Summer - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

feature town end alpacas
feature town end alpacas
Products from Town End Alpacas
Buttermore throw
The Town End Alpacas
website ‘shop’ now sells
alpaca yarn, hand knitted
and woven products.
Exhibition visitors are
astonished by the softness
of the fleece and the
products on sale.
Kim comes from a long line of accomplished
‘crafty’ women and has always knitted. Her
introduction to spinning was a day’s course
at a local wool shop followed by a weaving
course in the Yorkshire Dales. The hand
spinning is fun, but slow, so the majority
of the fleece is sent away for spinning. Kim
spends a lot of her time sorting the fleece
before it is spun and the result is silky soft
yarn used for everything from crocheting
scarves to weaving throws. In order to meet
demand we also buy fleece from other alpaca
owners. It has been a challenge to get the
costs down to a level where there is sufficient
margin in a ball of yarn but we
have succeeded.
Kim’s small team of local hand knitters
produce high quality items using her pattern
designs and yarn. “Tempting as it might
seem, copyright laws quite rightly prevent
me from using other people’s patterns.
It is a challenge to design items and then
produce instructions clear enough for others
to follow. I do find yarn sells better if you
can offer patterns as well, so I spend more
of my time now on writing down and road
testing the instructions. I started off mainly
making scarves, but I’ve found that hats sell
exceptionally well and these have been my
focus recently. I also knit bespoke items for
customers.”
Weaving is a new skill and one which given
the time Kim would love to expand and
already some of her throws retail through
a London department store. Her range of
scarves and blankets, which are woven and
finished in the Scottish Borders, will reach a
wider audience this year now that our internet
shop accepts credit card payments.
All of this is hard work for relatively small
returns but it is the side of the business that
first attracted us to alpacas and provides Kim
with the greatest personal reward. “I get heaps
more satisfaction out of making and selling
someone a simple hat than I ever have done
working for a large company even though the
financial rewards are miniscule in comparison.
My own view though, is that if you don’t have
a real interest in the yarn, don’t bother with it.
Show your fleece and then sell it to someone
who is passionate about doing something with
it. There’s plenty of demand for good quality
fleece out there”.
The Town End Alpacas website ‘shop’ now
sells alpaca yarn, hand knitted and woven
products. The summer is spent exhibiting
Kim at work weaving
alpacas at numerous regional agricultural
shows. As well as introducing alpacas to
the general public, these events are another
significant sales outlet for the yarn, hats,
scarves and throws. It’s hard work putting up
the marquee and transporting the alpacas,
but visitors to the shows love to see the
animals, feel the fleece and then hear about
how the products are knitted or woven. They
are astonished by the softness of the fleece
and the products on sale. Sales are always
enhanced by a pen of cute young alpacas
close by. This side of the business has been
a significant learning curve. Our products are
still in their infancy but in the pipeline are
socks made using an ancient sock-knitting
machine, baby clothes and blankets, as well
as some experiments with dyeing and rugs
woven from the coarser fibre.
I manage the farm myself using contractors
for specialist tasks such as fencing and
occasional help from other farmers. This
means I am working outdoors with our
animals, on our own land which is something
I love more than anything else. Is there
anything we’d have done differently
“There are always things that you can
improve with hindsight, for example,
I wouldn’t have bought such a large tractor
with an air conditioned cab because it
wouldn’t go through all of our gates.
There are really no major changes we would
make, although we’ve certainly had lots of
learning along the way”. One area where
we think we need to go on a course is on
how to take great photographs. We struggle
with taking photos that do justice to both
the alpacas and the products and that’s really
important when so much of our marketing is
over the internet.
We wanted to create a business that
enabled us to enjoy living in the beautiful Lake
District and to be part of a local community.
Alongside the ‘usual’ challenges of moving
home, renovating the farmhouse and starting
a new business, we have had to struggle with
the knock on effects of Foot & Mouth, Blue
Tongue and bTB.
Many of our friends and family thought
we were mad starting up a farm business like
this with such limited experience, but we
love it. Its hard work and it can be a worry if
an animal is sick, but we also gain immense
pleasure and satisfaction from the alpacas.
We’ve never once looked back and wished that
we had done something else.
So, the young boy’s dream of owning a farm
has become a reality for both of us. l
We wanted to create a
business that enabled
us to enjoy living in the
beautiful Lake District
and to be part of a local
community.
52 Alpaca World Magazine
summer 2010
summer 2010
Alpaca World Magazine 53