Pinnacle Peak Llama Ranch
Fleece












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Handwoven & handspun - 100% Llama

LLAMA FLEECE
 
Llamas produce a soft, usable fleece.  The fleece from a llama is comprised of natural animal protein fibers with microscopic characterisitics of hair.  It is made into soft, warm yarns which are used in knitting and weaving. 
 
Llama fiber has two parts: the undercoat and the guard hairs.  The fine undercoat can be extremely fine - as low as 20 microns (in rare cases, even lower), and the guard hairs are defined as 30 microns or larger.  All llama fleeces have a percentage of guard hair, and this number can vary.  The lowest percentage of guard hair found has been 7%, from what I have been told, although I have had fleeces tested with a guard hair percentage as low as 4% or 5% by Yocom-McColl Testing Laboratories.
 
Fleeces are broken down into 3 different types of fiber: double-coat, single-coat and suri.  Double-coat fleece is a fleece which contains guard hair that is visibly coarser and longer than the finer undercoat fibers.  Single-coat fleece is fleece that has a minimal difference between the micron count of the undercoat fibers and the guard hairs, and single coat fleece has a very silky hand to it and nice luster.  Suri fleece is fleece which has fibers that are straight with no crimp whatsoever, and it has a cool hand and nice luster. 
 
Crimp refers to "the organized or uniform waviness in an individual lock of fiber".  It is what gives a fleece it's insulation value, creating tiny air spaces between the fibers. 
 
Knitting projects require some "give" to the yarn, and so the double coat fleeces are wonderful for yarns for knitting due to the crimp in the fiber.  Suri fleeces, since they by definition have no crimp at all, would not be recommended for use in a yarn which requires some "give", but weaving projects which require that shape be maintained are a great end-use for suri llama fiber.  Single-coat fleeces also make wonderful yarns for weaving, and they have a "silky" texture to them.
 
Llama fiber also has a lot of luster to it, especially the suri llama fiber since it has no crimp to it.  Luster refers to a fiber's ability to reflect light.  Other characterisitcs of llama fiber are that it is lightweight, lanolin and grease-free, strong, warm and available in 22 natural colors.  Llama fiber also dyes extremely well and can be dyed using the same methods as sheep's wool.  The negative characteristics of the fiber are that it is susceptible to sunlight, moths love it, and it has little elasticity as compared to wools.  I have found that when weaving with llama there is minimal shrinkage in the finished piece.

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Shorn Llama Fleece
















PREMIER FIBER WORKS
 
Yarns are available in all colors - from white, black, brown, gray, fawn, reddish brown, off-white, etc.  Our llama fleece is available as raw fleece or already processed into roving, ready to be spun.
 
Prices range from $6 to $8 per ounce for our handspun, 2-ply sportweight llama yarns.  Higher prices reflect the higher quality and fineness of the fiber.  Our yarns are hand-picked with zero vegetal matter in them and are ready for use in any project.  Raw fleece ranges from $1 to $2 per ounce, again depending on which fiber.  Colors available are white, off-white, fawn, gray, red brown and heather brown.
 

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Llama Yarns

We also do a small amount of custom fiber processing and spinning.  We are not a mill, and it is all done by hand, so we are not set up for large quantities or very debris-contaminated fleeces.
 
Novelty yarns are available on an in-stock basis.  We currently have a small range of hand-dyed silks (1-ply and 2-ply), as well as a variety of merino/ silk blends and merino/mohair (shown in picture) which are spiral-plied with a cashmere/silk blend.
 
Alpaca yarns are also usually in stock and are available in a variety of colors, depending on what fleeces come in.  We currently have some incredibly fine off-white alpaca yarns which were spun as a laceweight 2-ply.
 
Please contact Pam via email for information on yarns, fleece and fiber processing.
















For a look at what I am currently working on, click on these links:
Harmony scarves

This page is currently being constructed.  Please keep checking back for new, updated information and pictures.

Pamela Tait
Pinnacle Peak Llama Ranch
Premier Fiber Works
PO Box 50026
Parks, Arizona  86018
602-361-2904