Vol. 4, No. 01 February 2008
A Mill's Perspective

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by Dianne Kirk-Benincasa

http://www.shearstoyou.ca


THE JOY OF SOCKS

Most of us experience cold feet making alpaca socks the ideal gift – even for the person who has everything. 

Alpaca fibres grow with microscopic air pockets, providing natural insulation which makes alpaca several times warmer than wool.  Designed to keep alpacas dry, their fibre wicks moisture away from the body.   A favourite feature of alpaca socks is that they eliminate stinky feet.  Alpaca wicks the sweat away so there’s no moisture accumulation, bacterial buildup or odour!  Imagine your socks smelling nice enough that you could wear them twice!

The best alpaca socks aren’t just soft, dry, warm, cozy and nice  to touch and look at, but are also durable.  For this purpose heavier fibres (26-32 microns) will withstand more wear than finer fibres.  Likewise, two-ply yarn knitted into socks is more durable than single ply.  Through trial and error of  manufacturing, wearing a lot of prototypes and eliminating many possibilities we’ve come up with what we think (and our customers agree) are very durable socks that are more luxurious than anything most of us have ever worn! 

Are you so excited that you’re ready to jump out of your chair and get your fibre ready to send to us?  Then let me help you get organized as to what alpaca fibre makes the best socks. 

Here’s our trade secret.  If you want nice socks, send in nice fibre.  That’s it.  It’s not a difficult task, really.  We often have customers send us seconds and thirds to be made into socks.  They presume that since it’s just going to be on feet, it doesn’t have to be “nice”.  When I say “nice”, I mean uniform.  For batching fibre, uniformity is when all the fibres in the batch fall within a 2” in length and 3 microns in diameter range (e.g. 3” – 5” in length or 4” – 6” in length and perhaps 26 – 28 microns or 29 – 31 microns in diameter.) For processing the length range must be between 3” – 6”.

Let me simplify identifying this fibre.  If you have the histogram report for the BLANKET, use it to prepare.  The sample you sent in is from the BLANKET.  Therefore, if the report shows that Alpaca “A” ’s BLANKET is between 26 and 32 microns, this BLANKET is of the appropriate thickness to make durable socks.   When you dump the fleece out onto your skirting table to skirt out seconds, guard hair, second cuts, vegetation and other foreign matter, randomly select and measure any locks of fibre that are not being discarded.  Are they within a 2” variation?  If so, it is uniform enough to make a batch of yarn for socks that will feel “nice”. 

Again, consult your histogram reports and see which other alpaca BLANKET has a similar micron count.  Likewise, skirt unwanted debris from this BLANKET (Alpaca “B”) and confirm that it’s within the same 2” variation as Alpaca “A”. 

There!  You now have 2 blankets that can be used towards a batch of yarn that we can knit into socks.  Keep doing this until you reach at least 10 pounds, our minimum size for a batch of socks. 

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve used only BLANKET fibre.  We suggest this if you don’t have the skills to eyeball the micron count on your own.  The seconds are almost always a thicker micron count than the blanket of the same alpaca.  Bring us the seconds separately and we’ll help you sort them.  There may be seconds from other alpacas that will go well with the BLANKET from Alpaca “A” and Alpaca “B” to help increase the size of your sock batch.  However, it’s easier if you let our staff assess it and decide what should be added than it is to remove what may have been incorrectly added at your farm. 

Some might be concerned that they don’t have enough of one colour to make up 10 pounds.  Colour should be your last concern.  The first concern is uniformity of fibre – both length and diameter – so the socks feel as silky as possible and are as durable as possible.  If you have a variety of colours in your sock batch, they’ll come out a heathery, mixed shade and go with more colours in your wardrobe than a single colour.  Don’t worry about whether the colours will match or not.  All 22 colours of alpaca fibre are neutrals.  Neutrals don’t clash with each other.  They extend your wardrobe!