Alpaca Fiber 101

Alpacas are members of the South American Camelid family, which include the llama, wild guanaco and vicuna. All are cousins to the Dromedary and Bactrian camels. The alpaca has been the only one bred for fiber. (That is changing.)
The ancestors of today’s alpacas began to evolve in North America 40 million years ago and become extinct in North America about 12,000 years ago. In South America, the alpaca started emerging about 2 million years ago and has been bred by man for over 6,000 years. The Incas bred the alpaca to increase the fineness of the fiber and reserved it for the royalty’s clothing.
When the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire 500 years ago, the alpacas were slaughtered in mass numbers in order to make room for European livestock. The surviving natives and their animals fled to the high elevations of the Andes Mountains, where temperatures reach below freezing over 300 nights a year. In the 1800’s Sir Titus Salt, an English wool importer and mill owner, attributed much of his wealth and success to alpaca fiber. During the 1900’s large-scale alpaca processing mills in South America supplied the fashion industries of Europe and Japan with alpaca products. Alpaca and llamas still provide clothing, food, fuel and transport of goods for many South Americans to this day.

In the 1920’s, Andean countries banned the exportation of alpacas. In the early 1980’s the ban was lifted and beginning in 1983 alpacas were imported into the United States from Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. Prior to this only a handful of alpacas could be found in zoos outside of South America. The Alpaca Registry, Inc (ARI) was formed to register alpacas coming into the county and their offspring. The ARI members voted to “close” the registry after the 1998 imports, thus shutting off future importations.

Alpaca fiber is called “The Fiber of the Gods”. It was reserved for Inca royalty. To not be “royal” and wear alpaca was a death sentence, or “Fiber to die for”.

• Alpaca is warmer and lighter weight than sheep’s wool due to the hollow center of each fiber.
• Alpaca has no lanolin as does sheep’s wool.
• Alpaca can often be worn by people who are sensitive to sheep’s wool.
• Alpaca is an especially strong fiber that produces extremely durable products.
• Alpaca fleece is some of the finest in the world.
• Alpaca fleece comes in over 20 natural colors, the most of any fiber-producing animal.
• Alpaca fiber creates garments of extraordinary “hand” and “drape”, highly sought-after qualities in the commercial textile industry.
• Alpaca fiber readily accepts dyes, both natural and artificial.
• Alpaca fleece is one of the rarest of the natural textile fibers.

There are two kinds of alpacas, depending on the fiber type. The Huacaya alpaca has a fluffy appearance due to the crimp in its fiber. The rarer Suri alpaca has fiber that lacks crimp and forms pencil locks hanging close to the body.
Huacaya fiber has waviness (crimp) in individual fibers. This helps to hold the fibers together during processing and makes it easier to form yarn.
Suri fiber is similar to mohair in many respects and suri is prized for its luster and drape. Lack of crimp and presence of luster are distinguishing characteristics of Suri fiber when compared to Huacaya fiber. Both types have body oil on the fiber. Different animals produce differing amounts. Suri also have a heavier coating to keep them drier.
Both types also can sweat. The sweat and dirt can act like a glue to hold the fiber together. Fiber can also felt right on the animal from sweat and rubbing to cool off if the animal was not shorn soon enough in the spring.
Each fleece is as individual as the animal and can change from year to year with age of animal, weather that year, feed, health, etc.

Alpaca fiber does not have the barbs that wool fiber does so is a bit more slippery than wool to spin. You need a little more twist to hold your singles together.
Huacaya fiber is easier than Suri since Suri usually has nothing to keep it from sliding around.

• Alpacas live from 15 to 25 years.
• Alpacas are about 3 feet tall at the shoulder. At birth crias weigh between 15-20 pounds. An adult’s weight is from 120 – 190 pounds and they are about one half to one third the size of a llama.
• Alpacas are peaceful animals and make humming noises. They use humming to indicate stress, interest or boredom. Some are more vocal than others. They have a warning cry they use when they perceive danger.
• Alpacas are smart. Crias can halter trained in just a few sessions. They do well on obstacle training.
• Alpacas are ruminants and have a single stomach that is divided into 3 sections. Like cows, they also chew a cud.
• Alpacas only have teeth on the bottom. The top is a hard dental pad against which they nip grass and grind their food. They nip the grass without pulling out the roots.
• Alpacas commonly share a common dung pile.
• Alpacas are “split-hoofed” animals with two toes on each foot.
• Alpacas usually have their crias in the middle of the day.
• Alpacas do spit occasionally, but it’s usually at each other for various reasons. They can spit at people if they feel mistreated.
• Alpacas are easy to raise and can be handled by very small child.
• Alpaca droppings are practically odorless, are low in nitrogen and are excellent for enriching the soil. Alpaca poop is often referred to as “black gold” as you can use it immediately in your garden or as compost.
• Alpacas are easily transported in a pick-up, van, or trailer.
• They love sprinklers and hoses most of the time to cool off.