Alpaca is one of the finest and most luxurious fibres in the world. It is known for its softness, superior warmth, lightweightedness and durability. It won't form pellets and will last much longer than synthetic fibres. I started to knit with Alpaca wool recently and I did not expect how lovely it could be.
I can just say "here is my design" and that's it. Only I know how much effort is hidden in these words.
Making swaches, stitch by stitch, washing and drying it to see how fluffy the yarn is, a lot of fibers had wool-like softness. I patiently waited for two days to let it dry.
But the lovely dried swach sometimes isn't suitable for a hat design: it's wider or more narow than I expected and I can not include four and a half repeats around a head. It needs to be four or five. But five, let's say, flower pattern repeats make a hat wider than needed and four repeats make it too narrow... So I probably need to remake the flower pattern and try to make a new swach. And wash it, and let it dry again... Anyway, I like the proccess!
Ok, what can I knit with Alpaca wool? - Winter stuff.
What do my potential customers look like? Gender, age, location, interests and so on.
They could easily be from any country worldwide thanks to the wonders of the internet, but they could also be people with Irish roots living abroad.
What I know for sure, however, is that they like to keep themself cosy wherever they go, whether that is skiing (and other outdoor activities) or simply going to their local grocery store. A hat made with Alpaca wool is a brilliant solution for that.
I go through all steps described above and I produce luxury alpaca handmade hats designed in Ireland. You will find examples of them below.
And they're available at My Etsy store. I carry 19-24 inches sizes.
Nadia
