Alpacas are in the Camelid Family with camels being the largest. Llamas are their cousins and are larger than alpaca. Llamas and alpacas are both native to South America particularly Peru, Bolivia and Chile. The Altiplano region of Peru has alpaca herds roaming freely in the desert upper plateau region of the Andes Mountains. The alpaca shown in this picture are from the Altiplano.
Alpacas are bred for the softness, warmth and quality of their fleece. The breeder role is to feed the alpacas well and to mate the female and male properly to provide the best fleece traits. The goal is to produce an elite fleece and quality cria (baby alpaca) with superior breeding values. There are two breeds of alpaca: Huacaya and Suri
Huacaya fleece grows perpendicular to the skin and should be fine, dense and uniform. 80% of the world’s alpacas are Huacaya. Suri fleece falls close to the body, moves freely and give the animal a lustrous, flat sided appearance. They can look like they just had a bath when they have not.
We utilize both types of fleece in our production. Most of our sweaters and accessories are produced with Huacaya. When we state it is 78% alpaca or 40% alpaca it is with the Huacaya fleece.
We specifically state when we use Suri. Our Suri blend is 74% Suri Alpaca, 22% Merino wool and 4% nylon.
One of the frequent questions we receive is "How do I care for my Alpaca sweater, scarf, hats or mittens?"
You can hand wash in cold water with a mild natural detergent or Woolite. Squeeze the excess water from the garment and then wrap in a terry towel to get rid of the excess moisture. Leave them in the towel for an hour and then remove and place on a drying rack.
If you do wash in the machine on the delicate hand wash cycle, please remove and lay the garment flat to dry. DO NOT PUT THE GARMENT IN THE DRYER WET. Alpaca felts just like wool and instead of a sweater that fits you, you will have a significantly smaller sweater or accessory.
Another option is Dryel - this is a chemical cleaning system that allows you to place the dry garment in the dryer with 2 to 3 other garments inside of a garment bag with a chemical dryer sheet for 30 minutes. I recommend this if you just want to freshen up your sweater especially if you are wearing your sweater with an undergarment like a turtleneck or shell. You can purchase Dryel at your local grocery store or discount retail stores.
You can also have the garment professionally dry cleaned.
Happy Holidays and Thank you! Thank you to all who have made 2017 a very special year. Thank you to all of our retailers who purchased our products. We hope you enjoy selling our alpaca and wool products as much as we enjoy designing and producing them. Thank you to all of the customers who wear our products. We hope you enjoy the warmth, softness and how light weight alpaca is.
2017 has literally flown by. As I look out my window and the snowflakes are lazily coming down, it is hard to believe it is December already. I’ve been working on our new sock division designing new samples, working on new marketing and new distribution in 2017. For 2018 our customers will see an array of new sock designs. I am also working on new sweater and accessory designs. We are really seeing a lot of pattern coming out of Europe particularly eastern Europe. I find it energizing to see designs from different cultures being combined together to become one beautiful sweater or dress. It is on that note that we all come from different geographical areas, different perspectives and different interests, and we need to bring that uniqueness forward. Hopefully 2018 will be the year when we all come together and appreciate our differences and respect them and create a beautiful new environment for all. We at Tey-Art are wishing you all a wonderful relaxing and enjoyable Holiday season.