Keeping alpacas can be a very satisfying hobby, and the alpaca's growth of beautifully soft wool is way more than a minor bonus. Some people operate alpaca farms as fibre and livestock businesses, but many now care for alpacas in modest numbers as a hobby. A very important aspect of that pastime is use of the fleeces after the annual shearing to create alpaca clothing.
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Alpacas were kept for many centuries by the Inca people in Peru and neighbouring countries, high in the Andes mountains of South America. Whilst llamas (a quite similar "camelid" animal) were kept as beasts of burden alpacas have been valued principally for the fleece. This could be woven to create lovely soft clothes which though light in weight was very warm. In fact, alpaca clothing were so greatly valued that they were reserved for royalty and top officials.
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In the nineteen hundreds the advantages of alpaca were re-discovered, substantially due to the initiative of Titus Salt, a British textile manufacturer who in his Bradford mill discovered a means of weaving the wool to produce a very good quality cloth. Nowadays alpaca is back in fashion.
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Cloth woven from alpaca yarn has quite a few advantages compared with that made from sheep wool. Its insulating properties are down to air-filled cavities in the fibres, which also reduce its weight. Also, in an alpaca fleece there isn't any lanolin. Individuals who are allergic to lanolin are not able to usually wear woollen garments, but alpaca changes that and permits them to put on wool without having the discomfort. An additional comfort-enhancer is the absence of hard scaly material on the surface of the fibres as is common in sheep wools.
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As with the wool from sheep, the process from freshly-sheared fleece to a garment ready to put on is a very long one. Carding, spinning and weaving (or knitting) constitute the major stages. Some enthusiasts prefer to look after the whole procedure themselves from beginning to end. Others send their fleeces to specialists who then return the wool ready for use.
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The selection of natural colours is surprisingly great, ranging from white to black with a number of shades of grey, and from pale off-whites to rich browns. You can find also differences in texture, the wool of huacaya and suri alpacas being quite different from one another, the first being short and crimpy and the latter lengthy and loose.
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Knitting with alpaca wool is more and more popular. Alpaca apparel ranges from jackets and capes to alpaca socks and scarves. And not only clothing is popular but also soft toys, in particular teddy bears many of which are produced as collectibles rather than as children's bears. Alpaca knitwear is often given as a gift. A range of other crafts including felting also use alpaca wool.
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As the alpaca wool industries expand, growing consideration will have to be devoted to standards and attaining consistent high quality. Breeding programmes, diet, animal health, shearing and spinning will all be important elements in this developmental work. The goal of these kinds of quality initiatives must be to make certain that the acceptance of alpaca as the ultimate in luxury wools is maintained and increased.
Author Resource:
David Murray has been an enthusiast for all things alpaca over several years. He runs a small group of web-sites which includes Fine Alpaca
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