Processing Alpaca: Making British Alpaca Knitting Yarns, Alpaca Knitwear, Cardigans, Alpaca gifts, UK

The Processing

Sorting

At Toft we purchase alpaca fleeces from owners and breeders of alpacas around the UK. For a list of the Herds please see our 'suppliers' page. Before alpaca fleeces are sent to the mills we painstakingly sort each animal's fleece individually into different grades dependent on their quality. The fleeces are also grouped into colours to enable us to create the dozen natural colour blends that we create from the natural colours available. As we do not use dyes or bleach when procesing our yarns, the range is named as follows:

'rich cream': this is from unbleached 'white' alpaca fleeces

'bleached oatmeal': think sunbleached not paroxide pink toned 'light fawn' fleeces

'oatmeal': a peachy soft yarn from the 'light fawn' alpacas

'mushroom': a gorgeous warm light grey from mixed coloured fleeces

'biscuit': a warm cookie dough colour from the 'fawn' alpacas

'fudge': a rich ginger true colour from the 'dark fawn' alpacas

'chestnut': a stunning polished red brown from the 'brown' alpacas

'chocolate': a deep brown - think cocoa not milk tray from the 'dark brown' alpacas

'heather': a intriguing dark grey brown blend with a gun metal quality

'silver': a soft and sophisticated light grey from mixed fleeces

'steel': a bold defined mid grey with almost blue undertones

'charcoal': a deep grey softer alternative to true black

'black': a rare and desirable undyed colour with wonderful lustre

In addition to these colours we do every now and again create other colours. All of our blends are subject to avaialability and it is unusual to have all weights in all colours in stock- if you see the yarn you want then get it then to avoid disappointment.

Spinning

At Toft most of the fibre is spun locally in Banbury, producing our Double Knit, Aran and Chunky weight knitting yarns through a mid size mill spinning in a woollen process. Our Lace weight and 50g DK yarns are 'Royal Baby Alpaca'. This is the finest of the best and youngest animals fleeces that we sort. This is alpaca at its softest and finest, is only available in limited quantities and is the most difficult to spin- thus it commands a high premium deserved of the quality. Our Double Knit alpaca yarns are all baby alpaca.

Dyeing

I have made the decision to keep all of our yarns 100% natural in colour, making the most of the rich creams, deep browns and soft fawns clearly visible in our fields. When buying our knitting yarns you can be certain that the yarn has not been dyed, and thus has undergone as little artificial processing as possible. Occasionally we will use small batches of colour by hand dying yarn on-farm. We have experimented with the full range of dyes, from natural onion skins and blueberries to the vibrant reds and blue achieved by acid dyes. 'Natural' versus 'Chemical' dying is very much a contentious issue as the process to achieve guaranteed colour fastness very often has to involve chemical fixing. The acid dyes that we now use are fully absorbed into the fibre, leaving the discarded water entering the system pure and chemical free. Alpaca absorbs dye readily and as it is a lustrous fibre it reflects the light off the dyes fabric, thus producing very vibrant colours.

Knitting

I now have a team of over thirty handknitters working within Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, who all love working with our wonderful natural yarns. Well sorted and spun alpaca is wonderful to work with, producing perfectly even finishing on both patterned and plain knits. For me alpaca garments should use simplicity to allow the 'alpaca' to be shown at its best. My design emphasizes the uniqueness of this exclusive luxury fibre over the 'ethnic' origins of the animal. We have been breeding alpacas in the UK for over 10 years at Toft Alpacas , and our animals and designs are thoroughly British. Most of our range is knitted, as alpaca is very suited to handknitting when spun using the woollen process. Alpacas are being bred with increasing 'crimp' in their fleece as quality is what gives knitted alpaca garments its wonderful 'drape'. Alpaca is a natural fibre and consequently must be gently handwashed in tepid water. After draining the majority of water from the fabric garments and accessories should be slowly dried flat in a cool place. Have patience with drying the item as forcing rapid drying of alpaca will dry the fibres and affect the soft handle of the fabric. If alpaca is well cared for it is renowned for its longevity in wardrobes, and many a person speaks fondly of garments inherited from parents.

Weaving

The woven scarves, shawls and blankets are also outsourced to craftsmen and women in the UK , very often to those cities and regions traditionally associated with British textiles. The blankets have been woven at 'Melin-Teifi' national woollen mill in West Wales in small batches of different sizes. Halifax is home to the creator of our fine alpaca and silk woven scarves and shawls which are then handfinished and pressed in Huddersfield . I am very happy to have a few hand-weavers producing the occasional one-off exclusive piece. Within Lincolnshire and West Sussex handspinners pour hours of time and skill into weaving exquisite heirloom pieces admired by all.

Felting

Felting is an exciting new addition to our products' range, and we now using three different felting processes to produce our handbag range. Concerned by the waste created by the determination to produce hand-sorted exquisitely soft ladies and childrens knitwear, I was determined to develop a product range using the less-popular coarser fibres. Handbags are perfectly suited to the leg fibre as its coarser nature makes it more hard wearing and the felting process creates wonderfully bulky and structured fabrics. The first type of felting is achieved by loosely knitting with our aran yarns and then boiling or washing the final product to solidify and shrink the fibres. This process totally changes the nature of the knitted product and often gives a 'fluffy' finish. The second process is wet felting, arguably the most labour intensive. I managed to find a local felt maker in Birmingham who now works on my range of fully 'vegan' and 'organic' bags for men and women. Fibres are arranged horizontally and then vertically across each other and then compacted and agitated with water and detergent to produce a solid fabric around a mould. Our 'Toft Teds' are produced by needle felting. This final type of processing involves repeatedly stabbing the fibre with needles to sculpt them into a solid structure.