Alpaca Wool Shawl
Alpaca wool is a great source for shawls, sweaters, sock or anything else you would like to be cuddly and warm. The wording of alpaca wool shawl is actually some what of a misnomer though. Alpaca fur is not wool, wool is used to describe the fur of a sheep. An Alpaca wool shawl is really made of what is called Alpaca fiber.
Alpaca wool (if you will) comes in excellent variety of 52 colors naturally. Unnaturally it comes in virtually any color imaginable. Dies can make an Alpaca wool shawl a myriad of rainbow colors in Peruvian geometric patterns, shapes and lines.
If you were to talk about an Alpaca wool shawl to a true Alpaca breeder, they would probably be offended at the mention of wool being compared to Alpaca fiber. (OK, maybe I made that one up, but as an Alpaca I would be offended being referred to basically as a sheep) Alpaca wool is usually as soft as cashmere and lighter than wool would be. It has the wonderful combination of being both a strong and fine natural material. An alpaca wool shawl is approximately 3 to five times warmer than the wool of a sheep would be by weight.
Alpacas have been producing strong and warm clothing for the Peruvians for a thousand years. The facts are now though, that true Peruvian alpaca wool shawls are of a lesser quality than the ones you find woven on our own American soil. Why is that, the Alpaca fiber is such a huge business in Peru that everything is pretty much mass factory produced leading to lesser quality that the home spun local resources. I guess the bottom line is, try and source the materials for your next Alpaca wool shawl from a local Alpaca farmer and have a softer better end product.