Alpaca has a wonderful 'handle' due to the unique structure of the fiber. If you looked through a microscope at a single fiber of sheep s wool, you would see many scales lying along the hair shaft. The scales on the alpaca fiber, however, lie down against the shaft. This reduces the itch factor . Also, alpaca contains no lanolin, so it is ready to spin right off the animal, thus, unlike sheep s wool, alpaca is considered to be hypoallergenic.
Alpacas come from South America and have a rich history with a nearly tragic end.
Alpaca have now been exported to many countries around the world, including England, Australia, and Japan as well as the United States and Canada. Alpaca were imported to the US beginning in 1984 from Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. In Peru there has historically been a huge emphasis on the production of fine fiber for the commercial mills, which resulted in large herds of alpaca with fine, white fiber. In Chile the alpaca was raised in greater numbers by the cottage industry, with less emphasis on production of fiber for the commercial textile mills. The two fiber types are currently being selectively bred here in the US for fiber production.