Every year alpacas grow several pounds of fiber that is harvested by shearing the animals. The blanket, which is the main part of the back has the best fiber and is what we use for knitting. All fiber is useable for a variety of purposes, so nothing is wasted.

The fleece is laid out and inspected for coarse hairs and vegetable matter, which is removed manually. Next, the fiber is tumbled to help loosen more dirt that falls to the ground leaving a cleaner fleece for further processing.

Fiber is washed using a gentle natural soap without agitation, so as to not felt the fiber. This helps remove additional dirt, but alpaca fiber has no lanolin, so washing is only needed to remove external contaminants. Next, the fiber is laid flat to air dry.

Cleaned fiber is processed through a picker. This process opens up the locks and prepares the fiber to travel through the rollers of the carder better. It helps produce a better product.

During the carding process, the fiber travel through multiple rollers to align in one direction, leaving one long row of fibers facing the same direction, called roving. This can either be used for hand spinners, or go to the next machine to prepare is for machine spinning.

Roving from the carder is further refined into pin-drafted roving. This step creates a more uniform and consistent roving that is stronger and better suited for machine spinning.

Once the fiber is in the form of roving it can enter the spinner. From here, the roving is spun into the size yarn that is desired, from very thin to thicker. After a single strand of yarn is done, these are then plied together to make the yarn ready for the knitting machine.

Next, the idea is transformed to the canvas, which is the M1Plus software. Many steps are involved to design, program and check the pattern, stitch length, speed and many more settings to ensure the scarf will knit successfully.

In the final step yarn is fed into the knitting machine to be knitted into a garment. The automated machine runs a sensor above the needles to determine which needle moves and what stitch pattern is requested. The designs are created in house and the machine can complete the tasks within 30 minutes!

When the knitted garments comes off the machine, there are several manual steps required to finish the product for the consumer. Technical yarns that aid during knitting must be removed, garments are cleaned and packaged, all of which takes time.