Luxury Fleece
When all is said and done, it is the alpaca's fiber that makes this animal such a popular and sound investment. Lighter, softer, warmer and more durable than sheep's wool, this luxuriously soft hollow fiber is highly sought-after around the world for fine knitted and woven clothing and blankets. Baby blankets made from alpaca often become family heirlooms, passed on from one generation to the next. The low micron count of each fiber ranges from 20 to 36.
In the US, alpacas are not slaughtered for their fleece. We shear them annually in the spring to help them be cooler during the summer months. The fiber is then processed into yarn, as well as knitted and woven garments. One of the wonderful things about raising alpacas as livestock is that they have a long and healthy life in our care.
Combined with the lack of scratchy guard hairs, the fineness of the fiber creates finished products that can easily be worn next to the skin by most people without the itchy feeling of wool. The average adult alpaca produces 5-10 pounds of fiber with each shearing. It comes in 22 natural colors, ranging from white to black, with every imaginable rich shade of brown and silver in between. The lustrous texture of alpaca fiber makes it popular with hand spinners, knitters and weavers. The commercial industry is expanding every year as the American alpaca population grows. Soon there will be enough fiber produced in the United States to support larger commercial mills, and the alpaca fiber industry will begin to soar.