Alpaca, like all pure natural wool, needs to be handled with care when washing. Too much agitation and heat, along with water and detergent creates the perfect environment for felting (essentially irreversable matting together the fibres into a denser form).
But caring for your alpaca accessories is easy. Firstly it won’t require washing very often, wool is naturally antibacterial.
We strongly recommend hand washing only rather than using your machine’s wool cycle. And cannot offer warranty cover for items that have been machine washed.
Washing in 3 (maybe 4) easy steps
To wash you’ll need a wool-specific detergent so it is ph-balanced for wool (we recommend Eucalan for its exceptional and gentle cleaning power, plus it’s no-rinse so really easy to use).
- Make up you detergent solution using the ratios provided on the packaging. Ensure your water is only lukewarm.
- Submerge your alpaca accessories into the solution and very gently squeeze to ensure it soaks in the solution. Lightly swish it around in the water.
- Leave to soak briefly – refer to the directions on your chosen detergent (if using Eucalan you should soak for a minimum of 15 minutes, but longer is preferable). Continue to periodically squeeze the during the soaking period if possible.
- Then rinse if required, when rinsing ensure the water is a similar temperature to the water you used for washing.
To dry you can roll gently into a towel and lightly squeeze to remove the excess moisture. Then dry flat and never on heat sources or in direct sunlight.