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The alpaca's primary purpose has been as a fleece animal for over 5000
years. They produce one of the world's finest and most luxurious
natural fibers. It's as soft as cashmere, warmer, lighter and stronger
than wool and has the widest range of naturally occurring colors of any
fiber animal in the world. There are 22 natural colors with many
variations and blends. Alpaca fiber is also hypoallergenic.
Once
unique to the southern hemisphere, alpacas were domesticated by the
ancient Peruvians for their beautiful fleece. In the 1820's British
textile firms set up commercial houses in Peru to process this
exquisite fiber. The first step in this process is shearing. In Peru,
shearing begins in November and lasts through January. Once the fleece
is collected its bundled separately by classification: white, light
fawn, and colored. Master sorters who have been in their trade for more
than 30 years then sort it. Each fleece can yield several colors and
many different grades of alpaca fiber. These variables within the
fleece can only be determined by an experienced hand and eye. The women
who sort the alpaca fiber learned their trade at their mother's feet
and continue the tradition. The second sort is according to breed,
color, quality and length. Before the fiber becomes yarn, it will be
sorted by hand as many as 3 times. It is then graded based on fiber
diameter measured in microns. It is then weighed and moves on to an
industrial manufacturing process. The sorted fiber goes through a
combing machine, which opens up the fleece and vibrates to remove
vegetable matter. It is then cleaned by washing it in 8 different
baths. The last 3 washes are simply clean water. Once the fleece is
cleaned it can be dyed producing every color imaginable or kept in it's
natural state. Even primary shades of natural fiber can be blended to
create color after color. The cleaned, dyed fleece is then carded to
align and elongate the fiber and finally, spun into yarn.
The
US alpaca fiber market is still being developed. The value of the
alpaca fleece is the economic foundation of the future market for
alpacas. Breeders place a high emphasis on density and staple length
because those qualities determine the annual harvest of fiber from each
animal. Each animal will produce between 5 to 10 pounds of fleece per
year. The average price for alpaca fiber is $2 to $4 an ounce. A
breeder can join organized co-ops for commercial processing which then
turns the fleece into finished products (yarn, sweaters, hats, scarves,
socks etc) which are sold back to members at a discounted price.
Breeders can also process their own or use a fiber mill. Fiber is often
sold to cottage industries that revolve around hand spinning and
weaving.
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