Natural
All our products are made from 100% pure alpaca wool. No blends which only serve to dilute the properties of alpaca fibre, and cut costs.
We don’t use dyes. The colours available are only what nature has intended. It’s either the original colours of the alpacas, or a hybrid where we have blended two colours together during the spinning process at the mill. Adding dye to fibres can effect the softness and handle of the yarn.
Dyeing fibre/fabric is very water, chemical and energy intensive. Although low-impact / closed-loop options exist, they are still creating unnecessary pollution. Synthetic dye are petrochemicals and their use stops a fabric being biodegradable. Besides, we believe the girls are beautiful enough already.
As alpaca wool does not contain lanolin, a naturally present water-repellent found in many other wools for example sheep, the processing from fleece to yarn does not involve harsh chemicals. Processing wool that contains lanolin normally requires the use of sulphuric acid to strip the lanolin.
Ethical
First and foremost our girls are our pets. This is not a commercial farming enterprise. We don’t look to make a profit from them, but enjoy producing products to share the wonders of alpaca fibre.
The fleece we obtain through annual shearing is a by-product to us. The main focus of having alpacas was grazing. As an alpaca ages their fleece becomes shorter in length. Eventually it is likely that their fleece will become too short in length to enable it to be successfully spun into yarn. This has now happened for us with Holly, she is 12 years old so around halfway through her life expectancy. For a commercial farm this may mean that the animal has reached the end of its usefulness, and it will therefore be put to sleep. But for us that will NEVER happen. For as long as our girls are happy, healthy, and have good quality of life, they will remain with us.
We are registered members of the British Alpaca Society (BAS). This requires us to adhere to best practice welfare standards, in fact alpaca wellbeing is the number one priority of the society. All our alpacas, and their offspring, are also on the BAS pedigree register.
Alpacas require annual shearing as their fleece has no natural growth stop. Without shearing they would become extremely uncomfortable, and risk severe overheating, or even death, during warmer months. As BAS members we follow their guidance on humane and respectful shearing. The girls are restrained with a specialist harness in order to remove any risk of injury to themselves and the shearer, and to speed up the process for them. In the same way that you would hold an animal in order to quickly and efficiently administer an injection or trim nails.
Initially our girls were shorn by our local alpaca farm, always at our home to minimise stress for the girls, and always with our help and supervision. We have since gone on to become trained in shearing ourselves. This is highly beneficial for the girls as they are being handled by familiar faces. It also means we have full control over when to shear and can chose the optimum time based on weather forecasts.
Sustainable
We pride ourselves on our sustainability. But we don’t rest there, we’re always looking for ways to make improvements for the benefit of our planet.
All our products are made in the UK. But there’s so much more to that statement. ‘UK made’ means the item was finished in the UK, the component parts could have come from all over the world, resulting in a significant carbon footprint.
Not only are our products made in the UK, but all the fibre used is from the UK. In fact the fibre literally comes from the back garden, you can’t get much more local than that!
Out of all of the aspects of creating our products, the processing of the fleece to yarn has the most environmental footprint – but that’s not to say we haven’t chosen the most sustainable option that we could.
Alpaca fleece is graded into categories, the top quality part (called the blanket) is processed into yarn, see below. The second grade fleece is used for our felted products. This is washed and air-dried at home, and then hand felted into the required product.
The blanket is packaged and posted to a specialist alpaca mill. This journey has an approximate carbon footprint of 240 grams, or about the same as producing two cabbages. The mill wash and prepare the fleece, before spinning into yarn. The mill we work with has been carefully selected, both for their specialist abilities to work with alpaca fleece, which is very different from sheep wool, and because they share our sustainable values. For example they harvest rainwater and recycle water to reduce the impact on the environment, and they are virtually carbon-neutral. Furthermore the mill does not use any harsh chemicals and will not dye fleeces due to the negative environmental impact of dyeing.
We have almost the lowest possible carbon footprint for production. Our alpacas are kept at home, in fact Fleur was born right here in the paddock and hasn’t been anywhere else. The other girls were all born within the county. Products are handmade either made by myself, or my mum. For items made by my mum, we do not post items back and forth or make special trips, rather they are handed over whenever we are meeting for family gatherings or general catch-ups to remove any environmental impact.
Their diet consists primarily of vegetation from the paddock (grass, hedges, trees). Topped up with hay (locally grown within our village), and a small amount of pellets (purchased locally).
Alpacas are very gentle on their environment. Their padded feet cause minimal soil erosion. They graze by biting the tops of grass and other vegetation, rather than ripping it from the ground and removing/damaging the roots like many other grazing animals.