Our animals work year round to give you the
softest, most exquisite fibers.
Starting with the raw fleeces, everything we make is carefully processed here on our farm under the watchful eye of our guanaco herd. No fiber we sell measures over 19 microns.
And it is all toasty warm and luxurious.
It’s a slow and beautiful process to watch the wool emerge clean and springy after scouring, to celebrate the depth of color that the guanaco adopts in the botanical dye pots, and to smile at the luster that our pygora fiber reveals after several passes through the dehairing combs.
What’s so special about guanaco fiber?
Tips on working with guanaco fiber
- The downy undercoat of a guanaco is considered the second finest natural fiber in the world, after the vicuna.
- The hair fiber is warm, soft, lightweight, water resistant, and durable.
- The fiber measures about 16-18 microns. Processing guanaco fleece is time consuming. The coarse guard hairs must be removed. Hand de-hairing is intricate but more effective than machine de-hairing.
- Each animal produces only 1 or 2 pounds of usable fiber every 18 months or so.
- The staple length is short. Ranging from 1 ½-3 inches the fiber is tricky to spin. For this reason, it is often blended with longer, more crimpy fibers like fine wool.