The Cost of a One-of-a-Kind Gift? Priceless
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Olive
We've been working on this concept for a couple of years; perfecting designs, selecting special alpacas to participate, and ironing out details. After countless hours of preparing and perfecting, we have finally launched our own exclusive and entirely one-of-a-kind alpaca garments. So, what the heck does "one-of-a-kind" mean and how do we do it? Well, we start by identifying alpacas who possess exceptional density and fineness of fleece. This translates to a more luxurious feel of the finished product when you wear it. Then, at shearing time those alpacas are singled out and while they are being sheared, we collect only the prime blanket fleece and bag it individually with their name. Once we have individually bagged and tagged target fleeces, we take them to the mill to be machine spun INDIVIDUALLY into skeins, and each skein is labeled with that alpaca's name. These precious skeins are then given to a local artisan one alpaca at a time and she knits and crochets our own design items. The items such as scarves and hats are brought back to the farm where we tag them with the name and picture of the alpaca they were made from. We insist that our local artisan only make 1 design item from each alpaca to ensure that each is truly one-of-a-kind.
How is this different from other farms? Most other large alpaca farms sort their sheared fleece into color piles and process all similar colors together in a big batch; they typically do not mill each animal separately. The reason is fairly simple-it's very labor intensive and costly to say the least. At the mill, the machinery must be stopped and cleaned out after each animal is spun as opposed to running continuously for a huge mountain of a certain color.
So if it is labor intensive and costly to set out on this venture, why would we undertake such a project? Because we LOVE our alpacas! We find it to be extremely rewarding to raise an alpaca, and track that individual's fleece all the way from shearing to wearing. I love that I have a special bond with "Pearl", or "Olive", or "Max", and I can wear a scarf specially made from their fiber. It is intimate and special in a way that no other garment can be. And when you get right down to it, it is the reason we breed alpacas. For a look at our own special line of one-of-a-kind items, please visit our farm store. You will find a nice selection of scarves and hats along with the name and picture of the alpaca. Some are made from more than one, too, like the Olivia and Max scarf (this is a mother and son). We are adding more items weekly. We hope you love these as much as we do!
How is this different from other farms? Most other large alpaca farms sort their sheared fleece into color piles and process all similar colors together in a big batch; they typically do not mill each animal separately. The reason is fairly simple-it's very labor intensive and costly to say the least. At the mill, the machinery must be stopped and cleaned out after each animal is spun as opposed to running continuously for a huge mountain of a certain color.
So if it is labor intensive and costly to set out on this venture, why would we undertake such a project? Because we LOVE our alpacas! We find it to be extremely rewarding to raise an alpaca, and track that individual's fleece all the way from shearing to wearing. I love that I have a special bond with "Pearl", or "Olive", or "Max", and I can wear a scarf specially made from their fiber. It is intimate and special in a way that no other garment can be. And when you get right down to it, it is the reason we breed alpacas. For a look at our own special line of one-of-a-kind items, please visit our farm store. You will find a nice selection of scarves and hats along with the name and picture of the alpaca. Some are made from more than one, too, like the Olivia and Max scarf (this is a mother and son). We are adding more items weekly. We hope you love these as much as we do!
