Why is alpaca fiber so fantastic?

It is the natural qualities of the fiber that create the demand.

Naturally soft

Many fiber animals, including cashmere goats, llamas, vicunas and guanacos, are "double coated" animals. That is, in addition to their highly prized soft undercoat of fiber, these animals also have longer, coarser guard hair. In the wild, these guard hairs provide significant additional protection against abrasions, rain and cold.

But in luxurious textiles, the prickly guard hairs, if not removed either by hand or by machine, produce a much coarser, scratchy product. In contrast to other animals, the modern alpaca is a predominately "single-coated" animal, with only somewhere between 3 to 15 percent of guard hair in the prime fleece of the better animals.

• Baby Alpaca fiber can easily be worn against the skin without itching or scratching.

• Alpaca is lighter and warmer by weight than wool or cashmere.

Naturally processed and hypoallergenic

It is a natural fiber with 22 shades and very little lanolin so it can be processed without chemical cleaners or dyes. Because it contains minimal lanolin it does not attract allergens like pollen and dust. Those who cannot wear wool can comfortably wear alpaca so it is also referred to as hypoallergenic.

Durable and easy to clean

Other than mohair, alpacas produce the strongest animal fiber in the world and is recognized for its durability. Exhibiting natural restorative properties, alpaca, with respectful and minimal care can last a lifetime just like the extraordinarily preserved fine woven garments that were recently discovered in Peruvian ruins dating back 2500 years.

Naturally comfortable

Alpaca fiber’s thermal properties allow it to breathe and easily regulate the perfect temperature around your body. Alpaca fiber has adapted to the needs of the animal. Each individual fiber has microscopic air filled cells which means that the alpaca has developed more natural thermal and wicking capacity in its fiber than almost any other animal.

Alpaca is water repellant because of the minimal natural lanolin content it subtly retains and can resist the solar radiation effectively. These characteristics guarantee the animals a permanent and appropriate coat to survive the extreme changes of temperature as found in the Altiplano region of Peru.

Naturally for the outdoors

Highly regarded by outdoor enthusiasts, garments made from alpaca offer wonderfully cozy, featherweight warmth that sheep’s wool, goose down or even the new synthetic fabrics like Gore-Tex and Polar Fleece cannot possibly begin to compete with. Alpaca is incredibly versatile and can be very easily blended with wool, mohair, silk, cotton to achieve a range of qualities in the finished product.

Alpaca: naturally excellent!

Alpaca is a natural luxury fiber so flexible that we have not yet begun to discover all of its possible uses. The craft market is wide open. Spinners, weavers and knitters love to work with this fiber to create heirloom pieces that stay in the family for generations. The commercial market for this fiber is still dominated by Peru.

Here in the United States we are just beginning to develop a long range plan for our commercial fiber industry. Before we can see those dreams become reality we must breed more animals with the high quality fiber that will place us in a different market niche than the Peruvians. the demand for this fiber is such that the only issue we will have is providing enough of it.