Fiber!

Washing Fiber

I'm taking a fiber spinning class at Snowshoe Farm in Vermont. It's been a lot of fun thus far and I can see how it something I want to do long-term. This week we had homework! We had to wash some alpaca fiber (careful not to felt it!). Here are some pictures I took:

This is about 1/3 of the fiber I got to wash. It doesn't look like much but it is super soft and every so slightly dirty/dusty.

These are must haves! Gentle shampoo, white vinegar and lotion. You also need a delicates washing bag and I found a cookie cooling rack handy!

This is the fiber in the bottom of our sink while it soaks for 20 minutes with a little shampoo mixed in. Then you take it out, drain the sink and fill it back up for rinsing. You can't have extemes of temperature and you can rough it up (both cause felting!).

This is the fiber after it is all done being washed and is air drying. It sure doesn't look like much and it also has a bit of a wet dog smell to it (but that goes away...).

This is the fiber once it has been dried for several days and "fluffed" along the way! Now when I take this to class we'll card it and spin it and then wrap it onto a niddy noddy like this one which my husband, Larry, made for!

Until next time happy spinning!