Fibre fashion file

Story by Lynn Haley

This season, the models are wearing alpaca, bison, angora, goat, sheep…

SOUND FAR-FETCHED? IT’S NOT. MADE-IN-ALBERTA NATURAL FIBRES ARE weaving their way into the fabrics of international design houses from Paris to London.

They’re discovering the phenomenal quality and variety of natural Alberta fibres that come from exotic species like alpacas, angora goats(mohair), angora rabbits, bison, cashmere goats, llamas,musk oxen and more traditional sheep. Those fibres are part of a new Alberta industry thatblends quality, style, warmth, lightness and natural colours.

The Natural Fibre Centre & Testing Laboratory (NFCTL), part of the Olds College Centre for Innovation, is focussed on bulking it up, so to speak. As it builds an international applied research and resource facility,the NFCTL is bringing together Western Canada’s emerging fibre industry with research, education and networking.

Feel This

“With our dry, cool climate and exotic livestock expertise,” says NFCTL Manager Ruth Elvestad, “we have a unique opportunity to produce premium quality fibres here for the domestic and international marketplace.” What the industry lacks in volume today, it more than compensates for in quality. “We’re an industry in its infancy,” says Elvestad, “but small as we are, we’re in the international spotlight as the place to find very unique fibres for custom blends.”

The touch and texture of Canadian exotic fibres creates phenomenal
fabrics that offer a gorgeous lustre to garments. “Our fibres are very
unusual,” says Elvestad, “and in the world of high fashion, unusual sells.”
Garment manufacturers are also seeing that there are practical advantages to blending natural and synthetic fibres. Blending a very small amount of nylon with natural fibres in a sock, for example, or even flax and hemp, makes a more comfortable and durable product.

What creates the comfort? Natural fibres keep the body cooler in the
summer and warmer in the winter because of air pockets in the fibre that
adjust to body temperature. Natural fibres wick moisture away, are usually
non-allergenic and are easier on the skin. In fact, natural fibres are often
used in hospital bedding.

Going Global

The NFCTL works with producers, millers and marketers at every stage of the natural fibre industry. They are serious about becoming a major part of the world fibre market through the production of top-quality, consistent, raw fibre and fibre products. Right now the volumes of Canadian fibre and product are small. For example, while about eight million pounds of wool are produced in Canada every year, only about 50,000 pounds of alpaca fibre or 200,000 pounds of mohair are available. Most of those exotic fibres are produced in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. There are only about 14,000 alpacas in all of Canada, mostly concentrated in Alberta.

Custom Woolen Mills Ltd., near Carstairs, Alberta, is one of the few companies that already makes a wide variety of products using exotic natural fibres. For example, it makes crew-neck sweaters from 70% alpaca and 30% Merino wool in a specialized blend that makes the sweater, available in natural colours, unusually soft, warm and light. It also makes blankets, wraps, socks and many other products. Already a few hundred people are employed in an industry that has the
potential to employ thousands.

To help develop the consistent quality necessary for the industry to grow, natural fibres grown in Alberta are now undergoing testing in the NFCTL’s lab. “The results of this testing, a detailed analysis of the quality of the fibre they are producing, will give producers a very effective tool to help manage their breeding programs and animal management programs,” says Elvestad. “If we are going to produce premium fibre for the domestic or foreign market, we need consistent quality.”

Another NFCTL research project involving 36 alpacas is also underway to study the effects of nutrition, age, location and climate on alpaca fibre production. The threeyear study compares 18 alpacas at Olds College with a similar herd at San Angelo, Texas, with all 36 alpacas coming from the same base herd. The research is a partnership between A & M University in Texas, Custom Woolen Mills and the NFCTL. The end result, says Elvestad, will be a suggested feeding program for alpaca ranchers that will help them produce the best quality fibres and ensure high-quality end products. Keep your eyes on those runways. Alberta’s growing natural fibre industry willbe showcasing styles like you’ve never seen before.

Wash them yourself

Want to cut your dry-cleaning bill? The folks at Custom Woolen Mills suggest...

Washing 101

When washing wool products, it is important
not to agitate the wool as this causes the fibres
to mat together and shrink. Soaking and spinning
are fine however.

You can wash:

• Comforters, sizes double or smaller
• Sleeping bags
• Mattress pads (all sizes)
• Hand-knit and machine-knit items like sweaters, socks, mitts and hats. Some printed fabrics may fade if they are washed or dry-cleaned. Machineknit socks can be washed in your machine on the delicate cycle and hung to dry or they can be washed using the following instructions.
  

Bring on the soap and water

Here are 14 simple steps for washing wool products.
Remember – don’t agitate the wool.

1. Fill your machine with warm water andlaundry soap
2. Agitate the water to dissolve the soap
3. Stop the machine and add your wool products
4. Plunge gently up and down by hand to clean
5. Let soak for 15 minutes
6. Set machine to spin and turn it on, allowing the machine to spin out soapy water
7. Fill the machine again with warm water to rinse
8. Stop the machine (do not allow it to agitate the wool!)
9. Add fabric softener
10. Plunge gently up and down by hand to rinse
11. Let soak for 15 minutes
12. Set machine to spin and turn it on allowing it to spin out the rinse water
13. Hang these items to dry: comforters, sleeping bags, mattress pads, socks, mitts and hats
14. Lay sweaters flat to dry

CUSTOM WOOLEN MILLS DOES NOT GUARANTEE RESULTS OF HOME WASHING.

To learn more about the care of wollens, visit www.customwollenmills.com.

Alberta alpaca adds exotic warmth to a handwoven poncho from Amos & Andes.