|
Preparing your Fleece
Felting with alpaca fiber begins with having your fiber prepared. Skirting, tumbling, washing, and carding your fleece.
Once that is finished, then you can begin felting. So, let us begin with preparing the fleece.
|
| Homemade skirting table -Click to enlarge |
We begin with skirting. Here is a homemade skirting table I made out of PVC pipe, some black plastic fencing material
I bought at Home Depot, and zip ties. I made two of them because once I lay the fleece on it and pick it, then I want to turn
it over and do the other-side easily. When you skirt fleece you are picking out the larger debris, the second-cuts from shearing, and
the coarser hairs that are not from the prime blanket area. I have also taken a dogs straight metal comb and combed the
tips of the fiber locks to release debri caught in the tips.
You need to tumble the fleece, so as to remove the smaller debris of dust and dirt. If you do not have a tumbler
like this one, that my husband Terry made us for our fleece. Then you can use a strainer to shake out the smaller debris
as best as you can. No matter what method you use, you will not get all debris out of the fleece. Through all the processess
of felting, debri is falling out a little here and a little there.
|
|
| Terry with his new invention - Click to enlarge |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Add Dawn liquid soap to a pot of steaming hot water
|
Put a pot of water on the stove and turn the burner on high. Add about a teaspoon of Dawn liquid soap. Once
the pot begins to steam, turn off the burner.
Place your fleece in a sheer fabric, (For my hat projects, I start with about 12 to 14 ounces of fleece, which is about
double the amount that I actually need).
|
Lay your fleece on a sheer fabric
|
|
Roll your fleece in the shear fabric like a burrito and rubberband
it
|
Using the sheer fabric and the nylon protects your fleece from agitating around and finding it's way out
of the tube. You will only be soaking the fleece in soapy water.
|
Stick your tube of fleece in a nylon stocking and rubberband the end
|
|
Placing tubes of fleece in pot of water
|
Place your tubes into the pot of water, using a spoon to gently push it down, DO NOT agitate. Place a lid
on top of the tubes to keep them submerged under the water. Leave overnight, or until pot of water is completely cooled down.
|
Placing a pot's lid on top of the tubes of fleece
|
|
1- Take your pot to the sink and bring a strainer.
Gently squeeze the tubes and place them in the strainer and dump out your dirty water.
|
2 - Add cool water to the pot and lay the tubes into the
water until they are saturated. Let sit for 15 minutes, return and gently squeeze the water out of the tubes to rinse.
Do this a couple of times to rinse the tubes of fleece.
|
3 - If you plan on dyeing your fiber, you may
start now. Be careful not to agitate the fleece in any process with washing or dyeing, until it is time for felting. When
completely finished, lay your fleece on a screen to let it dry flat. Now you are ready for the next step, carding the
fleece.
|
I am interested in helping not just alpaca owners to use their alpaca fleece but for
anyone interested in felting. Felting materials is fun and "Green", anyone can do it. I would like to continue
pages for felting and eventually make products that you can make out of your Alpaca felt in the future. Please, take a moment
to let me know that you are interested in my website on learning to felt by submitting your answer anonymously. Thank you, Dena Kotka-Holtz
|
