The Alpaca

The alpaca is an animal, that by many, is known as the spitting lama. For the Peruvians the alpaca even though is allot more than just an animal that spits. More than 80% of all alpaca wool produced globally comes from Peru.

The alpacas live in the Andes mountains. The living conditions for the alpaca is best at highs above 3800 meters and in these cold regions the animals form a thick alpaca wool, which is more than five times warmer than wool from a sheep. The precious unique wool does not contain lanolin, the fibers are very durable, absorbs little water, they are lightweighted and best of all, the wool is incredibly soft and does not itch as it is the case with sheep’s wool. Once you have felt how soft alpaca wool is, you will not wear anything else. Because alpaca-wool is so warm, it is the perfect purchase for the cold winter weather.

There are 3 key classifications of alpaca wool, the Frisenvang products are made of two of the finest qualities:

• Royal alpaca wool is the finest, most expensive and softest, this wool is very rare and only 1% of all alpaca products sold are made of this quality.
• Baby alpaca wool, which is super-soft, is the second most expensive quality. Baby alpaca is present at both young an older animals but the percentage of baby alpaca is largest the first time wool is “harvested” from an alpaca. The Frisenvang natural handspun knitting yarns are spun from 100% babyalpaca wool. All the Frisenvang woven products and some of our sweaters are made of this quality.
• Fine alpaca is the third category of alpaca. It is also extremely soft and does not itch. The Frisenvang ponchos and several of our sweaters are knitted of 100% superfine alpaca.

The Frisenvang products bring the Peruvian colours to Denmark, Europe and the rest of the world. The Frisenvang handspun knitting yarn have the alpacas natural color (over 20 different varieties of colors) from white nuances, to brown and black shades, but Frisenvang also sell alpaca wool which is hand-dyed with natural Peruvian plant colors.

Our yarn is produced by a small independent community of women in Marcapata in the Andes mountains and out knitted products by two small local textile companies in Lima. You can find more information in the  section The Good Cause and Our story