What Is Alpaca Wool? Why Alpaca Fiber Is So Prized

Where alpaca wool comes from

Alpacas are shorn once a year, usually in spring, so that the fleece has a full year to grow and the animals do not overheat in summer. Each adult gives roughly 2.3–4.5 kg (5–10 lb) of fiber. Only part of that is first-quality “blanket” fleece from the back and sides; fiber from the neck, legs and belly is shorter and coarser and goes into lower grades, felt or rugs.

Shearing does not hurt the animal when it is done well; it is closer to a haircut than to anything else. Because alpacas do not like being handled, shearers usually lay them on their side and gently restrain them, which keeps both animal and shearer safe and the fleece in one piece.

Most of the world’s alpaca fiber comes from Peru, where the majority of alpacas live, much of it from small family herds in the high Andes. Smaller amounts come from Bolivia, Chile and farms in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe.

Huacaya and suri fleece

There are two alpaca breeds, and they grow very different fleeces:

• Huacaya alpacas, roughly 90% of the population, grow dense, crimpy fiber that stands out from the body like a sponge. It makes bouncy, lofty yarn that resembles sheep’s wool and is used for most alpaca sweaters, hats and blankets.
• Suri alpacas, about 10% of the population, grow straight, silky fiber that hangs in long twisting locks. Suri has a high natural shine and a heavy drape, so it is often compared with mohair and used for woven fabrics, coats and luxury knitwear.

In huacaya fleece, a fine, even crimp (many small waves along the fiber) is one of the signs of quality that breeders and fiber judges look for.

How alpaca wool compares with sheep wool

Alpaca and sheep fleece are both protein fibers made mostly of keratin, the same material as hair and nails, but they differ in several ways.

Because raw alpaca fleece has so little grease, it needs only gentle washing before spinning and loses far less weight in cleaning than sheep’s wool. The lack of lanolin is also why alpaca is often marketed as kind to sensitive skin. That is not a guarantee: people react to different things, and a coarse alpaca yarn can still feel scratchy.

Itchiness depends mostly on fiber diameter. Fibers thicker than about 30 microns (thousandths of a millimeter) do not bend easily and prickle the skin, whichever animal they come from. Good alpaca yarn keeps most fibers below that line, and its smooth fiber surface adds to the soft feel. If you want to compare with sheep, our article on why sheep need shearing explains how wool grows on modern sheep.

Why alpaca fiber is so warm

Many alpaca fibers have a medulla, a hollow or spongy core filled with air. Air is a good insulator, so a light alpaca garment can feel very warm for its weight. This fits the animal’s original home: alpacas evolved from the vicuña, which lives at about 3,200–4,800 m (10,500–15,700 ft) in the Andes, where nights are freezing even in summer.

Alpaca fiber also handles moisture well, staying comfortable when you sweat, and it is naturally slow to catch fire, a property it shares with other animal fibers. On the downside, alpaca has less natural elasticity than sheep’s wool, so pure alpaca knitwear can stretch and lose its shape; many yarns blend it with wool or silk for that reason.

Grades of alpaca fiber

Alpaca fleece is sorted by hand into grades, mainly by average fiber diameter. Names vary between countries and companies, but the trade typically uses terms like these:

• Royal alpaca: the rarest and finest grade, about 19 microns or less.
• Baby alpaca: about 22–23 microns on average. Despite the name, it is not taken from baby animals; it describes a soft adult grade.
• Superfine alpaca: around 25–26 microns.
• Adult or coarse alpaca: above roughly 28–30 microns, used for outerwear, rugs and felts.

Fiber usually gets coarser as an alpaca ages, so the softest fleece tends to come from younger animals and from the first shearings.

Vicuña fiber: the alpaca’s wild relative

The alpaca’s wild ancestor, the vicuña, grows one of the finest animal fibers known, averaging about 12 microns, finer than cashmere (roughly 14–19 microns). In the Inca Empire only royalty could wear vicuña cloth. Heavy hunting later reduced the species to only a few thousand animals by the 1960s, before strict protection let it recover.

Today wild vicuñas are rounded up in traditional drives called chaccu, shorn and released, usually only once every two to three years. Each yields just a few hundred grams of fiber, which is why vicuña cloth is among the most expensive textiles in the world. For more on the link between the two animals, see where alpacas come from.