Alpaca fleece
Alpaca fleece is the natural fibre harvested from an alpaca.
It is light or heavy, depending on how the artisan spun it. It is a soft, durable, luxurious and silky natural fibre. While similar to sheep’s wool, it is warmer, not prickly, and has no lanolin, which makes it hypoallergenic. Alpaca is naturally water-repellent and difficult to ignite. Huacaya, an alpaca that grows soft, spongy fibre, has natural crimp, thus making a naturally elastic yarn well-suited for knitting. Suri has no crimp and thus is a better fit for woven goods.
The designer Armani has used Suri alpaca to
fashion men's and women's suits. Alpaca fleece is made into various products,
from very simple and inexpensive garments made by the indigenous communities to
sophisticated, industrially made and expensive products such as suits. In the
United States, groups of smaller alpaca breeders have banded together to create
"fibre co-ops," to make the
manufacture of alpaca fibre products less
expensive.
The preparing, carding, spinning, weaving and
finishing process of alpaca is very similar to the process used for wool.
