Blending Alpaca and Wool - Card, Spin, Knit 🦙+🐑=🧶
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- I've heard people say that blending alpaca and wool is essential to having an alpaca yarn that will keep it's shape in a garment because alpaca has no "memory" and the knitting will sag. I wanted to test some alpaca wool blends today so I'm carding 4 batts using my Brother drum carder with different amounts of alpaca and wool. Then I'll spin each batt and knit a swatch to see how the different amounts of wool affect the alpaca. This is a huge sampling project, so let's get spinning!
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Do you blend wool with your alpaca?
I will try blending the alpaca with merino. Lol I been spinning mohair for a long long time. Lol I am so bored with gray.
Yes!!! I do!!!
I am just learning. I have 4 oz BFL/Silk and 4 oz Alpaca. Don't know best method to blend. Looking for info.
Blend alpaca with cashmere pls
never had a problem with 100% handspun or manufactured Alpaca
Oh my gosh! You had me laughing so hard with that alpaca. And yes, that is totally what they say. It doesn't help that they have two names - the word the humans call them and their secret name they will never tell you. So even if you get the first right, they are huffy we don't know the secret name.
I prefer 25% alpaca 75% wool. Alpaca is MUCH warmer than wool(hollow shaft), so the fabric can make you feel hotter than you want to feel. Depends on your climate, really. I loved my 25% alpaca 75% Shetland vest and wore it for chores all winter, and my matching hat & wristlets helped keep the cold from making me miserable while taking care of the animals. Thanks for this nicely put together video detailing your experiment.
I recently found your videos and they are fantastic. Clear and packed with great information. The time you spend creating content, demos and examples is impressive. Plus thank you for not using music!
OK, that sheep and alpaca at the start are *very* cute.
You may have sold me on making 75-25 blends… that that looks amazing! What a great resource thank you!!
Go for it! That was absolutely my favorite of the 4 I tried!🦙🐑🧶💖
Thank you for another great video! Part way through, I was thinking, “Evie saved me the work of all that testing!” But now I want to do my own testing anyway! You are right about differences between alpacas. I have one alpaca whose fibre is SO soft, fine and smooth (with zero crimp) it is like silk, and I have another guy whose fibre has as much crimp as some sheep! I am going to have to do some EXPERIMENTING! I love sampling. It’s so fun! But I do want to make a cardigan eventually, so I’d better not get lost in the sampling fun! 😊
these experiment/comparison videos looking at how things (fiber content, technique, etc) are my favorites. i learn so much every time you do one. these are treasures that will be useful over and over in the future. a pretty finished project is a joy to see... but it's a one and done. these keep on giving.
i love the addition of the little chalk board signs. very clever and great way to visually label what's going on.
thank you.
Love the process here. I think the best part about this experiment is now you have a catalog of what the blends knit up to. It is definitely going to help you for future projects.
My wife knitted me a really awesome thick wool hat that eventually stretched out. Going forward when she knits hats she just does a tighter knit and they are just the coolest warmest hats ever and don't stretch out nearly as much! Great content by the way!
Wool has little hooks all along the hair shafts. They hook to each other like velcro, which gives the wool the bounce and makes it hold together in a batt. Alpaca hair shafts are completely smooth, it makes it soft and luxurious but doesn't have the bounce and fluffiness of wool.
Thank you so much for carrying your trial runs all the way to knitted samples! I love that you've taken the extra time in any already labour-intensive video to show us how the yarn performs IRL. So many videos on carding and spinning don't follow through as you've done and it's really much less useful for viewers. Again, THANK YOU!!!
I like to blend about 25 percent wool, 25 of colored and uncolored mohair and 50 of wool. The yarn this results in is bouncy, shiney and Super soft.
I loved this video - so informative. I blended 40% wool with (my first ever) 40% alpaca and 20% bio-nylon for a fine 2 ply sock yarn. So soft and comfortable and with the nylon it holds up to wear and keeps its shape. I've hand knitted and machine knitted with this yarn and having the wool helped with the alpaca being too 'slippy' for fine singles. Thanks again for all your inspiration and advice! Off to try 100% alpaca now
You are my go to reference channel. This week i have aquired two alpaca fleeces, i have Shetland and Romney to process as well as some merino from my neighbours goats. My plan is to scour and prep in summer ready for spinning over winter
Thank you for this amazing video…. I have been sitting on some beautiful alpaca and been to scared to do anything with it…I will take your advice and do my first sampling project. Such a talented lady.👏👏👏👏
this is a fascinating experiment. You have done a wonderful job explaining everything. Thanks so much.
You make such wonderful, well explained informative balanced videos. so glad to have found you.. excellent Teacher!!!
I wish people would talk about carding vs combing alpaca, pros and cons, challenges etc. Sorry if you already have a video for this but I feel like I've searched high and low. I have a rainbow herd of 8 babies and not very much knowledge on how to work with it. This video was a gem for me.
I primarily spin alpaca, all from a friend's alpaca farm, the younger the alpaca the fleece Is from the more I lean towards combing over carding and keeping it as worsted
There is an article from Spin-off Magazine that made this comparison. When I downloaded, it was in their free resources on the website.
Evie, what a well executed experiment!
I started adding alpaca to my wool and I’m very happy with the results.
I get the bulk of my own wool, (several fleeces), professionally carded because I find even with the number of passes through my manual drum carder, it doesn’t come anywhere near the quality of a professional carding. And since my carding company is just a few miles away it’s very convenient. She usually does a 50/50 blend.
Her machine has 17 rollers compared with a manual machine that has 2 😳😳😳
I scour and pick/prepare all my fibre and so just have to pay for the carding.
There are 2 breeds of alpaca; Huacaya and Suri. (I do prefer the Huacaya, but cria baby Suri is quite beautiful).
Prepping alpaca is a very time consuming job as although there’s no lanolin (and therefore no need to wash in hot water), it’s extremely dusty, and can have a myriad of VM in it. (I seem to sneeze more when I process alpaca than when I do wool 🤣🤣). But the more effort you put in with your prep’s the better the end results will be!
I was lucky to be given 6 alpaca fleeces recently (they needed a LOT of sorting) but I managed to get quite a bit of useable fibre.
I have like 4 or 5 alpaca fleeces, also llama, and icelandic, and I'm thinking to blend my white alapca with my white icelandic to soften it up- your video is perfect timing! 😄🤗💖🌹🧶
This is exactly what I do with wool from my Gotland sheep.
I love blending different fibers for different textures and started a blanket with my samples since I have so many. It’s a lot of fun.
I have only worked with 100% wool, 100% alpaca and a 50/50 blend of wool and alpaca... but now I am super interested in doing this experiment myself! Thank you for sharing!
Go for it!
My first fibre was alpaca from a small farm about 20 minutes from my house, so a video about alpaca is really exciting to me!
I am not a spinner, but your videos are very informative and enjoyable. Thank you
Very helpful. About to start my first alpaca fleece. Thank you.
Its funny how scientific you are and how you control all the variables.. I'm just spinning some soft stuff (alpaca atm) because its fun, dying it with food dye in my kitchen, and seeing how it turns out.
Thank you, I learned so much. I am very new to spinning and now have a loom. Go big or go home lol
It looks so dreamy
The alpaca bit was AMAZING!!!!
Yet again I have to stop whatever project I'm doing to explore the topic of your fun and interesting videos. I do have quite a bit of lovely alpaca bought many moons ago and a last bit of a merino fleece so - Out comes the drum carder! I'm going to try blending some not-so-nice dyed pygora with merino also. We shall see!
Excellent ….so informative. Thank you ❤
Thank you for experimenting and sharing your results. This was super informative and filled up some gaps I had whenever I heard people talking about „the unwanted drape of alpaca yarn“. 😅 Have a lovely sunday. ☕️🧶 ~ Kat
As a crocheter, im an alpaca lover. Ill take the stretching lolol its more insulating than wool and so soft 🥰 i havnt worked with merino though❤
This was great. My friend has an angora bunny and does the 50/50 with a soft merino. Any more than that the yarn would have too much of a halo and it would be very "hot" to wear. Thanks for all you do for your fans. God bless.
Wow!!! I love your video and am super impressed with your spinning skills! I started knitting because I fell in love with this alpaca yarn when we visited an alpaca farm a couple years ago! I just had to turn it into a sweater! I love the yarn so much but I'm always a little concerned that it'll drape out too much as it usually has such a high content of alpaca - usually between 85-90% Alpaca, 10-15% merino. My sweaters are a bit drapey but the wool is so soft! I havn't noticed them loose their shape too much yet. Now I am using a 90% Alpaca, 10% merino to knit a sweater for my boyfriend, but i was super nervous that he would wear it a bit hard, and so i've knitted his sweater with a strand of mohair as well. SO i'm interested to see how it holds up. I just could not find resources that stated at "X"% alpaca, your sweater will hold its shape well. So it's all learning as we go for me too! Thanks for your video!
Choose alpaca fleeces with good crimp. Crimp is what makes wool (and alpaca) bounce back and hold the shape
Love experiments like this! This is giving me more and more ideas for what to do with the little balls of alpaca roving I bought forever ago.
Wonderful! Little balls of fluff are the best! Happy spinning!
Thank you for taking the time to make this incredibly informative and interesting video! I was just getting ready to blend and spin with my alpaca, and I found this so helpful.
Thank you for nailing it again with your experiment. It;s obvious you know teaching methods and how to organize to be informative and clear. These tutorials are just so valuable. For me personally, I seem to be at the stage of my spinning journey that the topics you pick speak to. Your time and efforts are very much appreciated:)
Now I want alpaca.
Your eye makeup is beautiful in this video. 😍
This was a very well constructed analysis.
Thank you for this test. I like to try out alpaca but I had heard the same stories about 100% alpaca regarding growing garments. On the other hand, many brands sell 100% alpaca yarn. But I think I will go for a blend now to be on the safe side.
Thank you for this demo video. It really helped to watch how you divided it all up and which percentage made to best yarn for specific projects.
I really enjoyed your informative study of these fibres.
Thanks jillianeve
I'm learning a lot about spinning and what to do from you,and taking it back to the weavers spinners and dying guild hope this is ok.
As we all help each other I tell them all to watch your videos as I'm getting so much from them.
I've learned more from a few videos than 5 years at the guild.
Thanks again
Sheila
This was quite informative, even for me as a knitter. Thnaks !
I loved this! I brought home bunches of Alpaca from a farm visit last summer and ideas for a bulky alpaca sweater. Based on what I’ve read about the lack of memory in alpaca I decided to blend it with wool. It’s approximately 60% Alpaca, 45% wool (cormo is what I had in hand ) and 5% faux cashmere. I’m putting it through my drum carder twice, long draw, 2 ply. I didn’t do a lot of sampling. My swatches are definitely woolly but very nice. I’m about 2/3 of the way through my sweater spin - I’ve switched sweater patterns several time so we’ll see what I finally come up with!
That is so exciting! What a great project! 🦙🐑🧶💖
I’m just learning to spin so I can use the fibre from my alpacas. A friend gifted me a wool fleece and I’m just now experimenting with blending. This is fantastic timing so thank you very much for this video !!
Wonderful! Happy spinning (and blending!) 🦙🐑🧶💖
Oh now I’m going to need to get some alpaca to blend with my wool! I breed fine fleeced Shetlands so lots of crimp, this looks fun. Great video!
So informative. Thank you
Super ❤.
I'm just getting going with raw Alpaca fleece, so this was very helpful to have in my mind. Thank you.
Very interesting. I’m relearning how to spin after a concussion. Your videos have helped me a lot. Thank you.
Yay some ideas to play with. I just unwrapped some birthday surprises with some fluffy stuff and a bunch of natural dyes. It’s always exciting getting fluffy stuff but then it’s always the question of what to do.
Happy birthday!! 🧶💖✨
@@JillianEve Aw thank you
I have a bunch of alpaca 🦙 fleeces setting in my stash. I heard a lot about using 100 percent alpaca to This help a lot I like the 10 percent and 25 percent blend I have Siri to. Thank so much this help
I DO!!! I make one thread of wool and another thread of alpaca I put together
Thank you for this video. It saves my project because I want to start spinning alpaca the first time for an fair isle pullover. I am sooo happy to found your channel. And your studio looks so lovely!
One of my professors just gifted me some alpaca fiber and this video helped me feel less intimidated by it!! I had no clue where to start. My professor said that she loves blending alpaca with wool and her own cat's hair, which is funny because I also have a collection of my cat's hair that's waiting to be used... Maybe I'll give that a try someday, but I might try the 75/25% blend first 😂 Thank you for the fantastic video!!
I hope you'll share how it turns out! I can't wait to see what you do with it! 🐑🦙😸
Loved the video. Can't wait to see more. I am a spinner and have a drum carder and love to see new ideas on line.
I spun for the first time a few days ago and i spun 100% alpaca that I got in a kit with my spindle and while watching this I was spinning Corriedale and i totally get what you mean about wool being more 'sticky'!
Very important and nice to know. I like your teaching🤗
Thank you so much for this series! Just what I needed to know. I have an alpaca blanket (more like bags of hair) to process. I am going to try to fluff and hand card instead of going to the expense of sending out to a mill or purchasing new equipment. I can hardly wait to get started!
Wow, this is brilliant! I'm not a big fan of alpaca BUT this protocol could be applied in lots of ways. I'm currently interested in spinning for socks so I'm wondering what could be added to wool to increase the strength, I hear bamboo, rose and silk talked about, but what proportion? I think I'm going to use your protocol to have lots of fun finding out. Thank you Jillian.
Go for it! 🐑🧶💖
This was so interesting and the yarns are gorgeous evie thank you so much for sharing with us all much love and light xx
Fascinating and informative - thanks. I've been working on long draw, on my supported spindle, and have watched your video showing how you do this, several times. Each time I watch it, I can focus in on another facet of how you do it - so thanks so much for that video as well!
Wonderful video thank you so much.
Has helped my decision making so much easier.
Love all your tutorials.
🙏🧡🌻🦙🧶
You are so welcome!
Gorgeous shawl :) looks cosy. This is a really useful video for me, thankyou Jillian 💕
You’re welcome, I'm so glad it was helpful! 😊🦙🐑🧶💖
This video was so good and education. I was just about to order some Alpaca and Merino but didn't know what ratio I should get and how it would perform. Thank you Evie.
So cool
I have spun basically only alpaca. I did just get some Romeldale-CVM sheep and also a BFLxmerino, and twin BFLxIcelandicXmerinoXshetlands for Christmas, and have been swiping loose wool from the CVM necks that they have been tearing out by sticking their head through the fence. (so far only the CVM sheep have had loose wool) but... I am SO EXCITED you did this video! I have about a volley ball size of wool now and I want to try the 75%, 25% blend. I think that would be the perfect one for the socks I want to make!
Oh that's fantastic! I bet it will make wonderful socks!!!! 🦙🧦🧶💖
This is super interesting!
Thank you! Loved your comment about inadequate words to describe the fiber moving thru our hands. How true!
Thanks for your work, Jillian, you have addressed many of the issues I am currently tackling being a returning spinner and wanting to have a bit more insight into my practice. I am just at the moment doing a bit of demonstrating at a local craft group of fibre to fabric, and last week was the blending the washed/scoured fibres, which were alpaca and ryeland wool. The ryeland has a LOT of spring to it, and is currently at about a 50/50 blend with the alpaca (they are non-spinners so I wasn't being too specific) But having seen this, I am tempted to take the batt apart and blend some more alpaca in, as 75/25 blend looked SO good. I am making random balls of all sorts at the moment, for some bulky weaving projects where I am using multi-strands in the warp as well as the weft (has a bohemian look, all the better for darning in the inevitable floats...!) so this is a lot of fun, mixing and blending like a mad alchemist, natural and dyed colours, all sorts of fibre mixes and all sorts of plying and spinning styles. Has really set me alight again, and thanks for being there when the technical side is needed, I am learning lots without it feeling oppressive, your style and delivery is perfect for me
I'm so happy to inspire! Your project sounds amazing!!! 🧶🥰
That was such an interesting project! Thanks so much .
Awesome study, Evie! Thank you!
What an interesting experiment!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! 🦙🐑🧶💖
Perfect! I have a ton of alpaca and a smaller ton of corriedale. Thanks for giving me courage to try blending. May work out, may not. But I can try it!
Have fun! 🦙🐑🧶💖
Thank you so much for this video! I've been curious about blending with alpaca, and this was was perfect!
I'm so glad!
Great video! I just ordered the same drum-carder last week and can’t wait to use it! Your batts look soft and fluffy!
Nice wool! I’ve wanted to try alpaca… I’ve been busy silk-spinning! I have three kinds on the go: Tussah, Nassi (peduncle), and Muga. Tussah is your basic silk; soft, shiny (if I’m in the kitchen, it’s like I’m spinning a shaft of light!), and long-stapled. Muga is a little thicker, but still *very* soft and shiny. Nassi… Is… Weird. It’s shorter-stapled (Somewhere between merino wool and cotton), not as soft, and when spun up, it’s more sparkly than shiny, and feels something like… Rough suede? I don’t know; it’s just weird lol!
A spinning tip for silk from personal experience (ESPECIALLY for Nassi!): Wear a mask!! Silk is just as bad as cat hair, if not worse; and silk fibers are NOT fun to breathe in!
HAHAHAHAHAHA. “RUDE…. Go ahead..spin away!”
🦙🤣🤣🤣
Thanks so much for this video, it’s the first one I’ve seen by you and I’m now going to subscribe! I have an alpaca fleece I was given a couple of years ago and now I feel inspired to set to work on it. Next, after I’m done with the current project which seems to be taking forever…..!
THANK YOU 💖💖💖
Thank you for this video - sooo helpful!! Now I know why the beautiful alpaca sweater I made stretched out. I had blamed myself for knitting too loosely, and even frogged the sweater and reknit it with smaller needles. It still grew, so I ended up threading some elastic through the neckline and bottom ribbing. Not quite the look I was after, but I was able to wear it. I have some alpaca fiber, and have blended it with wool on my homemade blending board (thanks to your video!). The rolags I've made are maybe 10% alpaca. I'm looking forward to playing with them. So many plans, not enough time!
Oh no! I'm glad you found a solution to your sweater. You are certainly not the only one to have that experience! 💔🦙
super useful! I got my first bag of alpaca fibre and this was a great primer on how to blend it for what I want.
This video is fascinating! I’m inspired to try weaving with singles now! Many thanks!
Hi Evie, this is a GREAT tutorial and sample blends. Thank you so much for this information and all your time and effort to make this. I have a lot of Alpaca fiber and I also have a lot of Suri Alpaca. Do you have a video on blending Suri Alpaca with wool fibers? Thanks
What a great experiment. Thank you! Based on that, 60:40 might be the way for me to go!
Your yarn turned out so pretty💕 this is very educational🥰 I have some soy bean top and some rose fiber and a spindle but I’m procrastinating by crafting other projects😅
Hi Evie, I hope you're all OK xx 😘
I was just thinking about you today and well up you pop.😆😘
That poor Alpaca, ...well spin anyway 🤣
This is a very interesting and helpful video podcast.
I have a small amount of Raw Alpaca and wasn't sure how to spin it. Well you certainly answered my self question!!!
I love how the Batts look, could see in the swatches , more than in the yarn. They all looked so pretty but I think the 50/50 is the best way to go.
Thankyou for sharing your expertise and experience wuth the Alpaca/Wool Blends..
Happy Spinning ❤
Take care and stay safe. Its of love to you all Jen xxxx 🐏🐏🐑🐑💖💖💕💕🌹🌹😘
Thank you! Happy spinning Jen!!! 🦙🧶💖
This video is so relaxing!
I'm glad you like it! 🦙🧶
Awesome video! I was amazed with your results - NOT what I would have predicted! I love how careful and well-thought-out your exploration of the subject is. You have inspired me to do a similar experiment. Also, your suggestion of keeping staple lengths similar is well-taken. I have bumped up against that mistake in the past when trying to make short yak fibres easier to spin. (spoiler alert: blending with a longer staple wool did NOT help😜)
Really enjoyed your process. So interesting and sooo much to learn. THANK YOU!!! Would love to see examples of how twist when plying affects the finished yarn when you knit. I'm finding this out the hard way LOL. Never knit with my handspun and now that i'm pretty happy with the spinning and started knitting i'm getting mixed feelings if I am over plying? Self-taught through videos and hard to judge. So much to learn. Thanks again.
I knit a 100% baby Alpaca sweater once.... twice actually, it was too small the first time it did not stretch out but turns out I am allergic to alpaca. But I had to knit the sweater twice to figure that out. So I will enjoy it from a distance .
I love your videos!!! You do such a good job. I'm just learning to spin with a drop spindle. I'm at about 3 weeks. So, I don't think I'm ready for alpaca just yet. But the way you have the labels showing the blends is super helpful. When I do start to blend with alpaca, I know I can come back to this video.
I'm so glad you found it helpful and welcome to the spinning journey! 🦙🐑🧶💖
Perfect timing ! I am planning a sweater for my daughter and is thinking of blending Suri alpacka with some kind of wool. She wants a very soft yarn.
Great timing! I hope you find the perfect blend for your project! 🦙🐑🧶💖
Thank you as always for an informative and fun video!
I have been spinning alpaca with wool to make the alpaca go further, guessing it is around 25% alpaca to wool, Using a range of wool, polworth, gotland and a corridale cross, Finding that it has all turned out very soft. Currently awaiting an Arapawa fleece, a rare breed that has a very fine crimp.
I learned a lot. Like: there are words I still do not know (drape? drapie?? can't even write it, haha...), my method with just spinning and just see what happens my not the best, but oh well.
My long draw really sucks and it seems it is possible to make thicker yarn and its just me who can not do that :) (and its hard to practice since I have trouble to find fleeces/batts for buying)
My wool I spin at the moment is very springy too. But I think thats mainly because it has not much twist (I noticed in the last few days that I may undertwist it, but I do like it that way right now and it has a very good thickness for my addi machine, so all good there :) )
Its nice to see those blending experiments especially since I don't have anything for blending and those machines are expensive (and I won't need it often I am afraid as I do not know if I can buy raw wool that easily here in germany)
This was fantastic information. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! 🦙🐑🧶💖
@@JillianEve I made sure to donate. You're content has truly helped me as a newer spinner many times 🙂
@@dianalimbach4584 thank you so much! 💕😊