About Alpaca
Known for over six thousand years as the 'Fibre of the Gods' alpaca is a warm, soft, light-weight and lustrous fibre celebrated for its hypoallergenic qualities and myriad of natural colours. Today alpaca fibre is produced throughout the world, with large national herds in Australia and the United States. Alpaca's versatility, wide natural colour range and inherent softness makes this a very exclusive and much sought after material which deservedly holds a unique place on the catwalks of the world stage.
Here in the UK there are now upwards of 25,000 alpacas spread out over farms and smallholdings from the tip of Scotland right down to Cornwall. Each year these animals are all sheared, leaving many individuals with a difficult decision about what to do with the fleece. As the UK can no longer boast of a commercial textile industry, spinners, weavers and knitters must be sourced from the traditional regions, and very often coaxed into experimenting with this unusual fibre. Everyone we have ever challenged to work with alpaca has thoroughly enjoyed the process and all have been thrilled with the outcome of their work.
Spinning Alpaca
Alpaca fibre is wonderful to hand spin and it does not need to be washed before spinning. Most handspinners, when spinning alpaca, do their spinning and plying first and then wash the finished skein of yarn in tepid water. The only real preparation that needs to be done is to shake as much dry dust out as possible, and remove any stray pieces of foliage. When buying alpaca fleece from alpaca owners you fleece should be free of foliage, but finer fleeces tend to attract vegetation, and it is advisable to hand pick these bits out before spinning.
Alpaca can be characterised as:
Luxurious - Soft and Silky to the touch, with no 'itch factor'
Lightweight- Hollow core to the fibre means alpaca is light to wear
Warm- Hollow core makes alpaca a fantastic insulator
Durable - less inclined to 'pill' due to long staple length
Washable - alpaca can be handwashed and then dried flat
Colourful- natural alpaca comes in 22 natural colours from cream through to black, but if brighter colours are required it also absorbs dye incredibly well to give radiant colours
When washing your completed hand spun yarn, please remember that alpaca is a natural fibre that does felt if wet, hot and agitated. Ensure that you fill the sink with tepid water and a mild detergent, allow the yarn to soak for 10 minutes without moving it. Dry the yarn slowly and naturally. Placing alpaca above a radiator, boiler or aga will force dry the fibre and can lead to a change in the handle- drying the fibres out too much resulting a brittle touch.
Knitting Alpaca
If you're a newbie to knitting alpaca, and desperate to get some yarn on your needles it's important to decide on how you would like your final object to be before choosing a pattern. We sell Lace (2 ply), Fine (3-4 ply), Double Knit, Aran and Chunky weight knitting yarns, all of which vary in nature and texture. Be careful to choose a yarn weight appropriate to the object you're knitting. As some rough guidelines we would recommend:
Obviously just because we choose to do it this way doesn't mean that it's the right way: your only limitation is your creative ability. We have seen some amazing knitwear produced by knitters purchasing our yarn who have used it in ways that we don't. We've seen stunning aran weight sweaters - amazing pieces of work in a yarn worthy of the hours of time put into the piece. We have also seen wonderful hats knitted in Fine and Lace ladies sweaters (not for the faint hearted knitter).
Colour
All of our yarns are 100% natural. One of the greatest features of the alpaca is that is comes in such a wide spectrum of natural colours. From white through to black with greys, browns and fawns in between. Although they all come off the same breed of animal, the texture and handle of the different colours can sometimes vary greatly. The white and cream yarns are usually the softest due to far more years of selective breeding in South America. However, there are exceptions to this, and at Toft Alpacas we specialise in breeding top quality brown animals (check out our credentials in the BAS National Show Ring). Our 'Baby Alpaca' blends are guaranteed to be incredibly soft and slippy, as these batches only contain the softest and youngest fleeces regardless of whether they are grey, black or cream.
Tension
Due to the softness and soapy texture of alpaca, some knitters find that in order to get the correct gauge they move onto a smaller needle size than recommended for the weight. If you are aware that you generally are quite a loose knitter then we would advise doing so. However, ALWAYS check your tension before you begin a project because you are using a new natural material and it will not always respond in as uniformed a way as mass produced and computer-spun acrylic.
Needles
The give in the natural material needles, bamboo, rosewood etc, in comparison to the steel needle, seems to give you greater control and pleasure over knitting with the yarn. This is in no way essential, it's just a nice thing to have when 'knitting natural'- in fact most of the Toft Alpacas pro-knitters use steel needles. With some of the baby alpaca yarns they have been spun loosely in order to maintain the handle and softness of the yarn. With these yarns some knitters advise using a blunter needle to minimise the chances of the tip splitting the yarn whilst knitting.
Washing
As you're knitting with a natural fibre it is important to handwash your knitting after you've finished. We would recommend using a delicate/natural detergent, something as easy to get hold of as Woolite or Ecover Delicate (which can be bought at all supermarkets) work just fine. Fill your sink with tepid water and allow your item to soak for 10-15 mins. After you have rinsed you can gently spin the item in the washing machine to remove excess water. Dry your knitted items flat to avoid any misshaping. We would also recommend allowing your items to dry slowly- don't attempt to speed dry on top of an aga or boiler. The handle of alpaca seems to alter when it is dried out too fast- it almost goes brittle to touch. Patience is the key to retaining the buttery soft feeling.
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