By Barbara Schuetz

Alpaca is soft as cashmere but stronger and less costly, more durable than merino, warmer than wool, fine, lightweight and lustrous. It comes in more than 20 natural colours, from shades of white, with some reddish browns and greys to black. Dying is not necessary!

 

It does not have the itchiness of wool and is hypoallergenic and lanolin free (lanolin can hold dust and microscopic allergens that create a prickly feeling or allergies). Each individual strand of fiber is hollow with small air pockets which give alpaca garments incredible thermal capacity. It keeps warm and allows for breathing. It is also water and wrinkle resistant.

 

Alpaca yarn can be classified according to its fineness. Royal Alpaca is the finest grade and quite costly because of its rarity. Only 1% of all alpaca fiber production in the world can be classified as royal. Our Royal Alpaca comes directly from Patagonia and the Andes.

The next finer fiber, Baby Alpaca, describes merely a fiber classification and does not refer to the age of the animal.

There are also Superfine alpaca and Suri alpaca.