About AlpacaRoyal Alpaca

Peruvian Alpaca Fiber - once reserved for Inca royalty - are often called the "Gold of the Andes" because their extraordinary fiber is internationally recognized as the one of the most luxurious fibers in the world. The resilient fiber is not only strong, but is incredibly soft, warm, lightweight, and durable. It is excellent for travel as it is comfortable, water resistant and retains its shape without stretching.

Alpaca Fiber is second only to silk for strength. The Alpaca Fiber is most like human hair in its cellular composition - it has a core made up of air-filled cells that contributes significantly to its insulating properties and its strength. The number of individual fibers is considerably reduced compared to sheep's wool which helps to explain why most people who are allergic to sheep's wool are not allergic to Alpaca.

The color of the fiber is variable, up to 22 colors having been defined, but is more uniform than that of the llama. Alpaca colors range from white to black through grays, fawns and browns. This characteristic is not to be found among other natural fibers, the 'noble' fibers, used in textile production.

The fiber is classified manually according to its fineness and sorted into qualities such as Royal Alpaca (less than 19 microns), Baby Alpaca (22,5 microns), Super Fine Alpaca (25,5 microns) and Huarizo (29 microns).

The term "Baby Alpaca" refers to the grading of the fineness of the fiber. Baby Alpaca fleece is soft and silky. It is lighter in weight and up to 7x warmer than Sheep's wool but very breathable. Lighter shades of the fleece also take dyes beautifully, making it invaluable to our designers when they want to bring a vibrant sweater design to life.

The World's Finest Fibers

The British Wool Marketing Board uses several tables, Including the Bradford Count, to determine wool quality. These tables include fineness, staple length, presence of outer hair, luster, vulnerability to chemical damage, etc. For our purposes we are using only the fineness chart which gives the diameter of the fiber in microns (1 micron = 1/1000 millimeter).