Alpacas belong to the camelid family which includes the llama, guanaco, vicuna and camels and come in all colours from white to black with several shades of grey. There are thought to be around three million in the world, of which over 90 per cent are in Peru. Alpacas stand about three foot at the shoulder and weigh on average 65kg. A baby alpaca is called a cria.

There are two types of alpaca: the huacaya which represents around 90 per cent of the alpaca population worldwide and has a fleece similar to a sheep; and the suri, which has a fleece that resembles 'dreadlocks' hanging straight down. Alpacas have been farmed for over 6,000 years. It is believed they were originally bred by the ancient Incas of South America. Until the Spanish conquest of South America about 500 years ago, alpacas would still have been found in large numbers, but many alpacas grazing the lowland plains were slaughtered to make way for cattle and sheep. Since then, the remaining alpacas have been mainly farmed high up on the Alte Plano by the native Indians, for fibre and food. During this time many of the alpacas were poorly bred and crossed with llamas: this resulted in a decline in the quality of the alpaca fibre. It is this potential to produce extremely fine and hard-wearing fibre with excellent thermal qualities that has seen the alpaca emerge from South America to be bred in many countries around the world.

The fibre is graded according to its fineness which is measured in 'microns', the very best being sub 20 microns. Most would be between 20 and 30 microns, above which the fibres become too coarse and prickly to be worn next to the skin and are more suited to furnishing, carpets and rugs.