FROM MOUNTAIN TO MITTEN: TRANSFORMING ALPACA WOOL INTO YARN

Crocheters and knitters alike have a variety of factors to take into consideration when choosing a material to use for a project, whether that be the project’s intended function, their budget, material availability, or personal preference. But for pieces meant to shield their wearer from winter winds and biting cold, one material has long been regarded as one of the best natural fibers on the market: Alpaca wool.

Alpacas are South American mammals, domesticated as far back as 7,000 years ago in large part due to their immensely useful dense and fleecy coats. Hailing from the Andes mountain range, they can now be found in farms across the globe, though their populations are higher in what are considered their native countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru (which is the leading producer of their fleece worldwide). The texture, length, and overall physical appearance of an alpaca’s coat depend on which of the two domesticated breeds it belongs to, huacaya or suri. Both breeds produce wool in 22 unique shades that are described by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as “remarkably lightweight, strong, lustrous, high in insulation value, and resistant to rain and snow.” These traits make alpaca wool an incredibly desirable fiber for outerwear, sweaters, shawls, and other protective clothing suited to low temperatures.

The process of transforming unprocessed alpaca coats into yarn begins with shearing. Alpacas are typically sheared once a year or once every other year, before rising summer temperatures could lead to the animals overheating. Safe shearing practices include ensuring the animals are calm and unable to hurt themselves during the shearing process by preventing sudden or jumpy movements by using restraints with care, shearing when their coat is dry, making sure all tools are clean and in good working order, and by monitoring an alpaca post-shear to ensure they are not experiencing uncomfortable temperature or sun sensitivity. Once an alpaca is shorn, the fibers are collected and graded, separated by length and coarseness to determine what purpose they are best suited for.  

The fibers are then carded, the term for the preliminary cleaning and detangling process that clears them of impurities, straightens and aligns the fibers, and concludes with the newly carded wool being gathered in preparation for spinning. It’s this final step that transforms the wool into yarn. When spinning, weavers aim to create strong, durable yarn through a variety of techniques. Outside of Peru, spinning is done by hand or using a spinning wheel, but inside Peru, yarn is still spun by hand using a drop spindle, the same way early indigenous Peruvian processed the yarn generations ago. The spinning motion, gravity, and the skill of the weaver means that the carded fibers are twisted and combined into strong yarn of a uniform thickness and weight, facilitating the final step in the transformation from a shorn coat into fiber perfect for crochet or knitting. Peru is famous for its alpaca wool yarn not only because of the quality of the yarn itself, but because of government infrastructure and programming that allows for the cultivation of healthy alpaca herds year after year, allowing fiber artists all over the world the chance to work with this highly sought after fiber.

The images in this gallery show a mixture of llamas and alpacas living together at Lampaca Farm, a small, family run farm in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. When examining these photos, the alpacas can be distingushed by their shorter stature, rounded ears, and densely packed coats. As can be seen in these photos, their coats vary wildly in shade, even amongst alpacas residing within the same herd.

PHOTO CREDIT: Marina Pugliese