Thursday, August 22, 2013

Dyeing Alpaca Fibres


Who knew that taking my children to an Alpaca farm was going to increase my repertoire of different things to dye?

On a beautiful sunny day, my boys and I headed out to the local Alpaca farm for some fun feeding and petting of adorable alpacas.

After, we went into the owner's house and she showed me Alpaca roving.   I had to buy some, as there was a thought brewing in my head.   

I was told they were very receptive to dyes.   I love to do needle felting and then embroidery on top of it, and finally use those pieces and incorporate them into a quilt.   


 I mixed up 3 batches of dye.   Pink, blue and purple were my choices.
What I did notice instantly is the alpaca fibres absorbed the dye much faster and much more readily than cotton fabric does.

After only 4 hours, I took it out of the dye bath and rinsed it and let it dry.   Look at the vibrant colours that were produced!   You may have noticed that I purchased a light brown roving, that's because there was no white left.  I almost think the white would be more brilliant when dyed.   I was sure to ask when she is getting her next shipment of white in.

You will notice on the blue that there are bits of the brown colouring that show through.   I think it adds texture to it, and am curious to try overdyeing parts of it.



I am very excited to do more experiments with dyeing alpaca fibres and see where that leads!   




7 comments:

Gene Black said...

ha ha...please don't tempt me to learn something else!

What Comes Next? said...

love those colours. Needle felting is not something I've tried, but that looks so soft, I'm tempted!

Watercolour and Textile Artist, Eileen Gidman said...

I have tried dyeing some wool fibres I purchased but I think the lanolin? may have prevented the vibrancy I was looking for.
Has anyone had success with dyeing raw cotton?

CraftyViolet said...

I'm such a klutz I stay away from dyeing. I'm also allergic to wool so I wonder if I'm allergic to Alpaca wool?

Renate said...

Yummy! The bits remind me of cotton candy!

Rolanda said...

I love the bright pink and so easy too. But I have a question, what is needle felting?

Watercolour and Textile Artist, Eileen Gidman said...

Thanks Jackie for the comment on my blog about your fabric, I over dyed. I am not sure where the project should go next.
Any thoughts?