Felting tip: When you are felting around a resist for mittens and boots, you will generally not need to include a full 30% shrinkage allowance as the alpaca fibre does not need to be overworked...unless you want a really really really firm felt, of course. My first effort at fingerless gloves, with a very full 30% allowance, became felt gauntlets as I had to work them very hard to bring up ~ or down ~ to the finished size.
A sustainable and eco-friendly craft
We try to engage with
an attitude of creating a small footprint and so
our felting uses alpaca fibre from our own alpacas that live on our
property, there is minimal water usage and no chemical additives to
clean the fibre other than soap which is added in the felting process.
Generally, there is no pre-washing (other than for white) as we use the
felting process itself to clean the material created.
Our participants really enjoy the hands-on connection of making a
handcrafted item from a raw product straight off the animal's back...and
being able to meet the animal that grew the fibre. But they don't have
to work hard as alpaca fibre felts with about 80% less effort than
merino requires and the results are outstandingly beautiful regardless
of the skill level of the maker.
We use the natural fibre without dying ... who would want to
contaminate such beautiful natural colours :) but we add colour and zing
with embellishments such as silk and yarn and fabric. I like to use
op-shop treasures when I find them and locally produced handcrafts (e.g.
yarn).
Copyright 2009-2010 Last updated July 2010 Contact us: sales@crafteewenches.com
