Soft, cosy and natural. A hand-knitted starry jumper in the finest baby Alpaca. Dyed using natural fruit, leaf and vegetable dyes. Designed in Italy and hand-made in Bolivia

• 100% pure Alpaca wool
• hand-knitted in Bolivia

This is ethically made from 100% Alpaca fibre by Medea and hand-made in Bolivia.

The Alpaca is a mammal that lives in high altitudes in South America and has a wonderful fleece that keeps it comfortable at a wide range of temperatures. Alpacas are seasonally shorn of their fleece which is combed and cleaned and made into these gorgeous clothes.

Baby Alpaca is a very fine grade of alpaca fibre, often from the belly of grown-up alpacas, not necessarily from actual baby alpacas. It's around 19-21 micron in diameter.

Alpaca clothing has heaps of benefits for your child and family as it is actually superior to Merino wool in a number of ways!

• Warmth. Alpaca fleece is unique in that it consists of hollow cells. It demonstrates perfect thermoregulatory properties: alpaca fibre is ideal in cold weather conditions, and protects the child’s body from overheating when it is warm. It is much lighter than wool for the same warmth.
• Moisture resistance. Alpaca wool is naturally breathable and does not retain moisture, but allows perspiration to evaporate.
• Softness. Baby alpaca is super-soft, in the category of luxurious fibres such as cashmere. It's suitable for people with sensitivity to wool as it is smoother and usually finer..
• Lightweight. It's easy to be warm and free to move freely with lightweight alpaca.
• Durability. The Alpaca fibre is soft, smooth, elastic and strong! It doesn't felt as quickly as wool and is more durable, making high quality fabric that lasts and lasts and lasts, not just for one or two children but many.
• Eco-friendly. Alpaca has an entirely natural origin and requires very little processing.
• Stain resistant. Alpaca is naturally stain resistant which means you won’t have to wash it as often. As with wool, simply hang to air instead.

The wool is coloured with natural dyes from berries, barks, flowers, leaves, and cochineal.

To look after your pure Alpaca clothing is simple. Alpaca is resistant to dirt and releases it easily, so after wearing, simply hang to air. There will be no need to wash it very often at all.

If you need to wash it hand wash in cold water that is less than 10°c.

Use a detergent designed for wool which protects and repenishes wool's natural oils as sold in our fabric care category here.

Dilute your wool detergent in a bowl of cold water.

Add your woollens to the bowl, gently stirring and squeezing the detergent through. Rinse using cold water

To dry, gently squeeze water out and wrap your wool clothes in a towel to remove the excess water. Air-dry naturally avoiding direct heat. So, hanging on a drying rack over the bath is good, or on a clothes horse.

MeDea was created in 2002 by Italian entrepreneur Emanuela Venturi who fell in love with the natural hand dyeing during a NGO mission to Bolovia.

MeDeA is clothes are made of Bolivian alpaca wool sourced and knitted from small-scale, ethical, independent producers and cooperatives. They employ mostly women who knit by hand or on a manual loom and spin the wool. None of the the workers are below the age of 18.

Alpacas are native to the Andes and live at around 4000 metres above sea level. Alpaca wool is one of the world’s most luxurious materials because it is warm, waterproof, flexible, resistant and shrinks far less than sheep wool.

The wonderful colours of MeDeA's garments come from natural dyes created by Emanuela Venturi using berries, barks, flowers, leaves, and cochineal for its fabulous crimson. No chemicals are used in making or dying the garments.