Alpaca fiber

Raw Alpaca fleece

Alpaca fiber is the natural fiber harvested from an alpaca. It is light or heavy in weight, depending on how it is spun. It is a soft, durable, luxurious and silky natural fiber. While similar to sheep’s wool, it is warmer, not prickly, and has no lanolin, which makes it hypoallergenic. Alpaca fiber is naturally water-repellent and difficult to ignite. Huacaya, an alpaca that grows soft spongy fiber, has natural crimp, thus making a naturally elastic yarn well-suited for knitting. Suri has far less crimp and thus is a better fit for woven goods. The designer Armani has used Suri alpaca to fashion men's and women's suits. Alpaca fiber is made into various products, from very simple and inexpensive garments made by the aboriginal communities to sophisticated, industrially made and expensive products such as suits. In the United States, groups of smaller alpaca breeders have banded together to create "fiber co-ops," to make the manufacture of alpaca fiber products less expensive. The preparing, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing process of alpaca is very similar to the process used for wool. Fleece weights vary, with the top stud alpaca males reaching annual shear weights up to 7 kg total fleece and 3 kg good quality fleece. The discrepancy in weight is because an alpaca has guard hair, which is often removed before spinning.

Alpaca Fiber structure
Alpaca fiber is similar in structure to sheep wool fiber. Its softness comes from the small diameter of the fiber, similar to merino wool. Its glossiness is due to low height of the individual fiber scales compared to sheep wool. Alpaca fibers have a higher tensile strength than wool fibers. In processing, slivers lack fiber cohesion and single alpaca rovings lack strength. Blend these together and the durability is increased several times over. More twisting is necessary, especially in Suri, and this can reduce a yarn's softness. The alpaca has a very fine and light fleece. It does not retain water, is thermal even when wet and can resist solar radiation effectively. These characteristics guarantee the animals a permanent and appropriate coat to protect against extreme changes of temperature. This alpaca fiber offers the same protection to humans. Quality alpaca products should be free from medullated fibers.
For a detailed description on Alpaca Fiber structure, please refer Understanding Alpaca Fiber Structure


Alpaca Fiber Quality

Good quality alpaca fiber is approximately 18 to 25 micrometers in diameter. Whilst breeders report alpaca fiber can sell for US$2 to 4 per ounce, the world wholesale price for processed, spun alpaca “tops” is only between about $10 to $24/kg (according to quality), i.e. about $0.28 to $0.68 per oz. Finer Alpaca fleeces, ones with a smaller diameter, are preferred, so are more expensive. As an alpaca gets older, the diameter of the alpaca fibers gets thicker, between 1 µm and 5 µm per year. This is sometimes caused by overfeeding; as excess nutrients are converted to (thicker) fiber rather than to fat. As with all fleece-producing animals, quality varies from animal to animal, and some alpacas produce fiber which is less than ideal. Alapca fiber and conformation are the two most important factors in determining an alpaca's value. Alpacas come in 22 natural colors, with more than 300 shades from a true-blue black through browns-black, browns, fawns, white, silver-greys, and rose-greys. However, white is predominant, because of selective breeding: the white Alpaca fiber can be dyed in the largest ranges of colors. In South America, the preference is for white, as they generally have better fleece than the darker-colored animals. The demand for darker Alpaca fiber sprung up in the United States and elsewhere, though, to reintroduce the colors, but the quality of the darker Alpaca fiber has decreased slightly. Breeders have been diligently working on breeding dark animals with exceptional fiber, and much progress has been made over the last few years.

The following are important qualities of Alpaca fiber, which makes Alpaca fiber special

• Alpaca fiber is warmer than Merino wool
• Alpaca fiber is extremely fine with little guard hair
• Alpaca fiber has excellent thermal qualities
• Alpaca fiber is more abrasion resistant than Merino wool
• Alpaca fiber has a higher tensile strength than wool
• Alpaca fiber contains no grease, oil or lanolin and does not smell
• Alpaca fiber does not retain water and can resist solar radiation
• Alpaca fiber has a rich silky sheen which has high visual appeal in the apparel industry
• Alpaca fiber can be carded and blended with other natural and/or synthetic fibers

Fiber Characteristics of Alpaca Fiber
There are two types of alpaca; the huacaya, which accounts for 80 per cent of the total, and the suri which makes up the remaining 20 per cent. The fiber obtained from the suri is the longest and most highly prized.
The hair of the alpaca is fine and silky, between 20 and 34 microns in diameter and 8-12 cm in length. The fleece comes in a wide variety of shades, which is a special characteristic of the alpaca. Colours range from pure white and various shades of white - which represent about 80-85 per cent of the clip and have the highest value - to warm fawns, reddish browns and a variety of greys and black. The animals are shorn. With the encouragement of the research stations and major merchants, shearing is carried out with modern equipment, an advance on the pieces of glass or rusty knives used in the past.

Uses of Alpaca Fiber

  

 



Alpaca fiber is used for many purposes, including making clothing such as hats, mitts, scarves, gloves, and jumpers. It can also be used for re-rooting dolls' hair, for example in Blythe dolls. Many breeders are coming up with new ways to use the fiber from their alpacas, from crafting, to wall hangings, to clothing.
Of the South American camelids, the alpaca is the only one whose fleece is used in any quantity for spinning yarns for fashion applications.
The primary end use is knitwear, but it is also woven into cloth for clothing, accessories - such as shawls and stoles - and rugs. The premium alpaca fiber is cria, shorn from young animals and considered lighter, warmer and softer than cashmere.
To widen use of alpaca fiber, some textile manufacturers blend it with wool, cotton and silk for both knitwear and woven cloth.
There is also a growing market for outdoor sports clothing made from alpaca thanks to its lighter weight and better insulation during cold weather.

Production and trade of Alpaca Fiber
Annual output of alpaca wool in Peru, the main producer, is estmated at around 6 500 tonnes. Around 80% is shipped as fleece to textile makers (chiefly in China, Germany and Italy), earning export income of around $50 million a year. The main purchaser of alpaca fiber, China, has begun importing alpacas to create a domestic fiber industry.

It is estimated that there are some four million alpaca in South America. During the early 1970's stocks of alpaca were significantly reduced, seriously affecting the livelihoods of the local population. Subsequently efforts have been made, through education and research, to restore the level of the camelid population. But the fiber industry is erratic and highly dependent on world demand. It is also subject to the political and economic events that characterize life in Peru, which has also variously affected the level of the population of these animals.
A further factor affecting the breeding of the animals is the physiognomy of the land itself. The central Andean region - and particularly the vulnerable highlands - have been overgrazed in recent years by sheep and cattle forcing the alpaca back into the more remote and impoverished areas of the Altiplano.
Alpaca fiber production has been low in the last two years, dropping by as much as 40 per cent. This has been partly a result of drought. Alpaca raw material is not exported. All raw material is processed in Peru into products for export, in the form of tops, yarns and knitwear - although some is still used for domestic consumption, for knitwear and woven fabrics, and also for the craft industry for products sold in the tourist trade.

History of Alpaca fiber industry
The Amerindians of Peru used this fiber in the manufacture of many styles of fabrics for thousands of years before its introduction into Europe as a commercial product. The alpaca was a crucial component of ancient life in the Andes, as it provided not only warm clothing, but also meat The first European importations of alpaca fiber were into Spain. Spain transferred that alpaca fiber to Germany and France. Apparently, alpaca yarn was spun in England for the first time about the year 1808, but the fiber was condemned as an unworkable material. In 1830, Benjamin Outram, of Greetland, near Halifax, appears to have reattempted spinning it, and again it was condemned. These two attempts failed due to the style of fabric into which the yarn was woven — a type of camlet. With the introduction of cotton warps into Bradford trade about 1836, the true qualities of alpaca fiber could be assessed as it was developed into fabric. It is not known where the cotton warp and mohair or alpaca weft plain-cloth came from, but it was this simple and ingenious structure which enabled Titus Salt, then a young Bradford manufacturer, to use alpaca successfully. Bradford is still the great spinning and manufacturing center for alpaca fiber. Large quantities of yarns and cloths are exported annually to the European continent and the US, although the quantities vary with the fashions in vogue.

Due to the successful manufacture of various alpaca cloths by Sir Titus Salt and other Bradford manufacturers, a great demand for alpaca wool arose, which could not be met by the native product. Apparently, the number of alpacas available never increased appreciably. Unsuccessful attempts were made to acclimatize alpaca in England, on the European continent and in Australia, and even to cross English breeds of sheep with alpaca. There is a cross between alpaca and llama — a true hybrid in every sense — producing a material placed upon the Liverpool market under the name "Huarizo". Crosses between the alpaca and vicuña have not proved satisfactory, as the crosses that have produced offspring have a very short fleece, more characteristic of the vicuña. Current attempts to cross these two breeds are underway at farms in the US. Alpacas are now being bred in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and numerous other places. In recent years, interest in alpaca fiber clothing has surged, perhaps partly because alpaca ranching has a reasonably low impact on the environment. Individual U.S. farms are producing finished alpaca products like hats,mitts, scarves, socks, insoles, footwarmers, sweaters, jackets, as well as almost any other product. Outdoor sports enthusiasts recognize its lighter weight and better warmth provides them more comfort in colder weather. Using an alpaca and wool blend such as merino is common to the alpaca fiber industry to improve processing and the qualities of the final product.
In December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2009 to be the International Year of Natural Fibres, so as to raise the profile of alpaca and other natural fibers.

Alpaca Fiber Glossary