Fibre & Processing Terminology
Most of the common terms you may hear about fibre & processing
Skirting – The manual task of removing lower-grade & shorter fibre, debris, faeces & vegetable matter from fleece in preparation for processing (or showing) to create a uniform batch of fibre. Please click HERE to read more about how to skirt.
Apron – the coarse fibre that forms around the chest of the alpaca.
Architecture – general structure & lay of fibres within the staples or locks, which go together to make up the fleece as a whole.
Baby alpaca (fibre) – this does not refer to the age of the alpaca; baby alpaca is an American term for describing fine fleece.
Bale – a bag, sack, square or oblong package into which fibre is compressed. A common form is a bale weighing between 100 & 200kg.
Batt or Batting – sheets or rolls of carded fibre for padding, quilting, and felting.
Belly – fibre from the abdomen of the alpaca which is usually of a lesser quality & length than the prime blanket.
Blanket – the part of an alpaca’s fleece that extends from the neck to just short of the tail & down towards the belly & into shoulders & haunches. This is usually the best fleece an alpaca can produce.
Brightness – the term used to describe the property by which light is reflected by huacaya fleece; brightness in suri fibre is referred to as lustre.
Brittle fibre – long tapering & dry fibre which is usually caused by weathering. Not suited to mill processing.
Brushing – a finishing process for knitted or woven fabrics in which brushes or other abrading elements are used to raise a nap
Carding – a mechanical process that disentangles, further cleans & intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing.
Character – the overall evaluation of a fleece or lock is based on the handle, staple length, fineness, density, brightness /lustre, and softness.
Classing – the grouping of fleeces according to type & quality, usually combined with sorting.
Clip – the fleece gathered from a herd after shearing.
Coarse – fibre of large diameter, sometimes also called strong.
Coarse Edge Micron (CEM) The distance (in microns) between the average diameter & the finest extremity of the coarsest 5% of fibres. CEM is used to assess the influence of primary fibres within a sample
Comfort Factor (CF) – expressed as a percentage of fibres less than 30microns in any given sample
Cone – yarn wound onto a cardboard inner bobbin.
Cortex – the main shaft or body of the fibre, lying within a layer of cuticular scales & surrounding the medulla, if present, as in certain types of “hairy” fibres. The cortex consists of long narrow cells.
Cotted – fleece that is matted together (usually) on the alpaca; cotting causes processing problems.
Cria shearing – young alpacas are shorn in the first weeks of life to remove the velcro-like tips which attract & retain all manner of debris. Removing some of the in-utero fibre will enable the fleece to be more useable & much easier to prepare (skirt) ahead of processing.
Crimp – the even, corrugated wave formation in a single fibre of huacaya fleece.
Density – the number of fibres in a specific area of an alpaca’s body.
Direction of twist – the direction in which the fibre has been spun. To determine the twist, hold the yarn in a vertical position & examine the angle of the spiral. The angle of the S-twist will correspond to the centre portion of the S. The angle of the Z-twist will correspond to the centre portion of the Z. Plying is usually in the opposite direction to spin.
Felting – the irreversible tangling of fibres together, more often during scouring when the fibre is shocked by a sudden change in water temperature; also refers to the deliberate creation of a fabric made by wet or needle felting.
Fibre – the fleece of the alpaca. It is an animal protein fibre more often likened to hair. Alpacas are single-coated, unlike other species.
Fibre curvature (CRV) – expressed in degrees/millimetres. Generally, usually higher curvature is associated with higher crimp frequency.
Fibre testing – scientifically measuring specific traits across fleeces. Provided information on a histogram will help not only with breeding decisions but use of fibre too. We recommend that fibre testing is carried out 6 weeks before shearing to enable fibre choices to be made in advance of shearing day.
Fineness – the diameter, in microns, of individual alpaca fibres.
Flannel – a lightweight, soft cloth in plain weave with a slightly napped finish which may be woollen or worsted. Various types & weights are used for coats, suits, sportswear etc.
Fleece – the ‘coat’ of the alpaca
Fluff – skirted, tumbled, scoured & picked fibre suitable for stuffing & craft projects & when graded & sorted, for hand spinning.
Fulling – a finishing process in which the woven or knitted cloth is subjected to moisture, heat & friction causing it to shrink in both directions & become compact & solid. In heavily fulled fabrics both the weave & the yarn are obscured, thus giving a similar appearance to felt.
Greasy weight – fleece as it is shorn, before any skirting or processing.
Guard hair – thicker, straighter & longer fibres found in the fleece which should be removed during skirting.
Handle – the way alpaca fibre feels when touched; sometimes used interchangeably with softness.
Histogram – a graphical display of numerical data at a given time showing the distribution of the average fibre diameter (AFD) in the sample.
Kemp – brittle, chalky white & weak fibre found as an impurity in the fleece.
Lanolin – sometimes called yolk, is a secretion from the sebaceous glands. Alpaca fibre has a very small amount of lanoline, unlike sheep’s wool.
Lock – a bundle of fibre within the fleece of suri. Huacaya have staples, rather than locks.
Lustre – the sheen, gloss or shine of the fleece & fibre, due to the reflection of light off the smooth scales of each fibre.
Medullated – hair fibres which have a hollow core or medulla; often called guard hair, but alpaca also contains varying degrees of medullated or part medullated fibre.
Micron – a measure of fineness used in fibre breeding & production. One micron is one-millionth of a metre; when fibre is tested for fineness it is expressed in microns (µm).
Neps – a small knot of tangled fibres, usually consisting of short, dead or immature fibre.
New Metric (Nm) – a count system based on 1,000 metres of yarn per kilogram. The first number refers to the number of strands plied together. The second number tells you how many hanks of 1,000-metre lengths of a single ply of yarn would weigh one kilogram eg 9/2Nm.
New Metric Count (Nm) = length of yarn in meters (m) / weight of yarn in grams (g)
Noils – short fibres removed during the combing process.
Noodling – the rolling of fleeces post-shearing to retain geography & integrity. By using a noodling medium, fibres are prevented from contacting & contaminating each other because cut fibre sticks like velcro! The fleece complete with a medium is rolled into a modern sleeping bag shape, taped closed & put into a named bag. Please click here for how to noodle.
Picking – the mechanical process of opening scoured fibre before final preparation for carding.
Ply – several single yarns twisted together to form plyed yarns eg 2 ply, 4 ply, DK etc. The UK has a different method of describing yarn from the USA & Australia whose yarn weights are categorised using the ‘ply’ system, which is based on the number of strands twisted together to create the yarn. In the UK, ply is used as a term to describe the weight of the yarn & not the number of singles twisted together. The more singles twisted together the stronger the yarn.
Plying – the twisting together of singles to form a stronger plyed yarn or thread.
Prickle factor – the tendency for coarser fibres to produce irritations on the skin. Essentially, fibres over 30 microns in diameter tend to bend less and produce a painful “poking” sensation on the skin’s surface.
Prime fleece – the best fleece an alpaca can produce.
Processing report sheet – provided to our clients with a complete record at each stage of processing together with metreage, fibre loss as a percentage of clean weight & any relevant comments to assist in future processing choices.
Roving – a preparatory process used only for ring spinning; drawn carded or combed slivers are fed into a roller drafting system where the linear weight is reduced to a size that is optimum for the yarn count to be spun & delivered in a uniform coil of parallel fibre. Rovings can be used by hand spinners & for craft / felt projects.
Scouring – washing of previously prepared & tumbled fibre; usually at low temperature due to the lack of lanolin in alpaca fibre.
Second cuts – small pieces of short fleece that remain in the fibre, caused by shearing the same area twice. This will cause processing issues &they should be removed during skirting.
Single – an unplied yarn of any diameter.
Skein – a wound coil of a set length, referred to as a hank in Europe & USA.
Skirting – The manual process (& hugely important task) of removing lower-grade, shorter fibre, debris, faeces & vegetable matter from fleece in preparation for processing (or showing) to create a uniform batch of fibre.
Sliver – created by carding fibre & removing in a long usually coiled length with a little twist.
Sorting – the separation of the whole fleece into graded parts, as well as removing the out-sorts.
Spinning – the process of winding together drawn-out/drafted strands of fibres to form a single.
Spinning Fineness is expressed in microns & provides an estimate of the performance of the medium when it is spun into yarn.
Standard Deviation (SD) – a measurement to indicate the degree of variation in fibre diameter within a fibre sample ie how far from the average the spread of micron values are. The lower the SD (ie closer to 1) the better the uniformity.
An SD of 5.0 indicates that there is a spread of 10 micron variation in the fleece. A 20-micron fleece with an SD of 5.0 will have fibres as fine as 15-microns and as strong as 25-micron – a deviation from the average of -/+ 5 microns. Lower SD fleeces (meaning they are more uniform) have better handle & higher processing yields.
Staple – a single bundle of huacaya fibre. Suri fibre has locks.
Staple length – the average length of fibre in a fleece measured from the skin to the tips of the individual fibres
Tender – fibre which has a distinct weakness or break; usually the result of health issues or stress. Not suitable for mechanical processing but is usually OK for hand spinning.
Tensile strength – the ability of fibre to resist breaking either during processing or by pulling/snap testing with the hands. Alpaca fibres have a tensile strength in the general range of 50 N/ktex, sheep’s wool 30-40N/ktex (expressed as Newtons of force, “N,” are required to break a fibre of a given thickness measured in kilotex/ktex.)
Tex – number indicates how many grams a thread of 1000m length weighs. The unit is expressed in Tex. eg 20 tex means: 1000 m of the yarn weighs 20g. The smaller the tex number, the finer the thread or yarn; the larger the tex number, the thicker the thread.
Tips / tippy – refers to the fragile ends usually of cria fleece; during mill processing these tips naturally come away from the stronger staples & locks. perfectly normal & nothing to be concerned about.
Transition line – this is the imaginary line parallel to the spin where fibre changes in both quality & length. Transition lines vary from alpaca to alpaca and from side to side on a single alpaca.
Tumbling – a mechanical continuation of the skirting process to remove grit, some shorter & coarser fibre; it does not remove vegetable matter, nor replace skirting.
Top – a continuous strand of partially manufactured fibre, which has been scoured, carded and combed to an intermediate stage in the process of worsted yarn.
Uniformity – the degree of consistency in a fleece from one area to another in fineness, staple length, character, colour & density. Referred to as Standard Deviation (SD) when scientifically measured- see above for SD definition.
Vegetable matter (VM) – any material of plant origin or found in the fleece, such as burrs, sticks, weeds, bedding, hay & seed heads which should be carefully removed (or prevented) when skirting. Anything which is not required in your yarn/end product should be removed from the blanket fibre. Prevention is better than cure!
Web – produced by carding fibre & not taking off as a sliver.
Woolen – a system of processing that utilises the shorter length fibre within a grade. Yarn tends to be less even with obvious fibre protruding.
Worsted – a system of processing that utilises the longer length fibres within a grade. Yarn tends to be finer & smoother & considered by some to be superior to woollen spun yarns.
Yarn – a continuous strand of fibres arranged in a form (usually plyed) suitable for weaving, knitting, or any other form of fabric assembly. Spun alpaca is referred to as yarn.
Yield – the amount of fibre sheared from a particular alpaca; also a processing term relating to the percentage of the clean fibre after removing the vegetable matter & washing out the natural grease & dirt.
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