The yarn offered in this section comes from our own alpacas.
We keep the fleeces from one year to the next until there is a sufficient amount of each colour to have them processed.
The fleeces are then sent to a mill on the Scottish Borders where they are cleaned and spun into a double knit yarn.
The colours are the natural colour of the animals and the yarn you will receive comes from the very animal pictured on the product page.
Quality
The quality of the coat decreases as the animal ages.
The batches we currently have for the black, brown and dark beige yarns were made from fleeces when the animals were 2, 3 and 4 years old. The younger the animal is, the softer his fleece will be.
The off-white yarn comes from Willow who is older and therefore does not have a fleece as soft as a younger animal.
Nevertheless, it is still alpaca yarn and softer than sheep.
What to Knit
Alpaca yarn doesn't have the spring quality of sheep wool. So large pieces tend to stretch and fall out of shape.
It is best suited to knit small pieces, such as hats, gloves and scarves.
Caring for the animal whilst shearing
Alpacas may look like Teddy bears but are hard work to look after.Although there is nomore alpacas living in the wild and they have lived as domesticated animals for a very long time, they have retained a strong wild instinct. They take a long time and patience to tame and develop trust in their carer. Their first reaction is very much rooted in a fear and flight mode which makes every little bit of care they need to receive feel like an expedition. We need to follow a long process in order to be able to handle the animal and finally give him the care he needs. Sheaing is no exception and is possibly the worst for the animal and for us (me in fact). They really do not help themselves. Videos on shearing alpacas can easily be found on youtube. It is a process that i used in my early days as alpaca keeper. I have always profoundly dislliked it and have done my best to get my animals to get used to my touch. I have succeeded mostly and my youtube channel shows how much i have achieved. I shear my animals myslef with hand shears except for the boy Milou. I have so far got to admit complete failure on the shearing front.
Please check out the video below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66jrJPC1lv0
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