Fibre encyclopedia
Alpaca
Also called alpaca · alpaka · WP
Fibre from an alpaca fleece. Straighter than sheep wool, with little crimp, so it hangs rather than springs back.
Class
Natural
Comes from
From an animal
Where it comes from
Alpaca is a camelid fleece, shorn once a year and sorted by grade. European labelling rules name it separately from wool, alongside llama, camel and vicuna.
How it feels to wear
Air
Some air moves through the fibre
Water
Takes in a little water
Heat
Holds body heat
Stretch
No stretch of its own
Wear
Holds up to ordinary rubbing
Alpaca has less crimp than sheep wool, so it traps less air at the same weight and drapes rather than holding shape. It carries no lanolin, so it is washed with less scouring before spinning. A knit made from it grows longer under its own weight if it is stored on a hanger.
Care
- Hand wash cool, then dry flat.
- Store folded, not hung.
- Air it rather than washing after every wear.
Alpaca felts less readily than sheep wool because the surface scales are shallower, which changes how a wash goes wrong rather than whether it can.
End of life
Recycling route
Mechanical recycling
Where animal fibre is collected and sorted, alpaca goes into the same shredding route as wool. The volume is small enough that most of it is not sorted separately at all.
In a blend
Alpaca is usually blended with wool or acrylic to add spring, and the blend closes the sorted route.
Skin notes
Mechanical
Fine alpaca sits below the prickle range. Guard hair from the outer coat sits above it, and whether that hair was separated is a sorting decision.
Chemical
Dyeing follows the same acid dye route as wool, and it is not declared.
If your skin reacts to a garment, a dermatologist and patch testing are what can answer it. A label cannot, and neither can this page.
What the label cannot tell you
The label says alpaca. It does not say whether the coarse guard hair was separated out, and that is what decides whether the knit is felt as smooth or as prickly.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling, Annex I. Checked 22 August 2026
- Garnsworthy and others, 1988, CSIRO work on fabric prickle and fibre diameter
Written from primary sources and in our own words. Where a figure could not be traced to a source anyone can open, it is not printed here.
Read the label you are holding
The scan surface reads one care label and names which questions it answers and which it leaves out. A passport says for one specific piece what a label cannot: the composition with its percentages, where the cloth came from, who worked on it, how to repair it and where it goes next.