The Essential Maintenance Guide for Alpaca Wool Products

There are so many things that can be made with alpaca fabric. From socks to rugs, from pashminas to scarves, there’s something for every occasion.

Now that you're starting to build your own collection of beautiful items made from alpaca fabric, you want to know:

How do I maintain my alpaca wool products?

To care for your alpaca wool items, gently handwash with a detergent that’s designed for wools, and lay flat to air dry. Make sure to dry the wool lying flat and avoid creasing. Never wring or twist.

If you follow these simple steps, your heirloom alpaca pieces will last for years to come. Let’s go through these steps in more detail to make sure you feel confident caring for your alpaca wool.

Handwash...don’t worry, it’s not so bad

We know...the words “handwash only” probably made you sigh or roll your eyes. Yes, it’s a lot easier to throw something into the washer!

But to make the alpaca wool last longer and remain in the best possible condition, handwashing is recommended.

You don’t have to toil away for hours over a laundry tub. Simply fill a small bucket or tub with water. We recommend cool or lukewarm water for best results.

But watch out! No matter how much your alpaca might love the hot tub, it’s not great for their fur ;)

Add some soap, then toss your alpaca piece into the mix. Gently squish and squeeze until it’s saturated with water. Add more soap if necessary. Then rinse the soap out using the same temperature of water. 

And you’re all done! The extra few minutes you spend on hand-washing will pay off in the long run. We think it’s worth it to adorn yourself in natural alpaca comfort.

Soap selection

When choosing your soap for cleaning your alpaca products, the gentler, the better. We recommend only using wool detergent. This kind of detergent is suitable for animal products because it’s gentler on the fabric.

You don’t want to choose something too harsh and damage the ultra-soft fibers of alpaca fleece.

Cleaning your alpaca products doesn’t take very much soap. So it’s okay to use a fancier detergent than usual. You won’t use very much of it each time you wash, and it will make your alpaca products last longer. Give them a luxurious trip to the spa ;)

Air dry

Never put your alpaca products in the dryer. It’s too harsh of an environment. Between the agitation and the temperature, it’s all-around not a good idea.

Luckily, the solution is easy...all you need is a flat surface and a few hours. Simply lay your alpaca fabric in a flat, dry place and let it dry on its own.

You can use a drying rack for this purpose, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry. Any flat surface will do. You can even find a nice sunny spot for your pashmina or socks to bask in the sun and dry extra-fast.

Don’t wring, twist, or crisply fold

As you might have figured out, alpaca items do best when they aren’t exposed to hot temperatures. This means you should steer clear of ironing them. Luckily, alpaca fabric isn’t prone to wrinkles. So you shouldn’t need to press them.

Smooth out the fabric while it’s drying to avoid wrinkles later. Be careful not to crease your alpaca items while they’re drying. If you do this, they might have a wrinkle when they’re done.

And make sure to never wring or twist your alpaca fabric while getting rid of excess water. This will stress the fabric and cause wrinkles later.

Caring for fluffy items

Some of our items are fluffy, whether it’s an alpaca toy, pair of slippers, or luxurious rug. For these, check out our fluffy friends care guide to learn how to maintain them.

Whatever treasured alpaca item you bring home, we hope this guide helps you feel comfortable taking care of it.