Fibers

Wool

When Don Juan de Onate colonized New Mexico in 1598 he brought the churro sheep. This changed the life of Northern New Mexicans. The Pueblo Indians quickly adopted the wool from these sheep into their blankets and clothing. After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 the Spanish Colonists began a textile industry that sustained them over the next 300 years.

Sheep played a vital role in the life of New Mexicans as well as cultures throughout the world. Wool is threaded through our literature with legends of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, Odysseus escaping the Cyclops' cave by hanging onto the woolen underbelly of a giant ram, and Penelope nightly unraveling her weaving to delay suitors until Odysseus's return. Salome's veils may have been wool, and so probably was the carpet that Cleopatra used to smuggle herself in to see Caesar.

For 12,000 years this fiber has been woven on the loom of civilization as an integral part of human life. Wool's unique properties make it particularly suitable for both carpets and clothing. Wool Fibers have minute overlapping scales or plates, all pointing in one direction like tiles on a roof. In one inch of wool fiber there may be 2,000 overlapping shingles. Air trapped between these fibers gives wool its insulating quality. The surface of each fiber is water resistant and its interior is highly absorbent. Wool can feel warm even when wet. As wool absorbs moisture from the air the fibers liberate heat. A single gram of wool gives off 27 calories of heat when it goes from dry to wet. The presence of water, plus the protein keratin, makes wool naturally flame resistant, requiring a higher temperature to ignite than other natural fibers.

Wool, like other natural fibers, is biodegradable and returns in time to its constituent elements.

Alpaca

The alpaca is a South American camelid domesticated over 7,000 years ago for its magnificent fiber. Originally restricted to the nobility of pre-historic cultures, alpaca has long been recognized by the designer clothing industry as an incomparable natural fiber. Originally imported into North America in the mid-1980's, the number of alpacas in the United States now exceeds 30,000 and the population is expected to increase exponentially over the next 10 years.

Tapetes de Lana with the help of the Alpaca Fiber Coop of North America and Rachel Hendrickson, General Manager of the Heartland Ranch Alpacas and Country Store, has begun to work at the development of an alpaca yarn spun in the United States. This yarn will use the coarse alpaca fiber that is currently awaiting a suitable spinning process and the development of end products that will be profitable for both the weavers at Tapetes de Lana and the Alpaca Breeders of North America. We will also be working with alpaca yarns spun in Peru.