If you can just imagine this setting....
Some guy, from New York or Jersey, is getting out of the cab, and hollers across the street, "Okay already. Alpaca!" The muffled reply, "What? Youse goin' somewhere? You'll packa what?"
But that is NOT quite what I meant... An Alpaca is a special type of animal, not some slang word. This year, for Christmas, I receieved a very cherished gift. A warm and wooly cloak, made from Alpaca. The Alpaca is something likened to a llama, and is a native of Peru. It is a stout little fellow with LOTS of hair to share! They weigh about 120-175 lbs., and eat mainly hay and grass. Occasionally, they will eat tree leaves. In fact, 1 cow will eat as much as 10 Alpaca! These special beasts are 1-2 feet shorter than the average llama, and have long flat ears instead of curved banana-shaped ones. 
The Alpaca's wool-fiber comes in about 52 natural color shades!
Today, it is illegal to slaughter an Alpaca for it's meat. They are only bred for their wooly-fiber to make coats, sweaters, hats, socks, mittens and other wearables. The Alpaca fiber contains microscopic air pockets which give it powerful insulating value - which makes it ideal for human clothing. The Alpaca wool is similar to sheep's wool, but it is three times warmer, it is also silkier, and much lighter, and it bears very little lanolin. This makes Alpaca wool nearly hypo-allergenic! (Lanolin is a greasy yellow substance that acts like a water-proof skin ointment for wool-bearing critters.)
Europeans began spinning Alpaca wool in the late 1830's after several attempts to work with the silky stuff. Today, we have all sorts of amazing products to keep you warm and wooly in the weather to come.
1 comment:
hey dollin, good to see you to. I have the same prob. had to have a nap, now can't sleep :O) hope that you are feeling better. :O) we love ya..... lole
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