I’m sure you’ve heard the joke about sweaters made completely from alpaca: if it’s too short, wear it a while and it’ll be the right length by the end of the day. Alpaca fiber has poor memory as very briefly touched upon in the curvature section of my post: Field Trip to Yocom McColl: Interpreting that Histogram Report. It just doesn’t snap back well to its original shape once stretched. This may be something you are aiming to improve in your breeding program or it may not be a priority at all. As it is, the current trend to favoring higher frequency crimp styles certainly will improve the memory of alpaca fiber, though to what degree is unknown. In the meantime, there are processing solutions to the memory problem – most commonly, blending alpaca fiber with other fibers. Blending in other fibers with greater memory at 10-20% gives you the qualities of alpaca while adding in some memory. The most common blends are with wool, silk, and also cellulose fibers such as cotton and bamboo.
However, if you are fixed on having your own fiber processed into 100% alpaca and are dreaming of that handknit sweater so you can proudly wear your premier herdsire or favorite cria, there are some things you can do to offset the dreaded alpaca sweater stretch when it comes down to needles and yarn.
1. Use a finer weight yarn : It probably goes without saying, knit a finer lighter fabric and you’ll have a lighter garment. Less weight, less drag down from gravity.
2. Pick your design to avoid bottom weight: If you see one of those beautiful patterns that have a knit intarsia or fair isle pattern along the bottom edge of the sweater and then move to a solid knit on the top half – beware! You’ll be creating a sweater that is potentially bottom heavy and encouraging stretching due to the burden on the lighter top half of the sweater. Conversely, if you see a sweater that has a solid top half around the bodice and then a lacy bottom half, you can get away with quite a bit of additional length due to the light weight of the lace pattern.
3. Use untextured stitches or slip stitches to minimize ease: Textured stitches such as knit/purl combos or ribs are by nature highly elastic – that’s why we use them in many cases. However, just be aware that stitches that take up more yarn such as textured stitches build in more ease into the fabric . This only make sense. If it takes 1/3 more yarn to knit a 4″x4″ square, you know that the links are deeper and the loops larger to accommodate the stitch changes. More yarn, more room to stretch. If less elasticity is what you want in the body of your garment, look at slip stitches. It’s amazing what some of the slip stitch variations can achieve in look while adding in structural integrity.
4. Line the garment: There are a lot of reasons to line a sweater. Perhaps the yarn is not the finest grade and you don’t want it to irritate the neck. But lining can also add inelastic structure to the garment, especially if you have knit an oversized jacket. On the left is a good example of using a lining for this reason. The fiber used was definitely fine enough to wear next to the skin, but the weight of the jacket benefited from a matching satin liner, which also eased slipping it on and off.
5. Use inelastic cast on, seaming, and bindoff techniques: There are a wide variety of cast on, seaming, and bindoff techniques invented by people much more creative than I am. You can pick ones that suit the design of the sweater and decrease the elasticity of certain stress points. For example, I like using the 3 needle bind off for shoulder seams, even when I shape the shoulders using short rows. It creates a neat seam that is much more resistant to stretching than grafting.
6. Reinforce with thread: Sometimes you just want something to be absolutely immutable – no elasticity at all. Perhaps you need a firm neckline or cuffs. You can use a thread to weave into the knit fabric to reinforce certain rows. For areas that you need to be elastic but you want to snap back snugly, you can even interweave elastic thread. I wouldn’t recommend using this except for single rows here and there. If what you’re really looking for is inelastic material – you probably want to switch to a weave.
I’m sure there are a bunch of other tips and tricks that crafty knitters have come up with to manipulate the behavior of their knits. Drop me a note and let me know other techniques that have worked
Happy Knitting!
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