Our last blog post described the characteristics an Alpaca’s fleece has and how it lends itself to being used for many crafts. Now you have you learnt these irresistible qualities, what can you do with the fleece you have purchased from us?
We have sold carded and washed fleece at our events, which is ready to use for your chosen craft. Typically, the fleece we have sold at events is marked as “Raw Fleece”, meaning we haven’t completed any kind of processing, washing etc to the fleece at all. What should do with this type of fleece then?
- Give it a good shake or spread it apart. You will be surprised at the contaminants such as dirt or vegetation that will fall from it at this point!
- Next give it a good soak in very mild detergent, something like baby shampoo! Keep the water warm and at a consistent temperature throughout the rest of the process, going from warm water to cool can cause the wool to felt!
- After leaving the fleece to soak for around 15minutes to half hour (depending how much fleece you have), rinse the fleece in water the same temperature as before. If the fleece comes back still dirty, repeat the soaking stage. If still soapy, continue rinsing until the suds disappear.
- Never wring or stretch the fleece to get rid of the water! The best thing to do is compress it between your hands, gently squeezing the water out but never wringing! Then you can put the fleece on a towel, roll up the towel and gently squeeze again to get as much water as possible out of the fleece.
- The most agonising part, leave it to dry!
After all of this, what can you make from your fleece? Many of our customers have used our fleece for needle felting, spinning, as a stuffing material, even as dryer balls!
We are always so intrigued with what our customers make from our fleece, so if you have used it please tag us in your makes on instagram or facebook! We would love to see them!
Treeside Alpacas 