Firbre Focus Friday: Cracking Camelids

Camelids are members of the camel family known asn camelidae.   There are seven members of this family; three of them are camels and the remaining four are alpacas, vicuñas, llamas and guanacos.

In terms of fibre production, you can get fibres from all of the camelids, but the most commonly found ones are sourced from alpacas, llamas and Bactrian camels (they're the ones with two humps).  Vicuña and guanaco fibre is harder to get hold of due to its scarcity and popularity.

So, what do we know about these cracking camelids?

Bactrian Camel
Location: Central Asia
Micron count: Baby camel: 17 - 19mic, adult: 19 - 22mic
Fibre produced per animal per year: Anything from 4kg to 11kg, but 70% of this is lost in processing as it contains grease, dirt and hair fibres. Camel down (the undercoat) is most commonly used.

Alpaca
Location: Global, originally South America
Micron count: Baby alpaca: 18 - 23mic, adult: 23 - 29mic
Fibre produced per animal per year: Huacaya produce 1.5kg - 2.5kg, Suri up to 3kg.  Alpaca fleeces are split into 3 grades; 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  The 1st grade is the blanket and is used for fibre craft; this weight can be variable and can be anywhere from 500g to 2kg on average.

Vicuña (the wild ancestor of the alpaca)
Location: South America, there are some herds in other countries
Micron count: 12mic
Fibre produced per animal per year: 500g per animal per year. They are shorn every two years and once processed the fibre yeild is 250 - 450g per animal. Vicuña is considered one of the rarest fibres in the world.

Llama
Location: Global, South America
Micron count: 20 - 40mic
Fibre produced per animal per year: 1.5kg - 4kg.  Some Llama are shorn once every two years to get longer fibres.  Llama fibre is often combed to remove the more coarse fibres with most llama tops being around 20 - 25mic.

Guanaco (the wild ancestor of the llama)
Location: South America, there are some herds in other countries - including the UK!
Micron count: 16 - 18mic
Fibre produced per animal per year: 900g - 1.2kg per animal before processing.  This fibre is considered a close second to Vicuña in terms of quality and scarcity.

Where can you get your hands on these fibres?  We can help with that!  

We have a constant stock of camel, alpaca and llama fibres which we use to make blends and yarns.  Vicuña and guanaco are rather tricky to get hold of but when we do have them we're not too shy to shout about it!  We stock Vicuña every now and again as we appreciate it's is a high-cost, luxury fibre and not everyone is going to use it in their crafting.  And as for guanaco, well, watch this space and we'll see what happens...