Alpaca wool fibers don’t require aggressive fiber treatments, like merino wool. That means they maintain more hydrophobicity and are better suited than merino for base layer fabrics because they absorb less water – sweat moves more readily to the outside of the fabric before it has a chance to absorb into the fibers.
The higher levels of crimp in alpaca wool fibers also mean that it has better warmth-weight ratios due to high lofting fabrics.
The 160-weight is (currently) the lightest weight alpaca fabric available and is ideal for cool-weather base layers.
