Alpaca and Llama Wool Yarns

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This week, buffalo fiber is showcased on their webpage:

What do you knit for someone truly special? If you can, you save your pennies and splurge on a glorious yarn, taking your time to knit an equally glorious gift from it. You try to find a yarn that, even in its natural state, whispers sweet nothings into the ears of its wearer.

I love working with different animal fibers. New blogger friend, Brenda at Split Rock Ranch, raises, trains, shears, and sells llama furs, and she even dyes and spins their fiber. One smart cookie, that Brenda. Here is what she sold me yesterday:


You can find her Etsy Store at this website: Split Rock Llama and Alpaca on Etsy.

This yarn is merino wool, handpainted and handspun in colors of fuchsia, burgundy, black and gray. I will combine it with a purple merino wool to create another baby sweater.

I asked Brenda at Split Rock Ranch about the properties of alpaca wool, and she replied with this:

Llama and alpaca are hollow fibers so they trap air and act as an insulator, very much like down. They are best spun fine(r) and knitted in smaller projects like scarves, hats, etc. unless they are spun laceweight. Because they don’t have “memory” like sheep’s wool, they can tend to get stretched out of shape if your garment is too bulky and heavy.

An open-work shawl done in llama wool would be gorgeous. Tip to make that skein stretch a bit farther - use big needles! That leaves a bit of space between stitches so the garment doesn’t get too hot.

Llama fiber will be a new experience (in my limited repertoire, at least) to use in knitting winter garments, so come on cold weather... those knitting needles are anxious for a workout with animal fibers.