Blending Alpaca and Wool - Card, Spin, Knit 🦙+🐑=🧶

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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[CrowingHen]

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.

[veronicar.]

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.

[mamalaynasings]

I'm loving your videos. My daughters and I are working on learning to spin and weave and your videos are God sent. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to learn this beautiful craft and teach us on YouTube. What a blessing

[indiedavecomix]

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!

[shaundaflips]

You may have sold me on making 75-25 blends… that that looks amazing! What a great resource thank you!!

[PandTRanch]

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! 😊

[jnz]

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!

[esmecat]

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.

[GaraksApprentice]

OK, that sheep and alpaca at the start are *very* cute.

[QuzieSuzieQ]

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.

[Robin-xezo]

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!!!

[valerieellison]

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.

[littlesammyf]

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

[jillywithbeans]

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.

[markclay]

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

[nz-nz]

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.

[darthtaiter]

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.

[dianewarde]

this is a fascinating experiment. You have done a wonderful job explaining everything. Thanks so much.

[gwenbuchanan]

You make such wonderful, well explained informative balanced videos. so glad to have found you.. excellent Teacher!!!

[doralevitt]

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! 😄🤗💖🌹🧶