I think I mentioned that I purchased three different colors of alpaca wool? Now comes the fun part (who am I kidding it has all been fun): blending! I used my fine carders to blend portions of Sugar Plum’s (white) and Donabella’s (fawn) fleece to make intermediate colors. The idea is to get a gradual change from one color to the next.
Natural alpaca fleece colors before blendingColor graded rolags
The color change is subtle; Donnabella’s fleece is only slightly darker than Sugar Plum’s, but there is a difference. Next I’ll try blending Donnabella’s with Aimee’s (dark brown).
The alpaca fleece is dry and I am starting to card and spin it! My plan was to card it all, grade it by color, then spin, but my rolags (the rolls of carded fiber) are so fluffy that I don’t have room to store them like I did with the merino wool rolags. So I decided to spin as I go. If it were possible to spin clouds, I think this is how it would feel. The soft alpaca rolags are light and airy but are spinning up easily. I’m using my homemade top whorl spindle and planning for spinning everything as Z spun singles (as opposed to the opposite direction referred to as S). What am I planning for the finished yarn? A hat of course. I’ve read that alpaca doesn’t have the same elasticity as wool, so I think testing it on an item I am very comfortable making is a good start.
My puppy is getting old. He will be 7 this summer and it will be time to switch to senior food. Wha? I thought his middle aged bones might need a cushy bed. All previous cushy beds died a torn death, so he sleeps on a pile of blankets with no hems (he has a thing against hems and nibbles them off). He will still have blankets in his kennel, but when laying out in the living room with the family, I thought he needed something better than the concrete floor. We have tried the “chew proof” dog beds, but the thick canvas like material made too much noise for him (yes, I have prissy dog). I also didn’t want to spend much in case he rejected it. What I found on sale had a white fluffy top. All the fluffy soft quiet tops of reasonable price were white. I have a black dog. It only took a week to see the dog hair.
Black dog and white beds don’t mix well
The good news is he likes it. So since he likes it, what do I do about that no longer white top? Recover it, of course. I found some beautiful fake fur fabric at the hobby store, and purchased some less expensive fleece for the bottom. Sewing square corners is not my favorite activity, so I trimmed the corners of the cushion (which is just two layers of egg crate foam glued together). Scissors couldn’t handle the thick foam, but a serrated knife slid through easily.
Trimmed corners on dog bed foam
I also literally ripped out the zipper from the old cover and reused it for the new cover because I couldn’t find a zipper longer than 36” at the store. I did pick the stitches on the end of the zipper, but then it ripped out quite nicely (and much faster than using the seam ripper the whole length, ugh). I cut an oval out of the fake fur, and a matching oval out of the fleece, then cut strips for the sides. Sewing fake fur is a tricky business as the thick fur slides and doesn’t like to line up, but I finished sewing it and put it in the foam.
Recovered dog bed
I measured for 1” seams, but ended up with an average 1/2” seam, so the fit of the cover is loose. The fur is forgiving, though, so I think it still looks good. Not neat and crisp, but homey and comfy, which fits our style. And I spent less overall than the high end beds at the store. Phew!
He likes the bed, but doesn’t understand why I am taking a picture
So excited! I’m getting into the alpaca fleece that I bought from a local alpaca farm over a month ago. I followed the instructions in Mary Egbert’s book “The Art of Washing Wool, Mohair, & Alpaca” and washed an armful of each color.
Raw fleece (from Aimee the alpaca) above, wash bin on right, rinse bin on left, drying towel behind, cat photo bomb
I used a capful of Amway LOC soap in the wash bowl, and let the fibers soak for a few minutes. Since alpaca fiber doesn’t have lanolin I didn’t have to be as diligent with keeping the temperature consistently hot. I used hot water from the tap for both the wash and the rinse. I gently squeezed out the soapy water before putting the fiber in the rinse bowl, let it sit, then gently squeezed out the rinse water and rolled the fiber in a towel to remove most of the water.
Sugar Plum’s fleece raw center, wash right, rinse left
The alpaca fleeces seemed relatively clean to start, but as you can see in the picture of Sugar Plum’s fleece above, there was still a fair amount of dirt in there! Which is to be expected, since alpacas like rolling in dirt.
Raw fleece above, washed fleece below
I bought a dark brown (Aimee’s), a fawn (Donnabella’s), and a cream (Sugar Plum’s) blanket fleece. The most dramatic difference was in Sugar Plum’s fleece wash. The cleaned fleece was nearly as white as my towel!
New drying rack with freshly washed alpaca fleece
I installed a new drying rack in the bathroom over the tub. This pop out hanging tray system can have six layers! Lots of space for drying fiber! After washing and rinsing, I put all my fiber here to dry. Carding comes next!
I crocheted up the rainbow yarn! Rinsing the single ply on the niddy noddy worked great to set the yarn. At just over 50 grams, there was not enough to make an adult sized hat, so… I spiral striped it with black. It came out well!
Crocheted rainbow cloche style hat
Even though my spinning still has thick and thin places, the crochet looks nice. I did remove some of the thinnest spots, especially along the edge.
Commercial spun yarn on left, my spindle spun on right
Though honestly, the practice is helping. I found a left-over bit of merino wool I had purchased years ago, and the yarn I made is comparable. Neat.
Critters and Craft 