alpaca allergy?

[Beth-TX]

I knit a sweater out of Knit Picks Andean Silk yarn. Beautiful yarn, lovely sheen and drape and a dream to knit with. But I can't wear the sweater. It causes me to itch so intensly that I can't bear to wear it for more than a couple of minutes.

Is alpaca normally so itchy or am I unusually sensitive? I don't have any animal hair allergies (that I know of) and I don't have a problem wearing wool, even right next to my skin.

Because of the shape of the sweater, I can't really wear it with a shirt underneath. It would be too hot anyway. Is there anything I can do to make it softer or am I doomed to unravel it?

[flapjack]

I don't know about the knitpicks specifically, but alpaca has guard hairs which can prickle.

[Beth-TX]

Hm. Maybe that's it.

It's really too bad--it's a cute sweater (Hourglass from Last Minute Knitted Gifts).

[eepster]

Originally Posted by flapjack

I don't know about the knitpicks specifically, but alpaca has guard hairs which can prickle.

I think you're confusing alpacas with llamas. Alpacas have no guard hairs, but llamas do. However, their fleece does get courser and pricklier with age, and of course there is individual variation.

[flapjack]

That's odd. I have some inca cloud that I knitted a cardigan for DD from which had a lot of long white hairs sticking out of the yarn which I assumed were guard hairs. (It was a fuchsia yarn, they were pretty obvious.)