To wash an alpaca wool blanket without shrinking it, hand wash it in cool water with a wool-safe detergent and no agitation. Soak it, press it, never wring or rub. Rinse at the same temperature as the wash, roll it in a towel to draw the water out, then dry it flat in the shade. Heat and movement shrink alpaca. Water on its own does not.
One thing before the method. What follows is general practice for protein fibres such as alpaca and wool. It is not an instruction about a particular piece, so check the care label on your blanket and let it override anything here.
How to wash an alpaca wool blanket by hand
One still soak, then a slow flat dry. Most of it is waiting.
Before it goes near water
- Read the care label first. Fibre content decides how a cloth behaves in water, and a label that says dry clean only means it.
- Shake it out and look it over. Crumbs, sand and pet hair come away more easily while the cloth is dry. Ease snags and pulled loops back before they go into water, because wet fibre stretches and sets.
The wash
- Fill a clean basin, bath or laundry tub with cool water. Cool to barely lukewarm. The exact temperature matters less than consistency: the rinse water must match the wash water. A blanket that goes from warm water into a cold rinse will tighten.
- Add a small amount of wool wash or pH-neutral detergent. Swirl it through before the blanket goes in, so nothing concentrated lands on the fibre. Avoid biological or enzyme-based detergents, bleach, optical brighteners and ordinary laundry powder. Enzymes are designed to break down protein, and alpaca is protein.
- Submerge it and leave it alone. Press it under with flat hands until it is wet through, then leave it to soak. Still water and detergent do the cleaning. Do not swish, churn or scrub.
- Press, do not rub. If a section needs attention, squeeze water through it with an open palm. Rubbing two wet wool surfaces together is how felt is made.
Rinsing and lifting it out
- Drain and rinse at the same temperature. Refill, press the blanket gently, drain, and repeat until the water runs clear.
- Press the water out, never twist. Gather it into a loose heap and press down. Lift with both hands under the whole weight: wet cloth is heavy, and lifting by one corner stretches that corner for good.
- Roll it in a dry towel. Lay the blanket flat on a large bath towel, roll the two together, and press along the roll with your forearms. Repeat with a dry towel if it is still dripping.
- Dry it flat, in the shade. Drying is where most of the damage happens, so it has its own section below.
Does alpaca wool shrink, or is it felting?
What people call shrinking is nearly always felting, and the distinction matters because one can be eased back and the other cannot.
Wool fibres, alpaca among them, carry microscopic overlapping scales that sit like roof tiles and travel in one direction. Wet the fibre, warm it, move it around, and those scales lift and ratchet against their neighbours. The fibres migrate closer together, the weave tightens, and the blanket comes out smaller, denser and stiffer. That is felting, and it does not reverse.
Three conditions have to be present at once: moisture, agitation, and heat or a swing in temperature. Take away any one of them and you are largely safe, which is why a still soak in cool water is so dependable. A warm machine cycle supplies all three at the same moment.
A blanket can also relax and grow rather than shrink. That happens when wet cloth is hung up to carry its own weight, and re-wetting and drying flat to shape is the usual correction.
What our alpaca wool blankets are woven from
Composition decides method, so it is worth knowing. Our alpaca wool blankets are woven in the highlands of Peru, in small batches, from ultra-soft alpaca and recycled wool, and finished with low-impact dyes. They are light for the warmth they give, breathable across seasons, and they grow softer with use.
One thing follows from that. Alpaca and recycled wool are both protein fibres, and both are animal hair, the kind of fibre that carries the scales felting depends on, so everything here applies to the whole cloth rather than part of it. Colourways include Silver Dune, Coastal Sage, Sky Slate, Warm Dune, Golden Sand and Blush Charcoal.
Can you machine wash an alpaca wool blanket?
Only under narrow conditions, and only if the care label on your piece allows it: wool or hand-wash cycle, cold water, the lowest spin the machine offers, a mesh laundry bag, nothing else in the drum. Even then the drum's movement is agitation you cannot control. Hand washing is slower to set up, but you decide when the cloth moves.
| Method | Felting risk | When it makes sense | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airing outdoors, no water | None | Routine freshening, most of the year | Shade only, and bring it in before the evening damp |
| Spot clean with cool water | Very low | A single spill on an otherwise clean blanket | Leaves a faint ring if you do not feather the edges |
| Hand wash, cool, still soak | Low | The full clean, when the blanket needs one | Needs a large basin and flat drying space |
| Machine wool cycle, cold, low spin | Moderate | Only if the care label explicitly allows it | Drum agitation is out of your hands; mesh bag, washed alone |
| Normal machine cycle, warm | High, and irreversible | Never | Supplies moisture, agitation and heat in one go |
| Tumble dryer, any setting | High, and irreversible | Never | Heat plus sustained tumbling, with nothing to interrupt it |
| Professional dry cleaning | Low | Set-in stains, or a blanket you would rather not risk | Ask for a wool-safe process and no high-heat pressing |
How to dry an alpaca wool blanket
Drying is where good washing gets undone. The rules are short.
- Flat, always. Lay the damp blanket on a dry towel on a flat surface, or better, on a mesh rack that lets air move underneath. A clothes horse works if you spread the cloth across several bars rather than hanging it from one edge.
- Reshape while it is still wet. Pat it out to its original width and length, square the corners, straighten the hem. Fibre sets in whatever shape it dries in.
- Out of direct sun. A shaded, breezy spot is kinder to dye and to protein fibre than a hot still one.
- No radiators, heaters or hot cars. Direct heat dries damp wool unevenly and leaves a hard, papery handle.
- Turn it once. Halfway through, flip the blanket and swap the towel underneath for a dry one.
- Wait until it is dry all the way through before folding or storing it. Check the hem and folded edges, where damp hides longest.
Can you tumble dry alpaca?
No. Not on low, not on delicate, not on the no-heat air setting. Heat is only half the problem; the tumbling itself is sustained agitation, and a blanket has enough surface area to felt against itself. Once one comes out smaller and firmer than it went in, no process returns it.
How often to wash it, and what to do in between
Every trip through water is another chance to felt, so wash the blanket when it needs washing rather than on a schedule. In between, three habits do most of the work.
- Air it. A few hours outdoors in the shade on a dry, mild day. A shake before it goes out, another when it comes in.
- Spot clean promptly. Blot a fresh spill with a dry cloth, pressing rather than wiping. Then dab with cool water and a trace of wool wash, working from the outside of the mark inwards so the ring does not spread. Not hot water: warmth sets protein stains such as milk, egg and blood into a protein fibre, while cool water lifts them.
- Keep it out of the laundry pile. And out of the basket that feeds it.
Pilling, shedding and pulled threads
If loose fibre comes away in the first few weeks, shake the blanket out outdoors rather than picking at it.
Pilling comes from friction, so it turns up where the cloth rubs against denim, a jacket zip or the arm of a sofa. Pills are loose ends tangling rather than a fault in the yarn. Take them off with a wool comb, a sweater stone or a fabric shaver held flat, working in one direction with the weave. Never pull a pill off by hand; a length of yarn comes with it.
For a pulled loop, do not cut it. Lay the blanket flat and use a blunt needle or a fingernail to ease the yarn back along the row it came from, spreading the slack over several centimetres rather than working at one point.
Storing an alpaca wool blanket between seasons
Store it clean, and store it dry. Fold it loosely, with tissue between the folds, and use a cotton bag, a pillowcase or a lidded box with a breathable lining — as much to keep moths off a protein fibre as to keep the dust out. Not a plastic tub or a vacuum bag: sealed plastic traps moisture against the cloth and sets the folds permanently. Refold along different lines each season.
If it has already shrunk
If the blanket has genuinely felted, the fibres have interlocked and nothing separates them again. No soak, no stretch, no dry cleaner. It is still warm and still useful: a picnic rug, a car blanket, a bed for a dog.
If it has only pulled out of square, or stretched along one edge, that is a different problem with a real fix. Re-wet it in cool water, press the water out in a towel, lay it flat, and ease it back towards its original dimensions in small stages, working across the whole piece rather than pulling at the edges. Weight the corners and let it dry flat. That is blocking. It resets shape; it does not undo felting.
Choosing a blanket that suits how you live
Care is easier to keep up when it suits the household. If you want a light, warm layer for a reading chair, the end of a bed or a cold evening on the sofa, and washing it by hand when it needs it is no trouble, alpaca suits you.
If the blanket is headed for a family sofa, a dog and a regular turn through the machine, the routine above is what you would be taking on. Cotton behaves differently in water. It is a cellulose fibre with no scales to lock together, so heat and agitation cannot felt it the way they felt wool. Our organic cotton blankets are woven from 100% organic cotton with the jacquard design woven in rather than printed, many of them oversized at 200 × 160 cm, and their product pages describe them as machine washable for easy care, softening beautifully with every wash. The wider range of blankets and throws covers both ends of that.
Common questions
Can you machine wash an alpaca wool blanket?
Only if the care label on your piece allows it, and only on a wool or hand-wash cycle with cold water, the lowest spin setting, and a mesh laundry bag with nothing else in the drum. Even then the drum's movement is agitation you cannot control. A still soak in cool water by hand is safer. Check the care label on your blanket and let it decide.
Does alpaca wool shrink in the wash?
What looks like shrinking is usually felting. Moisture, agitation and heat together make the microscopic scales on each wool fibre lock into their neighbours, so the weave tightens and the blanket comes out smaller, denser and stiffer. That change is permanent. Take away any one of the three, keeping the water cool and the blanket still, and the risk drops away.
Can you tumble dry an alpaca wool blanket?
No, not on any setting, including no-heat air. Heat is only half the problem; the tumbling itself is sustained agitation, and a large blanket has enough surface area to felt against itself in the drum. Dry it flat on a towel or a mesh rack instead, out of direct sun, and leave it until it is dry all the way through, including the hem.
What detergent should you use on alpaca wool?
A dedicated wool wash or a pH-neutral detergent, swirled through the water before the blanket goes in so nothing concentrated lands on the fibre. Avoid biological or enzyme-based detergents, bleach, optical brighteners and ordinary laundry powder. Enzymes are designed to break down protein, and alpaca is a protein fibre. This is general practice for protein fibres rather than an instruction for a particular piece, so check the care label on your blanket.
How do you fix an alpaca wool blanket that has shrunk?
If it has truly felted, the fibres have interlocked and nothing reverses it. If it has only pulled out of square or stretched along one edge, re-wet it in cool water, press the water out in a towel, then ease it back towards its original dimensions in small stages while it is damp, working across the whole piece rather than pulling at the edges. Weight the corners and dry it flat. That is blocking: it resets shape, not felting.
What are Naming This Later alpaca wool blankets made from?
They are woven in the highlands of Peru, in small batches, from ultra-soft alpaca and recycled wool, and finished with low-impact dyes. Both fibres in the cloth are protein, so the whole blanket wants the same handling in water. They are light for the warmth they give, breathable across seasons, and grow softer with use.