Alpaca wool: from our herd to your bag

Every spring: shearing day

Alpacas need to be shorn once a year, for their own comfort in summer. For us that happens every spring, between April and June. The fleece we harvest then is very soft and forms the basis for our bags of wool.

From fleece to bag

After shearing, the wool is cleaned and divided into handy bags of 10, 20 and 40 grams. It is a 100% natural product: you use the wool exactly as it is, dry and unprocessed. Because it is a natural product, there may occasionally be a wisp of straw or a grain of sand in it.

Why lanolin-free is pleasant

Alpaca wool is naturally free of lanolin (wool grease) and much finer and softer than sheep’s wool. That makes the wool pleasant to use: you hardly feel the tuft in your sock. And because it contains no wool grease, the wool is also pleasant for people who cannot tolerate lanolin. The wool is also naturally lightweight, water-repellent and thermoregulating.

Many walkers know our wool as Four Days Marches wool: they use it to reduce friction and pressure on sensitive spots. You can read how that works and how to apply it on the alpaca wool against blisters page.

Using the wool yourself

You can order the bags of wool all year round in the alpaca wool shop. We ship with PostNL within the Netherlands (€4.95, usually within 1 to 3 working days), or you can collect them in Malden by appointment. That is how the wool goes straight from our herd to your bag.