Alpaca - knitting tips and other stuff

Alpaca fiber... warm, soft, luxurious. Yum. 

 

 Take-home keys to knitting with alpaca yarn:

• If your yarn is 100% alpaca, the finished product will have a LOT of drape. This works for some things (shawls or small items). However, this can be disastrous for some sweaters! If you want something with good shape and/or spring, try a blend with wool or use another fiber. 
• What you make will be warm and insulating while being lightweight. And have good water resistance.
• Oh... and it will be soft, and non-scratchy for most people, including people like me who can't wear regular wool. :) Now... this does depend on your personal limit for "itch factor" or micron size. Some yarn qualities are bigger than others... see the chart below for descriptions to help you pick the right quality for your garment.
• See below for a discussion of Suri vs. Huacaya fiber and yarn.

Alpaca fiber:

• It is hollow... this helps make it three times warmer than wool.
• It coated with a substance called suint which makes it water resistant.
• It is seven times stronger than wool. Wow.
• Diameter? 15-18 microns, and goes up from there. Consider that the highest quality merino wool starts at about 17 microns...

NOTE: This measurement does not include the guard hairs or the "primary fibers"! These carry a diameter of about 30 microns. If the yarn you are considering has longer fibers that sticks out, these may be guard hairs and will definitely give you some itch factor. That being said, alpaca naturally has very little guard hair, so you are less likely to find guard hairs in alapaca than say, llama or camel. But look out for it!

• The "scales" of the hair lay much closer to the shaft than that of wool, giving a smoother fiber. Feels very, very luxurious, especially the finer qualities....
• A good quality alpaca fiber should resist pilling. Yay! We don't like pilling!

There are different grades of alpaca fiber; keep an eye on the descriptors of the yarn or roving you are considering:

(The first descriptor is the US category, the second is the Canadian category)

Royal baby/Ultra Fine: <20 microns

Baby/Super Fine: 20 - 22.9 microns

Superfine/Fine: 23 - 25.9 microns

Medium/Medium: 26 - 28.9 microns

And it goes up from there. I wouldn't recommend a yarn for wearable items that is longer than these.

 Difference between Suri alpaca and Huacaya alpaca? The animals themselves are certainly very different; Suris have long, fine lustrous fiber, while breeds of the Huacaya type have shorter, spongier, and crimpier fleece (also warmer fleece!). In terms of your yarn, not so much; you may find that Suri yarn has more luster and can often end up looking fuzzier due to its longer length, and Huacaya types may be warmer. Is your yarn unlabelled? You can assume its a Huacaya type; Suri is much rarer.

 Huacaya alpacas, of Pacific Sun Alpacas.