Definitions and Terms
APRON: Coarse
fiber which forms an over coat around the chest of the
alpaca.
ARCHITECTURE: Pertaining
to the fleece: the general structure and lay of
fibers within the locks which go together
to make up the fleece as a whole.
Batt or Batting : Sheets or rolls of carded wool or other fiber or
mixtures
thereof which is used for woolen spinning or for
stuffing,
padding, quilting, and felting.
BELLY FIBER: Fiber
harvested from the belly, usually of a coarser quality.
BLANKET: The
back and side of a fleece from. the base of the neck to the
base of the tail and the sides from the back bone to the belly
including the haunches. BREAK:
A weakening of fibers in the
staple which will break under strain.
BRIGHTNESS: The
property by which fiber reflects light.
BRITCH FIBER: Fiber
off the lower thigh of the rear leg of the alpaca.
BRITTLE FIBER: Long tapering dry tips usually caused by weathering.
BURRY FIBER:
Fiber contaminated with burrs (seeds,
etc.)
CARPET FIBER: Coarse
hairy fiber. .
CLASSING: Grouping
of fleeces according to type and quality.
CHARACTER: The
characteristics of fiber lock or fleece determined by
qualitative evaluation of crimp, staple
length and configuration, handle or softness, and. luster. It indicates good breeding and
growth.
CONSISTENCY: Uniformity
throughout a fleece of fineness, staple length,
character (crimp, ‘staple configuration, hand) and density.
COARSE: Fiber
of large diameter and low count.
COTTED: Fiber
naturally felted on the animal.
COUNT: Refers
to Bradford Count, a method of indirectly assessing fiber
diameter.
COVERAGE: The
distribution of continuously growing fiber over the
alpaca’s body, neck, legs and head.
CRIMP: The
waviness found along the length of the individual fibers
throughout the blanket. The waviness in crimp occurs uniformly in
the fibers of the lock in the same plane.
CRUTCHINGS: Fiber
from the britch and inner thighs.
CURL: Waviness
found along the length of individual fibers throughout the
blanket that lies randomly in different
planes and gives the fleece a curled looking appearance, e.g. Suri
alpacas. DAGS: Lumps of dung.
DEBRIS: Material
that can be found contaminating a fleece.
DENSI1Y:
Number of fibers per square unit measurement of the alpaca’s
body.
ELASTICITY: The
ability of a fiber to recover it’s original size and shape
after extension.
FELTING: The
irreversible tangling of fibers together.
FLEECE WEIGHT: The yield or weight of the spinnable fiber from
shearing. To be relevant, the age of the
alpaca, the particular shearing (Le., first or subsequent) should be identified
and the length of time the fleece was on the animal.
FIBER FINENESS: Refers to the fineness of the individual fiber and
is
measured in microns
GENERAL TENDERNESS: Fibers break in . random locations along the
fibers. Indicates generally
weakened fleece.
GUARD HAIR: The
somewhat thicker, straighter and longer fibers found in
the fleece.
HANDLE OR HAND: The tactile quality of the fleece to the hand.
LOCK: A
naturally occurring tuft of fiber within the fleece.
LUSTRE: The
sheen, gloss or shine of the fleece and fiber. .
MATTING: The
inextricable meshing of fibers in: the fleece.
MICRON: A
unit of measurement equal to one thousandth of a millimeter. .
MUSHY: Fiber
lacking in character. Reece wool with weathered and worn
tips which cause irregularity of fiber
length in processing.
NOILS: Tangles
that occur as a result of short fiber contamination.
OPEN FLEECE: A
type of fleece (as Shetland sheep or camelids) which
does not hang together as a unit and tends
to have lower grease content, as opposed to a closed coat (for example, Merinos
and most fine wooled breeds of sheep) where the wool surface does not open and
is characterized by high grease content.
PRIME FIBER: The
best quality fiber that a particular alpaca has to offer. This may include some
neck fiber.
SECOND CUTS: Short
pieces caused by poor shearings. .
SEEDY FIBER: Fiber
containing seeds.
SKIRTING: Fiber
of lower grade removed from fleece.
SILKNESS: Smoothness
and slipperiness of fiber.
SOFTNESS: The
tactile quality of the fleece.
SORTING: Breaking
of a fleece up into qualities.
SOUND: Fiber
without breaks or tenderness.
STAPLE: Single
lock of fiber.
STAPLE LENGTH: The average length of.
fiber within the fleece when
measured from its point of origin at the
animals skin to the tips of the individual fiber.
STRESS BREAK: occurs
at one point across the fibers in the locks.
SUN BLEACHING: The changing of color of the tips of locks when exposed
excessively to the sun. This can
also be the cause of damage
by drying out the tips of
locks and causing tenderness at the
tips.
TIPPY: A
form of lock which indicates the fibers within the lock are not all
close to the same length. The more “tippy”
the lock the greater the
disparity in the fiber length. Since fiber growth rate in the blanket
.is roughly inversely proportional to the
diameter of the fiber, a
lock with a wide variety of fiber lengths
will also have a wide
variety of fiber diameters, that is to
say, an inconsistent lock.
TENDERNESS FIBER: Weakness in the fiber. It may be general, which
results in breaks at random places in the
fibers in the lock under tension, or it may be a stress tenderness, where all
of the fibers
break in the same place along their length,
indicating something
happened at one point in the growth of the
fleece to produce a
break at that point.
UNIFORMITY: Refers
to the degree. of consistency from one area to
another .within the fleece of fineness,
staple length, character (crimp, staple configuration, hand) and density. .
YIELD: The
amount of. clean fiber obtained from a particular alpaca.