With camelids, it’s all about the fiber.
January/February 2008
Derrie Frost
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iStockPhoto.com/Natasha Japp
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A strong demand for exotic animal fiber has created a market for everything from yak to buffalo to musk ox hair. Highly valued in spinning and weaving circles, llama and alpaca fiber has become a hot commodity, and garments made from the stuff are reaching more and more markets worldwide. High-quality llama fiber sells for about $3.25 per ounce, and the best alpaca fiber is available for about $4 an ounce. Guanaco and vicuña are very difficult to domesticate (they jump fences), and each vicuña produces only about a pound of the good stuff every couple of years, so their fiber is expensive. Guanaco fiber sells for around $30 an ounce, vicuña for about $225 an ounce.
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One way that spinnable material is measured is by the width of each fiber, in microns (1,000th of an inch). The vicuña and alpaca top the charts for fineness.
| Animal | Fiber Diameter |
| Vicuña | 6-10 microns |
| Alpaca (Suri) | 10-15 microns |
| Musk Ox (Qiviut) | 11-13 microns |
| Angora Rabbit | 13 microns |
| Cashmere (goat) | 15-19 microns |
| Yak Down | 15-19 microns |
| Guanaco | 16-18 microns |
| Merino (sheep) | 12-20 microns |
| Chinchilla | 21 microns |
| Mohair (goat) | 25-45 microns |
| Alpaca (Huacaya) | 27.7 microns |
| Llama (Tapada) | 20-30 microns |
| Llama (Ccara) | 30-40 microns |
Source: International Llama Association