Populations dropped from 400,000 to 15,000 before Peru protected them. The alluring chestnut to cinnamon fleece makes vicuna the most coveted apparel fiber on the planet. It is up to eight times warmer than wool for its weight. Usually blended with sheep wool or nylon because angora rabbits' short fibers are weak and slippery to spin. Its static electric crackling once made it a long underwear and blanket favorite to treat aches and pains from arthritis.
China produces the most blendable grade.
France remains the leader in gourmet angora. Each musk-ox yields about five pounds a year. Extremely durable and eight times warmer than most wools, qiviut is so clean that it needs no carding before spinning. It is the dream bioregional fiber product. The frame of butterfly wings, chitin is a kind of long-chain sugar closely related to cellulose.