By Mike Safley
The fiber from a species can be identified by its properties of scale height, frequency, and length. The photo below depicts eight different fibers; animal, plant, and man-made. It is easy to picture why coarse wool itches and why alpaca of identical micron has a softer hand than fine wool. Cashmere fiber's cuticles are less frequent making it more like suri, and silk is smooth and lustrous. The photo omits two fibers of great interest to alpaca breeders; suri and vicuña.
