handy) I push the fleece in and usually put a dish or something on top to weight it down. I let this sit and soak until the water cools, frequently overnight. Before I dump the wet mess into a colander/drainer, I very gently push up and down to further loosen dirt. I dump it and push to get out some more of that yucky water. I again fill the sink/bucket with very hot water and this time I add Eucalan and follow the same procedure. Now begins the rinse. The first rinse gets a big glug of white vinegar and usually one more rinse will have nice clear water.

I have a top loading washing machine so I ease the fiber into a couple mesh bags, squeeze, and run like hell to the utility room where the machine is waiting with an open lid. I know, I know, I could put something under but I don't have a lot of excitement in my life......

My last spin cycle doesn't add any water and does a beautiful job extracting the water so I can lift the bags out - no dripping now. I spread the fleece out in the tub in our spare bathroom so that Riley cat doesn't wallow in it. If I go in and fluff occasionally, it will be dry in about 2 hours.

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Tomorrow I will talk a little about carding and my fight with static.