ALPACA SWEATERS

Alpaca Sweaters by Fanni Lemmermayer Messr.

Lemmermayer is a family enterprise and was founded in 1877. It was about 1920 that our firm started as the first mill to manufacture with alpaca in left-left stitch and we believe that we were able to develop an outstanding product.

The Andes are the spine of South America, 8000km long. This sterile country is the homeland of the Alpacas, belonging to the family of the camel. The Altiplano, a cold and windy plateau is in the Peruvian Andes and there we find the hairy Alpacas. They are now domesticated animals, reared through crossbreeding of the ancestors of the South American Camelids by prehistoric people. Since more than 5000 years the local shepards have made a living off this excellent wool. In this hardly populated region the animals are unrelinquishable comrades of the people.

The ancestors of the Alpacas settled in the extreme landscape, of South America, for which the steppe, the thin mountain air and the impassible terrain is characteristic. Sparse vegetation, little rain, burning heat in the daytime and bitter coldness at night are typical.

Alpaca V Neck Sweaters from Maus and Hoffman During their evolution, i.e. in the course of millions of years, the camels of South America developed perfect survival techniques in the rough wilderness of the Andes. For instance – under their hoofs they have pads of fat to help them conquer the stony slopes with secure footsteps. Their hearts and lungs became bigger to enable them to extend their living space up to the higher altitudes, areas with air too thin for other mammals. They developed fine and thick fur, providing them with the necessary protection and isolation from the bitter frost and dampness of the tableland. Their unique adaptation enables them to grass up to a level of 5000 metres. About 5000 years ago the mountain tribes started to tame the wild camels and crossbreed them, thus developing a domesticated animal with a very thick fur, the Alpaca.

Though the Altiplano is situated close to the Equator, it is, however, covered only with scant green, thus we find there are almost no human beings or animals. These tablelands show as well the characteristics of dessert as well as of grassland, and during the course of a year rainfall hardly exceeds the 800 mm margin. At noontime the heat is insufferable, whilst the temperature at nighttime drops below the freezing point. These are the reasons why Alpaca products show such agreeable properties i.e. only light warming and never hot on a mild summer night, and at wintertime, however, pleasantly warming and this in spite of their light weight.

The Alpaca stocks flourish in the north of South America for economical and social reasons. First, their fine wool is very valuable and second, they are perfectly fitted for the rough climate of the Country.

We hope we have given you enough information about Messr. Lemmermayer and their fine alpaca poducts.

See our Alpaca Sweaters and other sweater ranges online.

Top