I was given a bunch of nice Alpaca wool today. Everything from very fine to stuff that is quite a bit coarser, in browns, cream, and grey to almost black. It all needs to be washed. I presently have it mostly contained in old nylons but wonder what the best washing method from here would be. Bear in mind I am married and not looking to get divorced or commit suicide.
Kevin :tieone:
I have used the following technique on bulk mallard feathers and sheeps wool.
I would recommend hand washing in a large basin or sink using cool water and a gentle soap (woolite or a few drops of ivory liquid dish soap.) Keep the bulk wool in the nylons to contain it and keep down the mess. Gently squeeze out the water and blot dry with some paper towels. Lay the washed wool out on paper towel over newspaper (be careful of accidental color transfer!)
Note: most natural wools will bind to each other and turn into felt if you use hot water and too much agitation, be very gentle. Don’t machine wash or you will end up with alpaca felt!
Dawn dish soap in cold water will take the oil off the wool.
Rick
i do the same thing only i use barely warm water with dawn dish washin liquid… afterward i wrinse the fur or whatever in barely warm water then again in cold water… after wrensing i place the fur in a drainer (the kind what has holes in the bottom & sides)… after the water drains off i put the fur, hide side up on several non coloured paper towels till its dry…
I wasn’t aware of the felt aspect. Good to know. I had the stuff soaking in lukewarm water and was planning to use Ivory dish soap with warm water If I didn’t hear anything from anyone.
I was thinking of using the dryer on air only, but think it would still let a ton of fibers and hairs loose that I would certainly hear about. I think I’ll blot the nylon contained lumps with dog towels and then fluff the stuff on paper towel and let it air dry.
Once it is dry, I will nuke it to kill any remaining critters per the link in the thread on preparing materials. It just didn’t say much about washing loose fur.
Well, it is washed and drying. Looks like I will need to card it or something. Maybe just work it by hand to get the bits of hay and twigs out of it. At least it no longer smells like a corral.
It took 3 washings to get the water to run clear.
Oh! The wool I thought was cream color is white. 
Carding is definately a plus if you are trying to make dubbing in any sort of quantity. You can get carding brushes at yarn shops that sell weaving and spinning supplies.
My wife picked up some in Boulder at…
http://www.shuttlesspindlesandskeins.com/index.htm
They are friendly folks and are used to the occasional fly tier. I have found all sorts of useful material there, including raw alpaca wool.
You can also fake it with some wire bristle pet brushes like the ones at PetSmart. The carding proccess will fluff up and align the fibers plus remove any debris. Really improves the quality of dubbing. Great for blending colors.
BTW, that white wool will take RIT dye very nicely…maybe you need some bright colors to add to your stash.
Hey! We are practically neighbors! I go past your place once in a while for a change when headed to Ward. I’ll be going up by Ward the 16th. If I don’t have something by then, I will have to stop in Boulder and pick some up.
Very important to note that Soaps and Detergents are not the same thing. Detergents are much harsher. Laundry detergents are even harsher than dish washing detergents (woolite and such being less so)
While Dawn dish soap will indeed clean your materials, it will strip all natural oils from it leaving it dry and brittle. Not a good thing for hair (deer, elk etc) products. Don’t believe the commercials where they use Dawn to clean the crude oil off wildlife. What natural oil this strips off the LIVE animal will re-produce as needed.
When cleaning hair materials, use hair products. Shampoo and conditioner. If you cant away with using your wife/daughters, buy a cheap ($2 each) matching brand of shampoo and conditioner for normal (not dry, not oily) hair.
As for feathers, just rinse in warm water and ‘wash’ with above mentioned conditioner.
For bug killing the best thing is a capful of plain Clorox in the wash water and let it sit for a brief while… Nuking the stuff can cause big problems if there are water droplets still in the material…
Got to thinking about the Dawn again while looking a picture of a wild bird on the label of the bottle sitting on my kitchen sink. If dawn is strong enough for GreenPeace to clean crude oil off those tasty aniamls, I mean the poor unfortunate wild life, caught in an environmental disaster like the Valdeese oil spill, it’s no wonder it will clean up baked on greasy pots an pans.
But before you use it to wash any material you want to tie with, you might want to ask yourself it you would ever use it to wash your own hair?
Considering that these are farm animals and live in a corral, the floor of which is covered with stuff both liquid and solid I wanted to be sure I got rid of, I thought stronger measures were in order. I didn’t, after all, want anyone accusing me of tying crappy flies.
I used about a teaspoon of Liquid Tide in about two gallons of tepid water, 3 times. That is what it took to get the water to run clear. Then rinsed it in cool water. Seemed to do a pretty good job. Then I teased the hair out to let air circulate through it and let it air dry. Then I put it in a Ziploc bag and nuked it for 30 seconds to kill any critters. I let it dry again if the bag fogged (several bags for different colors of alpaca wool). Now I am looking for something to card it with to get the remaining bits of hay and other debris out of it and turn it into nice dubbing.
Hi kbproctor,
I picked up a small quantity of white llama’s wool, which I think is similar to alpaca, at a friend’s place where they raise a few. I washed it up using dish detergent, and then dyed it in new growth maple bark dye. It took the dye nicely, and ended up a good ginger colour.
If you are interested in experirmenting, you could try dying some of your white wool in onion skin dye, red cabbage, etc, and see how it turns out. It would increase the range of colours for your dubbing blends.
I didn’t get but a small handfull of the white. I can and will go back out and get some more, though. This was nice fine stuff well suited to tiny flies. I would like to try dying some.