People who process alpaca fiber into products are well aware that dark fleece behaves differently than lighter fleece in processing as well as in many final products. Even if the fineness and uniformity of a batch of dark fleeces is identical to that of a batch of white, for instance, the yarns made from those fleeces will be denser (and heavier) at the same gauge and exhibit less memory, making its performance in end products different than yarns made from light fiber. The reason for the difference is that the fibers making up the fleeces at the darker end of the spectrum of alpaca colors have less curvature than those from lighter-colored fleeces of similar fineness and length. The question is, why? The analysis below hints at a possible answer.
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