Washing Alpaca Fiber -- Questions and Answers

Today's blog is a question and answer about washing alpaca fleeces. The questions are from a recent e-mail. Long-time readers may notice some inconsistencies in my recommendations about washing alpaca fiber. This is because I'm inconsistent. Due to some plumbing adventures, my washing process has changed slightly to minimize the amount of fiber going down the drain. In addition, as I gain experience working, I'm learning better when fiber should and should not be washed.

Question: I was given 3 alpaca fleeces, and want to hand process them, but am not sure how to go about it. I washed some last night - took me hours, and after finding your site, I think I went about it all wrong. Basically, here are my questions:

As long as you don't end up with felt at the end of the washing process, there is no really wrong way to go about washing fleece. There are, however, ways to save time while washing fleece.

Question: What do I wash it with?

I use hand wash dish detergent or a combination of hand-wash dish detergent and laundry detergent.. Others use laundry detergent or special fleece scouring soaps. Because alpaca doesn't have lanolin and has less total oil than raw wool, you don't need as much or as strong soap because you're not dissolving so much oil.

Question: Do I need to separate (tease) all the fibers before washing, or just remove junk and separate the tips?

This depends on the fleece. Removing as much vegetable matter and junk as possible prior to washing is important. I sometimes comb vegetable matter out of the tips using a smooth metal dog comb, but I generally don't separate tips.

As a note of caution, if the tips are felted together, washing can make the tip felting worse and can cause the tip felting to migrate down the shaft to involve more of the fiber. As I gain experience, I am increasingly choosing to spin tip-felted fleeces unwashed.

Question: Should I remove or separate out the shorter fibers?

You want to remove any second cuts and really short fiber as this tends to create slubs and bumps in the yarn during the spinning process. Otherwise, skirting for staple length prior to spinning is a personal preference. It is something you will learn as you gain experience spinning alpaca and something that will change as you gain experience.

Question: How much fiber is it safe to wash at a time?

I would say this depends on your setup. I put the fiber in lingerie bags. If I press the fiber into the bags gently, the fiber in the middle gets clean. If I stuff the fiber into the bags, the fiber in the middle doesn't get clean. It is important to use enough water to get all the way through your fiber and it is important to keep the fiber loose enough the water can get all the way through. Beyond that, I think the size of your wash basin or sink is the limiting factor.

Question: If I don't wash it before carding, but after spinning, won't there be dirt and oil trapped on the inside of the yarn?

There will be dirt and oil trapped in the yarn, but unless you are spinning an incredibly tight yarn, you should be able to wash it out. I wash my yarn after spinning to set the twist. Most knitters wash the finished piece prior to blocking which also removes a lot of dirt.

Many experienced alpaca spinners that I know only wash prior to spinning if they are working with a really bright white fleece or if they are planning to dye the fiber. It is easier to wash yarn without felting than it is fleece which means yarn can be washed slightly more aggressively. Carding unwashed fiber is usually easier than carding washed fiber. The whole process is faster if the fiber is washed as yarn rather than as fiber. When I process to spin myself, I generally spin dirty. If I'm making roving to sell to others, I wash.

Clean alpaca can be very slick to spin. Spinners sometimes find they have more control working with unwashed fiber.

The other side of the issue is the tactile spinning experience. There isn't much that is more fun to spin than clean, fluffy, well-carded alpaca. It is a lot more fun to spin the clean stuff.