ALPACA FIBER
Alpaca fiber is soft, luxurious and has a wide range of natural colors and good strength. It is five times warmer and more durable than sheep wool fiber. It is also lightweight and contains no oils or lanolin. Alpacas are raised specially for their soft and luxurious fleece (sometimes called fiber). Each shearing produces roughly five to ten pounds of fleece per animal, per year. Having a higher quality compared to cashmere, the fleece can be turned into a wide array of products from yarn and apparel to tapestries and blankets. The fleece itself is recognized globally for its fineness, softness, light-weight, durability, excellent thermal qualities, and luster.
Breeding, nutrition and management can influence all these characteristics. Alpaca fleece grows approximately five to 10 inches each year and can weigh anywhere from one to eight pounds from a mature animal.
The following are some of the textile properties of Alpaca:
-
Elasticity and strength: alpaca fibers have relatively high elasticity and strength, comparable with those of sheep’s wool and other animal fibers.
-
Moisture and odour resistant as protein molecules neutralize perspiration
-
Thermal properties: Alpacas experience very large temperature differences during the same day (from -20 to 25 degrees), which explains the development of a fleece made of particularly heat-regulating fibres. Fibers contain microscopic air pockets giving it lightness and high thermal capacity. In winter, body heat is stored and therefore serves as excellent thermal insulation. In summer, the fibres balance out the heat and help to repel it.
-
Hypoallergenic: Alpaca fiber doesn’t contain oils or lanolin.
-
Visual texture: Alpaca has an excellent drape, appearance, natural luster and handle.
There are two types of alpacas – the alpaca suri, which has a very long, mop-like coat; and the alpaca huacaya – whose coat is shorter and curly.
Alpaca fleece has a great variety of natural colors, making it very much in vogue: 16 official colors (white; beige; and shades of fawn, brown, black, and grey) with many other subtle shades and hues. Alpaca fleece can also be combined with other fine fibers such as merino wool, cashmere, mohair, silk, and angora to attain incredibly interesting blends.
The most valuable alpaca fiber is “baby alpaca”, which is softer and finer than adult fiber. In fact, baby alpaca is not the fiber from a baby animal; rather, it is the first shear on a young animal. Today, modern breeding techniques are producing grades of alpaca fiber that are even finer than baby alpaca, such as “Royal Alpaca”.