── THE CRAFT
From herd to hand-knit
How baby alpaca becomes a Quni sweater.
── STEP 1
A tradition measured in generations
In the highlands of Arequipa, alpaca herding is not an industry. It is an inheritance. Families have tended the same herds for generations, shearing the animals once a year, sorting the fleece by hand. Baby alpaca is the first shearing: the finest, softest grade the animal will ever yield.
── STEP 2
Above 4,000 metres
Quni's fibre comes from a small co-operative in the Andean highlands. The animals graze at altitude, where the cold and the clean air produce a fibre with natural loft and resilience. No factory floor. No industrial scale. A herd you can name.
── STEP 3
Hand-sorted, hand-spun
After shearing, the fibre is sorted by hand. A skilled read of texture and fineness that no machine replicates accurately. It is then cleaned, combed, and spun into yarn at a small facility in Arequipa. The same city where the sweaters are knit.
── STEP 4
Hand-knit, one at a time
Each Quni sweater is hand-knit by artisans in Arequipa. Not on a loom. Not by a machine. Knit. The same way it has been done for a hundred years, with the same needles, the same patience. One sweater takes approximately four hours. That is what you are wearing when you put it on your dog.