Once your alpaca fibre has been washed and completely dry it’s time to prepare it for spinning. To achieve a nice clean well prepared fibre we will follow two steps.
The first step is picking. Nothing complicated here. You are using your hands to pull the fibres apart from each other, while pulling out large pieces of vegetable matter (VM) and any short cuts called second cuts.
I only process about four fleeces or in this case blankets per year. Therefore I don’t find I have a need to purchase a picker. If using a picker I would proceed with caution as they can be a bit rough on fine fibres. I find it goes pretty quickly using my hands.
As you are pulling apart the fibres you are creating a cloud of fibre. You will see just how much VM actually falls out. Once you have picked apart all the fibre it is time to move onto the drum carder.
For this stage you will need a drum carder, a doffer or knitting needle to break the batt, two 1/2 inch dowels the about an inch longer than the width of your drum, a flicker or burnishing brush and a cloth roughly the width and length of your drum. I use a 90 tines per inch cloth on my drum carder.
On the tray of the drum carder begin by adding fine layers of fibre. You should be able to see through the fibre. Slowly turn the drum. As you are turning the fibre is being carded between the small drum (licker) and the large drum (swift). The small bits or knots are picked up by the licker, the vegetable matter is falling through to a tray below or onto the table depending on the brand of drum carder you are using. The fibre is being stored onto the swift or main drum.
Once I have the swift or main drum full of fibre I like to run a burnishing brush over the fibre. This packs the fibre and gives me a nice even surface to the fluffy batt. Next with a doffer or knitting needle break the batt along the groove of the drum carder.
Place one dowel under the end of the batt closest to the back of the main drum (swift). Next place the piece of material on the alpaca fibre. In my case the material is a piece of the rubber like cupboard lining you can purchase by the roll. Then add the next dowel. Standing at the back of the drum carder begin rolling toward yourself keeping the dowels close to the drum. I find this gets most of the fibre off. Any fibre that sticks can be coaxed off with the burnishing brush.
Once the fibre is off the drum it is easy to unroll for inspection. I generally will repeat this process three times. With each pass through the drums the fibre is getting better aligned and cleaner with the VM being picked out by myself or falling through to the tray below.
Tip: I find alpaca being fine and very clean can become staticky. To deal with this I use a water mister with a tablespoon or two of hair conditioner. A light spritz will not make the fibre wet but does aid in cutting the static.
The fibre is now ready for spinning or stored for future use.
Be sure to stop into our YouTube channel to see the video to accompany this article.
Other videos working on alpaca fibre:
Washing Raw Alpaca
Spinning Alpaca Fibre
Plying Alpaca
