Fiber
There are seven basic grades of alpaca fiber. Each grade of alpaca has a specific use. Even the coarsest grade of fiber can become beautiful outerware. The finest is baby alpaca It ranges from 22-24.5 microns. ( A fine human baby hair is 60 micron.)
American retailers stock very few alpaca garments. This is due to the limited availability of alpaca world-wide. Japan and Italy are major consumers of the fiber. Peru is the primary country of origin for alpaca fiber. Their national herd has numbered about 2.5 million for many years. Bolivia and Chile have much smaller populations of alpacas about 500,000. The rest of the world has few alpacas
The United States, Canada and Australia have recently begun to create national herds, but their numbers are miniscule. It will be years before any of these countries will be able to supply significant quantities of alpaca fleece. Worldwide recognition of alpaca fiber is beginning, and sometime in the future a large, stable supply of fleece will enable the creation of products for the entire world.
Attributes
Alpaca fleece is valuable because it combines so many positive commercial attributes into one fiber. There are no negative characteristics to be found in the alpaca's fleece. Mother Nature designed the ideal fiber for use by mankind and then placed it on the gentle alpaca.
- Alpaca is found naturally in 22 distinct colors. The fiber can also be blended to produce an infinite array of natural colors.
- The fiber from the alpaca is unusually strong and resilient. The strength of the fiber does not diminish as it becomes finer, thus making it ideal for industrial processing.
- Raised at high altitudes in freezing cold, the alpaca has developed more thermal capacity in it's fiber than almost any animal. The fiber contains microscopic air pockets which create lightweight garments with high insulation values.
- Alpaca is soft, supple and smooth to touch. The cellular structure of the fiber produces a soft handle unmatched by most other specialty fibers.
- Alpacas produce a fine fiber with an abscense of guard hair in their prime fleece.
- Alpaca has a natural, rich luster which gives garments made of 100% alpaca high visual appeal.
- Alpaca is easily dyed any color and always retains it's luster.
- Alpaca is compatible with either the woolen or worsted manufacturing systems. Fabric made from alpaca can range from bulky tweed to fine gabardine.
- People who own alpaca sweaters will find they practically last forever. Alpaca does not easily tear, pill, stain or create static. It is easily cleaned.
- Alpaca fleece produces a high yield of clean fiber after processing: 87 to 95% for alpaca vs 43 to 76% for sheep's wool.
- Alpaca is easier and less expensive to process than sheep's wool due to it's lack of grease or lanolin, and alpaca does not have to be de-haired like cashmere or camel.
- Alpaca can be scoured or cleaned without using costly chemicals.
Fineness
Fineness is what specialty fibers are all about. Alpacas produce a fine fiber with soft handle and less "prickle factor" than most other animals. "Prickle" creates the itchy sensation one feels in a coarse garment, and is most often the result of coarse fiber being intermixed with fine fiber.
The key to soft garments with an absence of prickle is fine fiber uncontaminated by coarse fiber. The alpaca is ideal for producing such fiber, since it is essentially a one-coated animal. The cashmere goat, however has two coats; one a coarse outer coat and the other a fine coat. Alpacas have been genetically selected over time for an absence of the course guard hair, or outer coat, found in most animals' fleece.
To avoid prickle, coarse hair of 30 microns or more must be maintained at 5% of less, by weight, in any garment or fabric. Alpaca, properly sorted and graded, easily meets this test. The products that result can be as soft as cashmere but less expensive to produce.
Fashion
A prominent garment publication recently illustrated the desirability of products made from alpaca by offering the following descriptions of alpaca products:
"Soft, Luxurious"
"Light Weight Warmth"
"Silky Smooth"
"Warmer, Lighter and more durable than Cashmere"
"Sensuous" "Precious Alpaca"
"Fleecy, Hollow Fiber offers Featherweight warmth"
Hence the reason why "Alpacas are the World's Finest Livestock Investment!"
