Today I started the process of washing all this glorious fiber; not the sheep, but alpaca. An acquaintance of mine has daughters in 4-H - they raise alpaca, and he wants the fiber spun into yarn to have something made for them for Christmas (how cool is this dad?!). I volunteered to get it ready for him, and after a couple months have finally gotten around to it. I haven't made a dent in the process yet. Every time I wash a batch, it seems that more fiber grows in the basket!
Anyway, the first step is to fill a container - in my case, the tub and kitchen sink - with extremely hot water. Add a squirt of liquid dish detergent, swish it around with your hands, then very gently lower the wool into the water. If you agitate the wool in the hot soapy water, you will end up with felt...unfortunately, felt doesn't spin into yarn very well, so this is tricky business.
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| Fill 'er up! |
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| Bubbles! |
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| This is "Cinnamon" the Alpaca, ready for her bath |
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| Here's "Alferd" the Alpaca, going for a dive |
Then...you wait. I'm pretty impatient, so I only let it sit for about 15 minutes or so before I dunk it in a tub of cold water to rinse the soap off. If any residue is leftover in the rinse water, it goes back in the soap. And so it continues, until the water runs clear.
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Alferd is a dirty boy! He was also incredibly difficult to sort through before washing - apparently, he loves nothing better than to roll around in the dirt/hay/bugs/feathers/poo...well, you get the point. He was dirty! |
Once the wool is washed, it goes outside (preferrably) to dry. Meanwhile, after the water drains from the tub and sink, here is what is left.
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| Eeeeeeew. |
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| Out to dry! |
Next step (after washing the zillion more pounds of wool!) is carding...more on that another time.
Happy Crafting!
-A
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