All skeins and balls are made to order by me, in any natural colour from our own herd (see our 'Meet the Team' page or check out our photos).
The process of hand spinning yarn from my own alpacas is time consuming and very much a labour of love as there are a number of different processes before I end up with the yarn for you to buy.
Our alpacas are sheared around the end of May and bagged into separate grades of fleece, 'blanket' which is suitable for spinning and 'seconds' which are best for wet felting and needle felting.
Firstly, I need to skirt the 'blanket' fleece which involves creating a uniform batch of fibre, removing VM (vegetable matter), guard hairs that can be itchy when spun and any short lengths/second cuts of fleece.
Carding is next, where I use a drum carder which has lots of pins to align the fibres ready for spinning. Next I do the spinning, some people wash their fleece first but as alpaca doesn't have Lanolin in it I find it easier to spin first. I wash my skeins of yarn after spinning in hand hot water with a gentle non-bio wash or specific alpaca wool scourer if the fleece is particularly dirty!
With hand spinning the alpaca fleece myself I aim to make them into approx. 50g skeins, or balls if requested. The weight is approximate due to removal of VM (vegetable matter), dust etc during the carding, spinning and washing processes so the cost of each skein/ball may be slightly higher or lower than £10.50. When ordering please let me know if weight is critical and I will endeavour to make it between 50-60g.
All yarn is made with 100% pure alpaca and as it is hand spun natural variations in thickness will occur. I do aim to make the yarn around DK/Aran thickness, however the age of the alpaca and therefore length of the fibre staples before spinning will determine how thin or thick the yarn has to be. Shorter staple lengths are from older animals and therefore has to be spun into thicker yarn, which could be Aran or chunky.
Alpaca fleece does not contain Lanolin and is therefore not greasy so is washed after spinning but all products made from the yarn should be hand-washed to avoid shrinkage and/or felting and dried flat to avoid stretching.
Other characteristics of alpaca is that it is naturally anti-allergenic and highly insulating due to the fibres being completely hollow unlike sheep wool trapping more heat for added warmth.