Felting with Alpaca - a New Learning

 

I have agreed to run a felt making workshop for our local Alpaca breeders association . They are interested in the felt making technique but I thought that it would be most beneficial to them if I could incorporate a little alpaca knowledge into the workshop.

My only experience with alpaca has not been very successful. The fleece was full of guard hairs and the finished bag was very hairy – particularly unattractive and nasty to feel. That piece ended up in the “chop,chop” basket. (I’ll chop it up for something else – maybe).

I’d also made a small vessel at a workshop. The beautiful alpaca was provided by Boston Fibres and is soft and luscious. No guard hairs and very easy to handle. I had a couple of bumps of their alpaca in my stash so I decided now was a great time to experiment.

The vessel stood up well when I first made it but over time it sagged. I’m not sure if it was because of the softness and loft of the fibre or the humidity where I live. I re-wet it and sprayed it with spray starch and it regained its original shape.

Small alapaca vessel with silk inclusions. This was quite firm at the time I made it but over time it sagged and needed to be rescued with some spray starch and a balloon to bring it back to shape.

My first experiment was to make a sample using some of the lovely chocolate brown alpaca from Boston Fibres.

This had three layers laid perpendicular with merino pre-felts as an inclusion.

What I learned: The alpaca did not shrink nearly as much as merino. I barely got 10% shrinkage with lots of rolling and rubbing. In the end I tossed it into the clothes dryer (not my favourite method as I’ve had some disasters). Eventually I managed 25% but the felt remained very soft with a lot of loft.

The merino pre-felts sank into the alpaca and lost their distinctive shapes. The alpaca literally “swallowed” the pre-felts which were very well fulled so I had expected they would stay on the surface more. In the end I shaved them. You can see in the picture below even after shaving they have lots of brown fibres over the top.

I have turned this sample into a small travel roll with internal pockets for keeping my charging cords in one place.

My second experiment was a jewellery pouch for travelling (a bit of a theme developing here!).

This was two layers, laid out in perpendicular pattern around a circular resist. I lined the inside with silk and added silk inclusions to the outside.

Like the first sample the alpaca didn’t shrink much and stayed very soft.

The silk on the  inside only partially felted and the silk inclusions on the outside were very tenuous. I had added a merino prefelt in the cut area to add some strength and structure. It held on well but again the alpaca tended to swallow it. The cut area was difficult to heal as the silk lining wasn’t well attached. In the end I stitched it to add some stability around the opening. Rather than pulling off the partially attached silk inclusions on the outside I stitched them on as well.

At this stage I was feeling quite discouraged and concerned that the silk inclusions may have been too thick. I wanted to use them for my workshop so I replicated the design in merino to understand the difference between the two fibres and to check the silk.

Here is my merino sample. Silk inside and out attached well and the opening healed beautifully.

Alpaca on the left, Merino on the right. Notice how much softer and larger the alpaca is than the merino.

At this point I stepped back and asked myself what have I learned:

1. ·        Alpaca is soft and maintains its loft even after heavy fulling
2. ·        Two layers in a perpendicular lay out is quite sufficient to get a good coverage  - three layers is very thick.
3. ·        Silk inclusions are not very successful and prefelts are swallowed and have blurry edges.
4. ·        It does not shrink as much as merino.
5. ·        Its softness would work well for wearables.

Back to the drawing board. What if I blended merino and alpaca. Would I retain the softness of alpaca but have a bit more structure?

I carded a 50/50 blend of the two fibres and made a small scarf using two layers in a perpendicular layout. To add a decorative edge I used some merino in the “pine needle” technique.

I carded a 50/50 blend of the two fibres and made a small scarf using two layers in a perpendicular layout. To add a decorative edge I used some merino in the “pine needle” technique.

I’m really pleased with the result:- soft, with wonderful drape but quite strong. The edges and corners finished beautifully. Shrinkage was only about 30% but I couldn’t see any reason to continue fulling as the finished product was designed for decoration not hard wear.

If you have experience in using alpaca I’d love to hear from you. What did you make? Was it from the first cut or did you make it from second cuts, and how did you manage the guard hairs?