Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Alpaca Felt

A while ago I made a chance discovery via Facebook that an acquaintance from my working days has a herd of Alpacas that roam the foothills of the Southern Flinders Ranges near Port Pirie. 



Being in discovery mode I asked about purchasing some fleece and before I knew it I had "5 BAGS FULL". Some from Hugo, Sancho, Hermione, Lydia and Zoe. All different shades.

Some of the fleece was quite clean but Hugo and Sancho seem to like rolling in straw so a bit of work combing and carding was needed to get the fleece ready for felting.

I began with some nano felted scarves and progressed to hats, getting a feel for the product. I found that a bit of wool included in the layers or underneath the alpaca fleece helped to hold everything together.



Several scarves later and I still had "5 BAGS FULL" so what was I to do to  use up more of the fleece now stored in plastic tubs.

I began to make one large felt slab after each felting project and put them aside with the idea of making a felt mat or rug.

Later I cut these into squares and then machine stitched them together using a flat blanket type stitch on my machine. 

The shaggy dreadlocks on the ends were a scarf that didn't quite work but adds just enough interest to the structured rug. The texture of alpaca is very soft and silky and is very tactile.

Ok for a first try ;-))