Running an alpaca ranch and an entrepreneurial enterprise without a road map can be daunting. But, there are times when I have flashes of understanding why I do what I do. I had such an experience recently while skirting the remainder of our 2016 clip. As I have written before, skirting is not my favorite activity. […]
Love Hate Relationship with Skirting
One of our least favorite — hence most avoided — part of the fiber processes is skirting. This is where we take the fiber shorn from our alpacas, lay it out on a mesh table and pick through it by hand. The hand-picking process removes vegetation, matted or soiled fibers, second cuts (short small pieces […]
Saki, Cisco and their Collaborative “Brown and White Chocolate” Fabric
“How do you make that?” asked the excited purchaser of the lovely Kasode jacket you see pictured. It’s a frequent question. Laurie Schatzberg said, “Thanks for a fantastic afternoon of shopping, and communing with you all … And those wonderful dogs and alpacas! I’ll be back for sure!” Doesn’t she look great? First, of course, […]
The Alpaca Batt Channel
So I imagine you have been waiting to hear what happens next after Sandy is done skirting… Once we have separated good from unusable fleece (at least for our purposes), we bag, box and ship the fleece to one of the mills we use for processing. Because we require the processing to be done […]
Dog Days of Summer
Thank you. We are humbled and flattered by the increasing numbers reading our blog and appreciate those of you sending us questions. We are passionate about our alpaca, their fleece and our fabrics. So don’t hesitate sending your inquires, we love to answer them. Last week several of you wanted to know if things are […]