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High Quality Premium Hypoallergenic 100% Wool! Alpaca is an animal that lives in the highlands of the Andes Mountains. Alpaca is known for its soft, warm and lightweight texture. The wool is renewable and sustainable and causes no harm to the animals. These products are hand knit by cottage industry. Women knit in their homes or gather together in small groups in comfortable environments while earning a fair wage per piece. What You Need To Know About Alpaca Wool: -While similar to sheep's wool, but it is warmer, not prickly, and has no lanolin, which makes it hypoallergenic. -Alpaca is naturally water-repellent and difficult to ignite. -It is a soft, durable, luxurious and silky naturalfiber. -Ranches raise the Alpaca's for their soft, warm fleece which is sheered off (cut-off) about once a year. -No Alpaca's are killed or injured in obtaining their fleece. Instead, they simply get a haircut once a year - not so different than normal sheep which are sheered once a year for their wool. -So what makes Alpaca fleece different than normal wool? The softness. Alpaca fleece is significantly softer than normal wool. The best comparison for Alpaca fleece is that it is roughly equivalent in softness and insulating abilities to Merino wool, which is used in Ugg Boots, Smartwool socks and other hearling products from New Zealand and Australia. Additionally, Alpaca fleece, similar to Merino Wool, does not have the "scratchy" feeling that normal wool has. -Similar to other wool, the fleece from Alpaca's are very warm - actually much warmer than normal sheep wool. The fleece has hollow air-fibers that provide superb insulation - even when wet. -A good rule of thumb is that if you positively can't wear any normal wool products due to itch and irritation, you'll always be safe buying an Alpaca wool product.