The Alpaca Luxe Story

Alpaca Luxe: A premium luxurious yarn base suitable for shawls and light garments.

4 Ply Fingering Weight
Approx 115 grams - 460 metres (503 yards)
60% superwash Merino, 20% Alpaca, 20% Silk
Gentle handwash, dry flat in the shade

The Alpaca in this yarn base comes from the Peruvian Andes, sourced from smaller farmers whose way of life is their animals, the mill works closely with the alpaca farmers to improve breeding programs and help them to produce the best alpaca in the world. The sorting of this Alpaca is quite extraordinary, the fibres are sorted by micron and by colour by highly skilled local women.

Shearing takes place once a year and fleeces collected, these go to be sorted.  The fibre arrives in sacks ready for unpacking and sorting. 

The sorting is a highly skilled job, the fleeces are sorted for their natural colour (around 22 natural for alpaca) and micron (how fine it is), this is generally done by women because they are considered to have a better ability to distinguish the micron than men. 

Supporting the local people of the Andes

Because of the sheer enormity and vastness of the highlands, people mainly live in small communities which are spread out. To access school, children often have to walk hours to school in all weathers. The Mirasol school now has 47 children from ages of 5 - 14, the children are selected from families in the surrounding area who would benefit from going to the school, it makes sense to make it a boarding school because some of the children live so remotely that traveling in everyday isn’t easy.  This gives them more time to study. 

School Sponsorship

The mill who supplies this yarn sponsors the education of 5 children a year at the school, and also provide extra funding for things they might need. That means that you as our customers are helping to make this happen, the school is a very special place and the education they receive has incredible impact on these children’s lives, giving them better opportunities for the future. The children work hard at their studies, have ample play time, help to cook, and take responsibility for cleaning their spaces.

We hope that you love this yarn base as much as we do. It's truly special to use and wear and you are supporting small business and independent dyers, famers and mills.