Ever spilled something on a nice shirt? Did it leave stains? People claim that alpaca woolen products are stain-resistant. I couldn’t find any evidence, so I decided to test it for myself and find out whether or not alpaca woolen products are stain-resistant! Here’s what I discovered:
how to buy Aurogra without a prescription Alpaca woolen garments are highly stain-resistant. While they are NOT 100% stain proof, food and liquids are likely to be repelled before they can cause permanent stains. Should a stain occur, it is usually easy to remove.
Let’s look at my test results to see how well alpaca wool resists a variety of common, potential stain threats.
Staining Alpaca Wool: Test Results
I put a variety of common foods and liquids on a patch of 100% alpaca wool which resulted in the following:
| http://iowabookgal.com/EspartoStudio,recycledbookart,bookpageprint,bookjewelry,reginasmith,reginasuhrbier/laurel-mors/ Culprit | What happened after spilling? | How well was the stain removed? | The Final verdict: How resistant is alpaca wool? | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Wine | – Most of the wine stayed on the surface of the fabric or went straight through the fabric. – Very little wine was absorbed into the fabric. | – 80% of the wine was absorbed using paper towel. – The rest came off rinsing it under cold water. | 100% alpaca wool is very resistant to red wine. The stain was removed with little effort. |  |
| Coffee | – Most of the coffee got quickly absorbed into the fabric. – Very little seeped through or remained on the surface. | – 50% of the coffee was absorbed using paper towel. – Another 40% was removed with cold running water. – The last 10% came off by soaking it in vinegar. | 100% alpaca wool is medium resistant to coffee. The stain was removed but required several steps. |  |
| Ketchup | – The ketchup remained on the surface of the patch of alpaca wool. | – 50% of the ketchup was removed by literally shaking the fabric. – The other 50% was rinsed off with cold water. | 100% alpaca wool is very resistant to ketchup. The stain was removed with little effort. |  |
| Olive oil | – The olive oil was absorbed quickly into the fiber. – None of the oil seeped through the fabric. | – 75% of the olive oil was removed by padding and squeezing the fabric with paper towels. – The rest was rinsed off with cold running water. – A tiny final stain of olive oil was removed by soaking it in cold water with dishwasher soap. | 100% alpaca wool is medium resistant to olive oil. The oil was removed with little effort, but to fully remove the stain several steps were required. |  |
| Blueberry | – The (smashed) blueberries left a big stain with chunks of blueberry. | – The chunks and a bit of the stain were rinsed off with cold, running water. – 100% of the stain was removed by soaking it in cold water with vinegar. | 100% alpaca wool is medium resistant to blueberries. The stain was removed but required several steps. |  |
Conclusion
Alpaca wool is stain-resistant to a high degree. In every case, I was able to 100% remove the stains. While some stains were removed with little to no effort, others required several steps in order to be eliminated completely. However, these steps were simple and straight-forward.
My Test Set Up
In this experiment, a 100% alpaca woolen sample was exposed to a staining food or liquid (red wine, coffee, ketchup, olive oil and blueberries) for a short period of time to see if, and to what degree, it would leave a stain.
Realistically, when you spill something, you try to rinse it off as quickly as possible. To keep the results of this experiment as close to ‘real-life’ spilling as possible, I rinsed or whiped off the stains using a normal reaction time.
Then, I tried to remove the stain by taking different steps, in order of the degree of stain-severity:
- “Wicking off” or whiping off the food or liquid
- Padding and squeezing the stain with a paper towel
- Rinsing it off under cold, running water
- Soaking the patch in cold water with vinegar for 15 minutes.
What Happened When Red Wine Was Spilled on Alpaca Wool?
Most of the red wine slipped right through the sample patch onto the paper towel. After squeezing out the leftover wine, a small stain was visible.
I used paper towels to squeeze out as much of the wine as possible. If you look closely at the fabric, you can see a little trace of where the wine “got spilled”.
The stain was 100% removed after rinsing the alpaca woolen garment under cold running water.
What Happened When Coffee Was Spilled on Alpaca Wool?
The coffee got absorbed into the fabric immediately. I could probably squeeze out about 50% of the spilled liquid with paper towels.
After trying to pad and squeeze out as much coffee as possible, I had to rinse it under cold, running water. This removed another 40% of the stain.
However, there was still a visible stain from the coffee, so I decided to let it soak in cold water with vinegar. This eliminated the stain completely.
What Happened When Ketchup Was Spilled on Alpaca Wool?
The ketchup just stayed on the surface of the piece of alpaca wool. Nothing happened until I shook it off. 50% of the ketchup came off that way.
The other 50% of the ketchup was rinsed off with cold running water.
It came off very easily without leaving any further stains.
What Happened When Olive Oil Was Spilled on Alpaca Wool?
The olive oil got absorbed pretty quickly into the alpaca wool. Almost nothing seeped through and I had to squeeze for quite some time to remove some of the oil.
After the squeezing and padding, I rinsed the patch under cold running water, which removed 99% of the oil from the patch.
A tiny stain was still visible after rinsing it, so I decided to let it soak in water with some dishwasher soap for 15 minutes to make sure it would be 100% oil-free again.
It worked perfectly! 🙂
What Happened When Blueberries Were Spilled on Alpaca Wool?
To make sure the blueberries left a solid stain, I squashed them. Not only did they leave a big red mark, but some of the chunky bits of the berries also got stuck between the knitting pattern.
All the chunks and about 50% of the stain came off by rinsing it under cold running water. The rest was completely washed off by soaking it in cold water with vinegar for 15 minutes.
Red Wine VS. Alpaca Wool
I am not entirely sure why, but many claims specifically say that you could spill a glass of red wine on an alpaca woolen garment without leaving a trace.
So, whether this is because red wine is known to stain particularly well, or people who wear alpaca wool are especially drawn to drinking red wine (or red wine drinkers are especially drawn to alpaca wool?)…
Whatever the reason… I tested it out… On camera!
Check out the full video-report here on YouTube and see for yourself what happened!
Why Is Alpaca Wool Stain Resistant?
Alpaca wool has a unique fiber structure: to begin with, it is actually hair, not wool. There are some essential differences between hair and wool, the main difference being that alpaca wool has no lanolin (or at least very little, according to Cameron Holt).
Compared to regular sheep wool, there is another important difference in favor of alpaca wool: the scales on an alpaca fiber are much smaller and shorter than the scales on a coarser fiber. So, the fineness of the fiber actually makes the wool stain-resistant.
If you were to put alpaca wool under a loupe, you would see tiny little scales covering the fiber. These scales are normal for wool and hair and give the fiber protection, insulating properties and determine its softness. Given that alpaca wool generally has a very small diameter means that its scales are smaller, too.
Smaller scales are better able to seclude the fiber core (which is where the stain would get “stuck”) and thus provides more protection. While this is not a 100% foolproof protection, it is definitely much, much better compared to many other fibers!
As you can see in the video, I could easily wipe off the wine to begin with. Because of the smooth texture, the wine sipped through the fabric onto the kitchen towel.
What To Do When You Spill Something on an Alpaca Woolen Garment?
Let’s say you’ve actually accidentally dropped some wine or food on an alpaca woolen garment, here’s what you should do:
- If it’s liquid, try to wick it off as fast as possible. Acting quickly is of major importance here! “Slap” as much liquid off as quickly as you can (make sure you don’t aim it at other people or other garments or even straight onto the carpet!!).
- Then, when most of the liquid is wicked away, grab a kitchen towel or a type of fabric that you can use to absorb the remaining liquid (make sure it’s dry for the best absorption!).
- Gently squeeze the towel or tissue onto the fabric or dab until the remainder of the liquid is gone.
- If it’s a bit more of a rougher stain, try rinsing it off with cold running water.
- If the stain doesn’t come off after rinsing the fabric, you can try soaking the garment in cold water with vinegar.
- For the msot persistant stains, you can try washing the garment completely.
- Whatever you do, don’t RUB, TWIST, WRING or BRUSH the fabric, as this will damage the fiber and causes more irreversible harm!
In another article I write more about how to remove stains from an alpaca woolen garment, click the link to read it! How Do You Remove Stains From an Alpaca Woolen Garment?
For step-by-step instructions on how to wash alpaca woolen products, check out the following guide I wrote:
Prevention Is Better Than Cure!
Don’t forget: while alpaca woolen garments are pretty stain-resistant, it doesn’t mean that you should go ahead and shower in tomato sauce. The results from my experiment don’t guarantee that your alpaca woolen garment will resist stains similarly.
The stitch, the quality of the yarn, the thickness, the type of stain, the time the fabric is exposed to the stain, the temperature of the liquid and many other factors ALL play a huge role in the degree of stain-resistance.
The fact that my woolen sample came out pretty unharmed, doesn’t guarantee that yours will, too.
