All of the above statements are false except for the last one. Number 6 is true. There are an awful lot of mis-conceptions out there about alpaca fiber. I often hear other hand spinners say in a knowing voice, "Alpaca fiber has no crimp. You HAVE to mix it with sheep's wool if you want the garment to have memory or bounce." Memory and bounce are two knitter's expressions that both mean that the knitted garment is able to retain its shape after it is worn and washed. If a fiber or wool has no crimp, or very little crimp, it also will not have good bounce or memory.
Let's first be clear on the fact that I am talking about Huacaya alpaca. Many spinners and most of the general public in this country are unaware of the rarer type of Suri alpaca and the specifics of Suri fiber, which I do not plan to discuss in this article. The Huacaya alpaca fiber is the more common variety. But why do so many spinners think that alpaca does not have crimp? Because they buy alpaca fiber from Peru where it is over-processed and often not top quality to begin with. How do I know this? I have bought alpaca fiber in roving form from a spinning store here in the US and spun up this roving. The owner of the store told me it was "1st quality" alpaca. The fiber in the roving was flat. It had no shine, no bounce, and was also coarse. I spun it up into a yarn, which, not surprisingly, turned out coarse with no bounce or shine.
Knitted 100% Alpaca Hat
This inferior roving, unfortunately, is what most spinners think of when they talk about "alpaca fiber." But why is it of such poor quality? In the huge Peruvian alpaca fiber processing industry, the clip of all animals is sorted by color then sorted into fine, medium, baby, coarse, etc. A spinning oil is put on the fiber so that it can be more easily processed by the huge machinery used to card and spin the fiber. Often this "spinning oil" can be felt as a certain gumminess on the roving when the spinner is trying to spin it. It is chemically dyed.
I am one of the lucky few. I grow my own alpaca fiber right on my own farm. Unlike a lot of spinners, I am able to have beautiful, natural white and colored fiber, which has never been exposed to any chemical stronger than a glob of Dawn dishwashing detergent. My fiber is carded in a small drum carder and then spun on a spinning wheel. I can say with authority that this alpaca fiber DOES have crimp, DOES have memory and knits up into woolen garments that retain their shape. It is also much, much softer than the alpaca fiber that is available from Peru. I can say this because I own some of these handspun alpaca garments, and I wear and re-wear them myself along with my husband and kids. If it were not for this fact, I might very well be one of the spinners who believes the negative myths about alpaca fiber.
Crimpy Alpaca Fiber
I also sell raw fleece to other hand spinners. A couple of years ago, I sold a lovely rose-gray fleece (it was almost lilac colored) to the owner of a spinning and fiber store in New England. This woman called me wanting to buy the very same fleece the following year. She told me that she had a whole store full of Peruvian alpaca fleece but that she did not want to spin any of it now that she had tried and loved spinning first quality alpaca fleece grown in the USA.
Am I saying that everyone should buy their alpaca from me? Not at all. There are literally thousands of alpaca breeders all over the USA and many of them have natural colored alpaca fleeces they are willing to sell. Sure, some of their animals may be older and a bit coarser, some of these breeders may not work hard to keep the bits of hay and twigs out of their fleeces, but there are plenty of wonderful, soft, crimpy, clean and gorgeous-colored alpaca fleeces available in this country for any spinner who goes looking for them. Look to the farm and not to the spinning stores who are still importing their alpaca fiber. The home grown alpaca usually costs a bit more but I have never had even one of my many buyers complain about that. When they see the quality of the fiber, they are happy to pay a little more.
What about the llama vs. alpaca question. Many llama breeders make the claim that there is no difference between llama and alpaca fiber. In the USA, many llama breeders have begun to try to improve the fiber of their animals through more selective breeding for fiber quality, and some produce very beautiful llama fiber and llama fiber garments. This, however, hardly negates over 5,000 years of selective breeding of alpacas for fiber quality by the Andean peoples. The llama was originally bred as a pack animal. The shift in emphasis to fiber quality for the llama has taken place in the last 10 years of the animal's existence.
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| Llama coarse outer coat |
Alpaca no outer coat |
Llamas are basically a double coated animal with a very coarse outer coat of fiber and a soft inner coat. This means that llama fiber has to be de-haired before it is spun unless the spinner wants a coarser yarn for an outergarment. When de-haired, llama fiber can be as soft as or softer than alpaca fiber but it does not have crimp. Confusion of llama fiber with alpaca fiber is another reason why so many spinners think that alpaca has no crimp.
So what about myths numbers 1 and 3? No and no is the answer. Alpaca fiber is not harder to spin than sheep's wool, and it does not need to be washed before spinning. Most spinners who spin alpaca do their spinning and plying first and then wash the finished skein of yarn in warm water. Since alpacas do not have heavy body oil like sheep do, there is nothing to wash off of the fiber but a small amount of dry dust. Alpacas love to roll in the dust! Some spinners use Dawn dishwashing detergent to wash their finished alpaca yarn. Some use a yarn cleaning product called, "Orvus" and some use a mild hair shampoo. All of these seem to work equally well.
You have taken the True or False quiz and, hopefully, read the article. Don't take my word for any of this! Try some USA-grown, 100% natural colored, chemically-free alpaca fiber from a farm near you. Spin it, knit it, and/or wear it and see if you don't give up your belief in the 5 alpaca myths.
Spinning Wheel