People ask us all the time how alpaca compares to wool. Here is the honest answer, without the sales pitch.
It is a different fibre, not a better one
Alpaca and sheep's wool are both excellent. They behave differently, and which one suits you depends on what you want it to do.
Fineness is what you feel
The single thing that determines whether a fibre feels soft or scratchy against your skin is its diameter, measured in microns. Fibres above roughly 30 microns are stiff enough to trigger the nerve endings in your skin, and that is what people mean when they say wool itches. It is a mechanical effect. It has nothing to do with the type of animal.
Our carded fibre runs 18 to 24 microns. That is well below the threshold, which is why it feels the way it does. A merino of the same micron would feel much the same — fineness is fineness.
It holds less moisture than sheep's wool
Alpaca has a moisture regain of around 8 percent, against roughly 16 percent for sheep's wool. In plain terms, it takes up less water before it starts to feel damp. That is why an alpaca sock tends to feel less clammy at the end of a long day, and why it dries faster than a comparable merino one.
The fibre surface is smoother
Under a microscope, the cuticle scales on an alpaca fibre sit lower than those on wool, around 0.4 microns against 0.8. A smoother surface is part of why fine alpaca has the handle it does.
Less grease, and what that does and does not mean
Alpaca fleece carries far less grease than raw sheep's wool — in the order of 1 to 3 percent, against a great deal more in a raw merino clip. That matters at the processing end: it means less scouring, less water and less waste to get from fleece to yarn, and it is part of why a small farm can have its own clip processed at all.
What it does not mean is that alpaca is lanolin free, because it isn't, and it does not explain softness. We are spelling that out because the opposite is repeated everywhere.
It wears well
Alpaca tests more resistant to abrasion than wool of a similar diameter. In a sock, how long it lasts also depends on the nylon content and the knit, so we would not oversell the fibre alone. Wool has the better elasticity and shape recovery of the two — alpaca has less crimp and less memory — which is a genuine advantage for wool and the main reason blends exist.
What we will not tell you
You will read that alpaca fibre is hollow, or full of microscopic air pockets, and that this is what makes it warm. The Australian Alpaca Association's own fibre booklet treats that claim as debunked, so we do not repeat it. Warmth in a finished garment comes from fibre fineness and how the thing is knitted — the air is held in the structure of the fabric, not inside the fibre.
You will also read that alpaca is lanolin free and therefore hypoallergenic or non-itchy. As above: it is not lanolin free, itch is about micron rather than grease, and we are not going to make allergy claims about a jumper.
And you will see figures claiming alpaca is some specific percentage warmer than wool or cashmere. We have never seen a source for those numbers that stands up, so you will not find them here.
We would rather tell you the things we can actually stand behind.
Every fleece we sell comes off one herd, never blended with anyone else's clip.
Where our fibre comes from
Our fleece, yarn and carded bumps are grown on our own herd at Mulgoa in western Sydney, shorn here and sold undyed. We can tell you which animal grew it and what it tested at. The knitwear and socks we sell are made in Peru and Australia and we always tell you which — we do not blur the two.
- Raw fleece for spinners — from $36 for 200g.
- Yarn and carded bumps — undyed, from $36.
- The sock range — every composition published.
- Compare every sock we sell, with real fibre percentages.
Questions about micron or composition? Email us — we answer every one ourselves.