FIBER ENCYCLOPEDIA

Alpaca  Member of the Camelid family which produces luxuriously soft fiber.
Batt  A sheet of carded wool taken from a hand or drum carder.
Blanket  Prime fleece from shoulder, mid-section and rump (2 sides).
Blend  Yarn obtained by mixing alpaca with different types of fiber through
combing or carding.
Blocking  the setting of yarn or garment.
Card  An implement used for opening and organizing fibers in order to spin them.
There are 2 types of cards hand and drum, both of which work to pull the fiber
apart between two facing sets of wire points.
Character  The evaluation of good breeding through the overall evaluation of the
fleece, i.e., handle, luster, staple length, density, softness and fineness.
Chili  Fleece that has consistencies of both Huacaya and Suri. Typically the
fleece is coarser than Suri and has no crimp.
Classification  Once skirted, fleeces are sorted and graded as to type, color
and quality prior to processing into yarn.
Combing  Another method used to separate and align fibers in preparation for
spinning by using hand combs.
Core Sampling  A method used to objectively test the quality of the fleece. A
sample is taken by drawing a narrow steel tube through the full length of a bale of
fleece. This sample is used to test the average fiber diameter and yield of clean
fiber.
Crimp  A natural waviness or curl along the length of the fiber.
Crinkle  The uneven wave along a single fiber. Differing from crimp, as crimp is
uniform which encourages the fibers to form locks.
Debris  Any vegetable matter or dirt found in a fleece.
Density  The number of hair follicles per square inch (or millimeter) measured by
counting the follicles on the skin.
Down  The finest hair, fur, fiber or feathers found on animals that have more than
one coat of hair, fur, fiber or feathers.
Fiber  The individual strand produced out of a single follicle from a fiber
producing animal. Non-fur or hair-like.
Fineness  The degree of quality of fiber or fleece which can be determined by
touch or scientific measurement.
Fleece  The coat of an alpaca or other woolbearing animal in the shorn and
unwashed state.
Flick Card  A small hand carder.
Guard Hairs  Thicker, wiry hairs a medullated animal fiber.
Hand (handle) The softness of fiber - how it feels when handled.
Histogram  The analysis of fiber utilizing scientific measurement and analysis. The analysis usually includes micron count, coefficient variation, standard variation and the percentage of fibers greater than 30 microns.
Huacaya  The most common type of alpaca in the World has dense, fluffy fiber
with the absence of guard hair.
Loft  Springiness of the fiber.
Lock  A naturally occurring single tuft of fleece (also called a staple).
Luster  A soft sheen caused by the light reflected from the rather large scales
forming the cuticle of the fleece.
Matchings  Portions of fleece which have been sorted into different qualities.
Matting  Fiber that has been tangled or matted.
Medullated Fiber  The central hollow core found in medium or course alpaca or
llama fibers. Coarse fiber (a.k.a. guard hair) consists of up to 90% medullated
fiber.
Micron  The measure of the diameter of natural fibers (.0000394 inch,
1/25,000 of an inch, or 1/1,000 of a millimeter).
Noils  Short/ broken fibers which remain after the processing of any long fibers
which cause lumps and bumps in the finished yarn. Noils reduce the durability and
increase the incidence of pilling.
Prime Fleece  The best part of fleece; normally the blanket area. (Tui fleece is
the best fleece that an animal will every produce usually the first full 12 months
after growth at shearing.)
Processing The act of transforming raw fleece into yarn and other finished
products.
Rolag A preparation of short-stapled wools used for spinning made by carding
the fibers, removing them into a rolled tube of fibers. This is done with the use
of a hand or drum carder.
Roving  Long, even strand of carded fibers which has been slightly twisted.
Used for spinning.
Scales  Flattened ridges that cover the fiber not visible to the naked eye.
Predominant in huacaya fiber.
Scouring  The removal of dirt, grease and vegetable matter from fleece by
thoroughly washing with soap or chemicals.
Second Cuts  Short pieces of fiber occurring due to inaccurate shearing.
Seconds  Fiber that is lesser quality than the prime fleece; usually from the
upper leg and neck area.
Shearing  To remove the fleece from the animal with a hand clip or electric
shearing blade.
Sliver  A continuous, untwisted strand of carded fibers.
Skirt  To remove areas of coarse, dirty or damaged fibers from the main fleece.
Specialty Fiber Fleeces from the camelid family - alpaca, llama, vicuna guanaco,
and camels; as well as fleeces from the goat family - mohair, cashmere, and
angora.
Spinning  The act of twisting or drawing fibers into yarn.
Staple  A lock of fiber.
Staple Length  Length of fiber from root to tip of the lock.
Suri  One of two breeds of alpaca with straighter wool that hangs in lustrous,
silky pencil-like locks similar to dreadlocks.
Tapada  Medium to long-wooled llama.
Wool  The hair or coat of a sheep, goat, llama, or alpaca, among other animals
with similar coverings. In the US fiber industry, the word wool is trademarked
as referring exclusively to sheeps wool.
Woolmark  A mark used by the wool textile industry to guarantee that the article
in question is made from pure sheeps wool.
Yield  The amount of usable fiber after processing, or the difference between
total and clean fleece weights.