Information about alpaca wool
How do I distinguish and recognize alpaca wool?
What would Peru be without alpacas and alpaca wool? We think that the alpaca is the symbol of Peru, the mythical cultures, the symbol of gold jewelry and the soft alpaca sweater. Did you know that the animals' fleece contains different qualities of wool? The quality of the wool depends on the thickness of the wool fiber.
Where and how do alpacas live?
Alpacas are native to the Andes, living at over 3000 meters near the equator. The sun burns strongly during the day and the alpacas' wool must protect the animals from UV radiation and overheating. At night the temperature drops below freezing, and the wool must warm the body and prevent hypothermia. During the monsoon, thick clouds from the Amazon basin move over the mighty mountains and it rains heavily or snows. The fleece must not clump together and must keep bacteria away. Alpacas live in an extreme environment with large temperature differences, which has led to a special quality of wool with thermal properties.
Alpaca wool production in Peru
The supply of alpaca raw material and its quality can be divided into three groups. 5% of the total production of alpaca fiber is produced by large-scale farms whose breeders have large herds of over a thousand animals. Great importance is placed on the quality of breeding, training and research in order to produce high-quality wool.
Medium-sized farms with alpaca herds of less than a thousand animals provide 10% of the total production of alpaca fiber. These are predominantly small, private or collective farms.
However, most of them are small farms with just a few hundred alpacas. Due to a lack of knowledge and limited financial resources, the quality of the fibre suffers. The dependence on the middlemen, the alcanzadores, seems to be a major disadvantage. The middleman can set the price. Of course, this is not always fair.
In order to offer you, the customer, good and sustainable quality, we currently knit with wool from two medium-sized companies. We are also happy to try out new wool. Unfortunately, good wool is not easy to find.
Recognizing and distinguishing alpaca wool
We try to present important specialist knowledge in the simplest possible way and to give tips. A kind of help so that you as a user can recognize differences in wool. Our goal is for you to better understand the quality of wool and the price of high-quality products.
How can I easily recognize the quality of alpaca wool?
Gently stroke the knitwear over the sensitive areas of your cheek or arms. You will feel the difference and the quality.
What are the differences in alpaca wool?
For alpaca fibers, the finest fibers are Royal (extremely fine), Baby (very fine) and Superfine
The diameter and length of the fibers vary. The thinner and longer the fibers, the softer and cozier. The diameter of the fiber is measured in microns.
What is Micron?
The fineness of the alpaca fiber is measured in micrometers. A micrometer is one millionth of a meter. The finer the alpaca fiber, the higher the selling price. An average human hair is about 0.05 to 0.08 mm thick. Alpaca fiber has a thickness of 0.0019 mm to 0.0030 mm. The thinner the fiber, the softer and more pleasant the alpaca wool feels on the skin.
The thinner the alpaca fiber, the finer and more precious the wool
Indicated according to Peruvian fineness
Baby Royal
19.5-21.5 microns
Very soft, delicate and yet robust yarn made from pure alpaca wool. Only the best young white alpacas have this fineness.
baby alpaca
Wool from alpacas that produce particularly fine fleece. Not the wool of a baby alpaca
Baby Fleece 22.0 - 23.0 micron, Baby Blend 23.5 - 24.5 micron
Alpaka Superfine
Alpaca fleece 25.0 - 26.5 micron
Alpaca Medium
Alpaca Fine Blend 26.5 - 27.5 micron
What is the diameter and quality of the wool fiber?
Unfortunately, this is not so easy, as the diameter of a single fiber is not the same, especially if the animal is kept outdoors without year-round food. If the grass is lush and rich in nutrients, the fiber is stronger. If there is a lack of nutrients, the fiber becomes finer.
In addition, the fiber is not really round, but elliptical. This raises the question of how and where the diameter is determined. This can be done fully automatically using laser beams, but also manually using optical instruments.
What is the finest and most expensive wool fiber?
The finest and most expensive fibers come from the vicuña, which is barely bigger than a deer. Their fibers can reach a fineness of about 13-15 microns. The vicuñas are small wild camels that live in a social structure in the high plateaus of the South American Andes, in a treeless region between 3700 and 5000 meters. A lead stallion leads five to six mares and their offspring. An adult animal produces a maximum of 120 g, which is how much a kilo of vicuña wool can produce. This makes vicuña the most expensive wool.
baby jacket made of 100% baby alpaca
women's sweater made of 100% baby alpaca
baby sweater made of 80% alpaca
and 20% cotton
This way you can test whether synthetic fibers are included.
Alpaca is flame-retardant and smells sweet. Pull out a few fibers and light them with a lighter. Viscose smells like burnt paper and polyester burns in a bright flame. Alpaca smells sweet and it creates little balls that can be easily rubbed with your fingers.
proof of the wool used
Ask about the manufacturer and details of the wool.
What does NM 16 mean?
The unit "number metric" (Nm) was prescribed in Germany from 1942 to 1969. Nm indicates how many meters of a linear textile structure have a mass of one gram. Therefore, a thread with Nm 9 is three times thinner than a thread with Nm 3, ie the higher the Nm value, the finer the linear textile structure.
This means that a thread with the designation Nm 16 is thicker than Nm 28.
What does NM 2/28 mean?
The fineness of twisted yarns in the Nm system is indicated by the number of single yarns and the number of twisted threads; ie a twisted yarn Nm 2/28 is made up of two yarns twisted together.
The value of alpaca fiber is in the alpaca
Alpacas that have special wool are very valuable. The following parameters are evaluated:
fleece density
Fleece weight obtained from the wool of the neck, chest, belly and legs. Animals with a higher fleece weight are better protected against the weather and show less dirt in the fleece. Produce a higher yield.
Stem length (hair length). Fiber growth varies from 70-200 mm per year. Hair length shortens in older and pregnant animals.
uniformity of color
The shine of the bevel, which deteriorates due to a lack of nutrients, stress or as a result of illness.
Standard deviation of the fineness of the fibers. The more uniform the fibers, the more valuable.
Comfort factor indicates how many fibers over 30 microns are present in a sample. Fibers over 30 microns create the "tingling effect" and are therefore perceived as unpleasant on the skin. With a comfort factor of 100, there are no fibers over 30 microns.
Hand-knitted stitches
Finely crafted 100% baby alpaca
special feature of alpaca wool
Woolly soft,
elastic,
glittering,
breathable,
with excellent thermal insulation,
suitable for allergy sufferers,
does not feel damp, even if the wool gets wet from rain,
is dirt-resistant,
flame-retardant
Shearing the alpacas:
Alpacas are sheared once a year. The animal lies on its side. The fleece is taken in one piece. The whole process takes less than 10 minutes to ensure the alpaca is stressed as little as possible.
Fiber with little lanolin:
Another advantage of natural wool is its antibacterial effect. Compared to sheep's wool, alpaca wool contains very little wool fat (lanolin), which is why bacteria cannot multiply on its surface and die. This also prevents the formation of unpleasant odors.
What is virgin wool?
Shorn exclusively from live sheep:
Virgin wool is a renewable raw material and one of the oldest materials used by humans to make textiles. The wool has natural thermoregulating properties, is breathable and antistatic. The outer layer of the hair is water-repellent but water vapor can penetrate. The wool can therefore absorb up to 35% moisture and still feels pleasantly warm.
How is virgin wool produced?
After shearing, the wool is sorted by color and quality. In the next step, the wool must be cleaned and washed. This also washes out the wool fat that coats the wool fiber. The natural wool fat actually protects the fiber from moisture. The skin can react allergically to wool fat and redden the skin.
After the cleaning step, the fibers are combed, loosened and aligned parallel using a carding machine. Finally, the wool is dyed and spun into yarn.
Our cotton?
natural product made from plant fibers
Cotton has been cultivated and used for several thousand years. It is the most common natural fiber for the production of textiles. The plant belongs to the mallow family, grows in tropical and subtropical regions and consists of 95% cellulose. Clothing was made from cotton as early as 6000 BC.
How is cotton harvested?
Cotton pickers went through the plantations and plucked the ripe tufts of fiber from the burst bolls. Due to the uneven ripening, this had to be done several times.
Today, cotton is picked using harvesting machines. Before harvesting, bushes are defoliated to minimize contamination during harvesting. Harvesting machines then clean the collected cotton of seeds and boll remains.
By the way, even today, the cotton is still harvested by hand in order to specifically harvest the ripe cotton tufts in order to produce high-quality cotton.
What do we offer you in our shop?
What’s in our alpaca wool products?
We try to share our knowledge both in the products you can buy online and through additional posts like this one or through our newsletter.
In our products you will find knitted models for summer and winter. However, many models can be worn all year round. Of course there are also great woolly accessories. We only use Peruvian alpaca wool as material. Either 100% baby alpaca or alpaca with a proportion of 20% cotton. Our 100% baby alpaca in natural colors is even supplied by our manufacturer with Oeko-Tex certification.
How does purchasing and shipping work?
We try to make the search as easy as possible. Of course, this involves a lot of manual work, just like knitting. Manual work is very versatile and not automated. You will find many colors and sizes, but they are not always available. After your purchase, we ship as quickly as possible.
Is there a special service?
So that you can wear your valuable alpaca sweater for a long time, we are happy to repair it. Bring the sweater to the shop and we will repair it.