ALPACA FIBER PROCESSING

Fiber processing is an important part of an alpaca farm. You can do it yourself or send your fiber off to be processed at a mill.

From the time your alpacas are sheared until you have a finished product, it is important to process your alpaca fiber correctly.

With this page we hope to bring you instructions and ideas on how to process your alpaca fiber so that you have a quality end product.

Starting with keeping your animals clean, to getting a good shearer, finding a mill that fits your needs, or doing the whole process yourself, we hope to help you improve the quality of your fiber.

There are no large commercial processing mills in the United States for alpaca fiber. However, there are some successful entrepreneuers that do process fiber. We know of some and are planning on providing a list so you can send your fleece away if you don't have the time to process it yourself.

Shearing day is very important. You need to keep your fleece from becoming color contaminated and stored correctly until you can get back to working with your fiber.

Skirting your fiber is the next step to producing a quality end product.

We'll show you how we wash our fleece. We use vinegar in our process and many people have asked us why. We use it for three reasons. It is entirely optional.

We wash small batches of alpaca fleece in the sink using a salad spinner and large batches are done in the bathtub. Washing fleece is not hard. You just need to be know how to do it without felting the fiber.

The twenty-two natural colors camelids grow are wonderful but there are no blue or green alpacas that we are aware of so we hand dye our alpaca fiber. Dyeing will open up a whole new world of creativity for you. Don't let it intimidate you. It's not that difficult.

If you are planning on processing the fiber yourself, you will need some equipment. Hand or drum carders, a spinning wheel if you want to produce yarn, and other items depending on what end product you are planning to make.

Fiber processing includes carding, spinning, and felting. We hope you will visit this page as it grows and we add more information to help you work with your fleece.

Return from fiber processing to owning alpaca home page.