Unintentional Felt
You would think after all the fine alpaca I have washed, that I would no better than to wash already carded, very fine, baby suri alpaca aggressively!
I want to cry.
I managed to felt the black baby suri while I was washing it yesterday. I can't tell yet how badly felted it is. From what I can tell, I'll be able to salvage at least 80% of it -- probably 95% -- but doing so will take some work.
I OUGHT to know better.
The truth is, it takes discipline to remember not to agitate fiber too much during the washing process. It's very easy to get caught up in the process. Each time the fiber is moved through the water, the water gets dirtier -- meaning the fiber gets cleaner. I have to remember to restrict myself to three gentle swishes each time I change the water. After all, I sometimes spin alpaca unwashed, so I ought to understand that it is far better to leave a little dirt on the fiber than to felt the fiber.
And it's always the best fiber that gets felted because the finer the fiber, the easier it is to felt -- at least in my hands. I anticipated trouble with this fiber because it was so fine and already carded. You would think that fifteen minutes after writing about my trepidation in washing the fiber, I could remember to be gentle with it.
But no, I felted the fiber.
I said earlier that at least 80% of the fiber is fine and I'll probably recover 95% or more with a little work. I also said I can't tell how bad it is yet and I won't have a clear picture of the situation until it dries more. Time to stop kicking myself and talk about how to wash alpaca fiber safely.
Water and agitation will felt alpaca fiber. Actually, it's moving fibers against each other while they're wet. Soap and heat speed the felting up quite a bit.
I'm not quite sure what soap does, but I have two theories. While alpacas don't have lanolin like sheep, they do have some natural body oils that cover and protect the fibers. These oils largely prevent wet fibers from rubbing against each other while the fiber is on the alpaca. The tips tend to weather and felt, but most of the fiber is protected. Soap removes these protective oils. In addition, most felting recipes I have seen include soap, so I suspect soap plays an additional role in the felting process.
Electric shears are oiled with chain saw bar oil -- at least that's what folks around here use. Bar oil is a very thick and sticky oil and it gets into the fiber during shearing.
The objective in washing the fiber is to remove the dirt, natural body oils, and chain saw bar oil from the fiber without felting the fiber. To accomplish this, it is necessary to thoroughly wet each individual hair with hot, soapy, water while avoiding any action that might cause hairs to rub against each other in the process. Once the fiber is washed, it must be rinsed -- again without rubbing the individual hairs against each other.
That's the theory.
How to achieve this theory in practice is a bit harder. I wash my fiber in lingerie bags to keep the fiber from going all over the sink. I have found that putting the flexible lingerie bags into the water and taking them out tends to cause fiber to rub against each other too much. Putting the fiber -- still in the lingerie bags -- in stiff, leaky, containers seems to reduce felting considerably. I use ventilated cleaning caddies or shelf boxes -- the things you can buy at the dollar store for storing cleaning supplies. The holes in the sides allow the water through to wet the fiber, but the stiff shape reduces agitation of the fiber. I have also heard of people using a pasta strainer from a soup pot for this purpose. Putting the fiber in something stiff helps me agitate it less.
As I write this, I just realized something. My caddies have no holes in the bottom. Therefore, when I change the water during the washing and rinsing process, I turn them on their sides. When I do so, the lingerie bags of fiber flop around -- I'll bet that's a source of agitation. Before I use my caddies again, I'm going to add some holes to the bottom so the muddy water can drain out.
Someday, I'll post my entire washing process on this website since it is one of the more frequent questions at fiber shows. Until then, I hope you find this post useful. And remember, please be gentle when washing alpaca fiber.
I want to cry.
I managed to felt the black baby suri while I was washing it yesterday. I can't tell yet how badly felted it is. From what I can tell, I'll be able to salvage at least 80% of it -- probably 95% -- but doing so will take some work.
I OUGHT to know better.
The truth is, it takes discipline to remember not to agitate fiber too much during the washing process. It's very easy to get caught up in the process. Each time the fiber is moved through the water, the water gets dirtier -- meaning the fiber gets cleaner. I have to remember to restrict myself to three gentle swishes each time I change the water. After all, I sometimes spin alpaca unwashed, so I ought to understand that it is far better to leave a little dirt on the fiber than to felt the fiber.
And it's always the best fiber that gets felted because the finer the fiber, the easier it is to felt -- at least in my hands. I anticipated trouble with this fiber because it was so fine and already carded. You would think that fifteen minutes after writing about my trepidation in washing the fiber, I could remember to be gentle with it.
But no, I felted the fiber.
I said earlier that at least 80% of the fiber is fine and I'll probably recover 95% or more with a little work. I also said I can't tell how bad it is yet and I won't have a clear picture of the situation until it dries more. Time to stop kicking myself and talk about how to wash alpaca fiber safely.
Water and agitation will felt alpaca fiber. Actually, it's moving fibers against each other while they're wet. Soap and heat speed the felting up quite a bit.
I'm not quite sure what soap does, but I have two theories. While alpacas don't have lanolin like sheep, they do have some natural body oils that cover and protect the fibers. These oils largely prevent wet fibers from rubbing against each other while the fiber is on the alpaca. The tips tend to weather and felt, but most of the fiber is protected. Soap removes these protective oils. In addition, most felting recipes I have seen include soap, so I suspect soap plays an additional role in the felting process.
Electric shears are oiled with chain saw bar oil -- at least that's what folks around here use. Bar oil is a very thick and sticky oil and it gets into the fiber during shearing.
The objective in washing the fiber is to remove the dirt, natural body oils, and chain saw bar oil from the fiber without felting the fiber. To accomplish this, it is necessary to thoroughly wet each individual hair with hot, soapy, water while avoiding any action that might cause hairs to rub against each other in the process. Once the fiber is washed, it must be rinsed -- again without rubbing the individual hairs against each other.
That's the theory.
How to achieve this theory in practice is a bit harder. I wash my fiber in lingerie bags to keep the fiber from going all over the sink. I have found that putting the flexible lingerie bags into the water and taking them out tends to cause fiber to rub against each other too much. Putting the fiber -- still in the lingerie bags -- in stiff, leaky, containers seems to reduce felting considerably. I use ventilated cleaning caddies or shelf boxes -- the things you can buy at the dollar store for storing cleaning supplies. The holes in the sides allow the water through to wet the fiber, but the stiff shape reduces agitation of the fiber. I have also heard of people using a pasta strainer from a soup pot for this purpose. Putting the fiber in something stiff helps me agitate it less.
As I write this, I just realized something. My caddies have no holes in the bottom. Therefore, when I change the water during the washing and rinsing process, I turn them on their sides. When I do so, the lingerie bags of fiber flop around -- I'll bet that's a source of agitation. Before I use my caddies again, I'm going to add some holes to the bottom so the muddy water can drain out.
Someday, I'll post my entire washing process on this website since it is one of the more frequent questions at fiber shows. Until then, I hope you find this post useful. And remember, please be gentle when washing alpaca fiber.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 9:16 AM
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