Follow us on Twitter
View your Shopping Cart
News archives for 2010:
Blendy Knits - New Zealand Yarn Sampler 2010
16 December 2010
Some lovely comentary on our alpaca yarns by Belinda Too at Blendy Knits - see her preparations of the NZ Yarn Sampler whichh will take our yarns to various knitting groups ... around the world! Check her progress and details of the New Zealand Yarn Sampler 2010 through this link!
Alpaca Shearing
7 December 2010
For those looking for shearing services we sent out details in our newsletter of a shearer (Oshi) attending Otago and Southland in mid-December. Now seems he will either be late or will not make it? So Andrew Sykes will be shearing througfh Otago and all before Christmas - he should be in touch as his shearing list comes together.
Please note you can get your alpacas shorn here on 29 December if you bring alpacas to our Puddle Alley shearing shed - James will be there with Kym and our alpaca team to shear whatever arrives!
New Cria
1 December 2010
Plenty of young cria arriving around the farm at the moment. All healthy so far ... pictures to follow! And we are running through fresh matings to some of our younger females, particularly those sired by Southern Warrior whose progeny have been judged 'Supreme Champions' in a number of large North Island shows.
New Alpaca Shop - Palmerston North
19 November 2010
Jenny Phillips at Minfford Alpacas has opened a new alpaca product shop in Feilding, Manawatu - 25 Manchester Square! Take the time to visit - and do the Christmas shopping!
Alpaca Fibre A'Fair - Rotorua
11 November 2010
Andy will be a speaker at the Alpaca Fibre A'Fair at the Rotorua Race Course on Saturday 27th November 2010. The Fair includes 12 specific alpaca trade sites and presentations by 12 speakers on a variety of alpaca fibre products and processes. We will have our trade stand at the Fair co-hosted with Doe Arnot and our yarns.
The venue is Balmarino Lounge at Arawa Park on the Rotorua Race Course and runs from 10am to 3pm. Hopefully the Fair is seen as a must about those considering processing and product options for their alpaca fleece as well as those entering the alpaca industry.
Craft Fair - Dunedin - Weekend 20 and 21 November
11 November 2010
We will be at the Horizons Events Christmas Craft Fair at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin from Saturday 20 to Sunday 21 November - with all our craft and alpaca products as well as a couple of our alpacas. We hope to bring Ben Elvis for a repeat 'Show' over the weekend as well as some of the other boys for you to meet. There will be over 90 stalls to visit and plenty of Christmas decoration and present ideas!
First Cria - Zannadu produces lovely little female
4 November 2010
Hurrah! First cria of the season born to Zannadu, our Sappa Inca female. Crimpy little female and mum is her usual reliable self! Any ideas on names??? Latest picture of young ... Zip ... right!
Alpaca EXPO Results - New Zealand Alpaca Show great success!
11 October 2010
We are just back from the New Zealand National Alpaca Show and Auction in Christchurch - a great EXPO at the Christchurch Equest
rian RDA Building with some super organisation making for a great celebration of our industry! And a great BBQ and Dinner on both nights of the Show!
A quick hello to all those that visited Doe and I at the Flagstaff Alpacas Trade Stand. We will make contact with those interested or who have asked for further details on our products and alpacas.
RESULTS: to confirm our Flagstaff FRANCESCA was the New Zealand Mature Female Champion 2010 as well as Aviana Farms ENRICO (aged 8 years) being awarded Veteran Reserve Champion. Stud Male JINYA was second in a strong class - the judges liked the softness of handle, low micron and completeness of fleece although they did note he was over fleeced at the Show. Finally Alclair MANNY, the silver grey male on lease here for the summer, was first in his class - judghes loved the depth of fleece coverage and his standing as a working male!
Alpaca EXPO: TV1 Morning Show Coverage more Spicy than Anticipated!
8 October 2010
The EXPO opened with coverage on the Friday 8 October Morning Show at TVNZ - TV1 . But things did not quite go to plan .... see the following link on U-Tube video: "Keeping it Raw on Breakfast".
Craft Events - Early Summer
19 September 2010
Pleased to say we will be at several craft events in early summer 2010:
8-10 October: Alpaca Expo, Christchurch.
13-14 November: Southern Crafters, Stadium Southland, Invercargill. Please note the collapse of the roof at Stadium Southland may mean the venue locatiON changes - watch this space!
20-21 November: Horizon Events Craft Fair, Edgar Centre, Dunedin. We will ahve our alpaca yarns, duvets and some real alpacas at the event! Great BIG craft fair so see all our regular and new visitors there!
Details of more events over the next 3 months throgh New Zealand to follow!
New Zealand Life and Leisure - Alpaca Cot Duvets
3 September 2010
Pleased to see coverage of alpaca cot duvets and all the qualities of alpaca fleece in issue 33 of New Zealand Life & Leisure. We do have alpaca cot duvets for sale - check our alpaca duvets page for details and orders. Ours are priced at $100 as against the higher advertised NZ Life & Leisure magazine offer.
New Ravelry Forum - Thanks Doe!
31 August 2010
Doe Arnot has added to our profile with a new forum on the Ravelry knitters site: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/flagstaff-alpaca-nz
National Alpaca Day - New Zealand
31 August 2010
Thinking WELL in to the future but to mention the national planned Alpaca Day for New Zealand is Sunday 1 May 2011. More details of other breeders opening their alpaca farms are on a specific site: www.nationalalpacaday.co.nz. We will certainly be OPEN but everyone is welcome to visit well before then!??
Alpaca Shopping - Our New Alpaca Product Facility
6 August 2010
Check our new 'Alpaca Shopping' facility - our new on-line facility for purchasing our alpaca duvets and yarns. This includes credit card payment so ... enjoy!
Softfoot Alpacas Visit and Alpaca Inspection
26 July 2010
Gary and Sandy Retalick from Softfoot Alpacas, Adelaide, South Australia, have been visiting. We inspected our partnership alpaca stud males during the visit and decided to show Softfoot Gianmarco JINYA in the New Zealand Nationals - great charatcter across all of the fleece, still soft to handle and very fine. New Zealand Nationals (EXPO) is in Christchurch this year - October at the Canterbury Showgrounds - and we will have our trade stand there too!
Parasite Worm Burden
4 July 2010
We have noticed a significant increase in our parasite worm burdens in some of our alpaca herd after the severe rains and storms in late-May 2010. Our vet has commented he is seeing the same on Taieri sheep herds, especially as feed levels are low after the drought through late-summer and autumn in Otago and Southland. So we have treated or updated our parasite control using Dectomax as a precaution - and continue to feed-out.
We do have meadow hay for sale in small amounts if alpaca breeders are running short - and watch the condition of your stock as we enter the ugly part of winter.
Craft Fair - Site and Activity Update
22 June 2010
An update of craft and alpaca events for the coming four months:
10-11 July 2010: Horizon Events Craft Fair, Dunedin - at the Edgar Centre, Portsmouth Drive, Dunedin. This even coincides with the Cadbury's Chocolate Festival activities centred in the Edgar Centre - so come see us and enjoy the other events over this weekend Craft Fair in Dunedin.
17-18 July 2010: 'Southern Crafter's' Craft Fair, Invercargill - at Stadium Southland, Invercargill. We are site 69 - this is usually an excellent craft fair and understand there will be over 200 stands at this winter event.
10-12 September 2010: Dunkley's Craft Show, Christchurch - at the Addington Raceway. We will have our usual Alpaca Craft Stand - see our products pages for more details of products!
8-10 October 2010: NZ National Alpaca EXPO and Show, Christchurch: At the RAS Grounds, Canterbury Agricultural Park in Christchurch. We are Trade Stand numbers 18 and 19 with Doe Arnot co-hosting that site so plenty of activity to watch with Doe and Andy demonstrating their yarn preparation during the weekend!
Dog Attack - Update on 'Sonya'
22 June 2010
The remaining female, Sonya, post the dog-attack in early June, is making a good recovery and seems to be happier interacting with other alpaca now. Certainly the scarring is obvious but the wounds have stabilized well. Sonya is in one of our home paddocks so under careful scrutiny though!
Winter Feeding
20 June 2010
With the shortest day now over just a reminder to prioritise dry feeding and make sure owners have plenty of feed if we do see another cold and/or wet weather snap. Certainly we are seeing tough conditions here and have been feeding-out for 8 weeks. We do have meadow hay available for sale and delivery at this point.
All our winter injections are now done - the cria may need a vitamin D top-up in late July but will watch their condition and the sun conditions in the next months.
Andy will be at the coming AANZ Alpaca Conference in Napier at the end of June. As part of the Conference build-up check out the 2010 Alpaca Conference Alpaca Stud Male Auction 2010 running now until the 13 June .... so get bidding to support our Conference!
Website link for the Auction is: http://auction.alpacaconference.co.nz/ . If you know of any other breed societies trying to support events within their Associations please make contact with our Andy for details on the service provider for this successful Auction format.
Thanks for all those offering support after the dog attack on four of our alpacas in paddocks leased in Mornington, Dunedin. The Police and Animal Control correctly destroyed the most badly injured but Sonya is making a slow recovery after surgery and treatment to her left front leg. We think she will make a full recovery although has been obviously very stressed! Further detail are available on an article in the Otago Daily Times (ODT) edition of the 3 June.
We will keep our website updated on her progress but she has access to plenty of lucerne hay to aid recovery!
Top picture shows some of the yarns Doe and Bob Arnot, and Andy have been working-on for this seasons collection of variegated yarns (multi-coloured alpaca yarns)in our 4-ply, 8-ply and boucle's - all using our natural white alpaca fleece. This 'mountain' of yarn is a small selection out of the dye house - thankfully the weather was beautifully sunny so they all dried purr...fectly - gorgeous colours!
As said - a bit more than just ... 'Another Day at the Office' ... amongst our alpaca yarns! Check our Yarn Products pages for more details of these unique alpaca yarns.
Pleased to announce Doe Arnot has gone to print, supported by the Creative Fibre New Zealand, with a wonderful little book: 'Spinning Camelid Fibre'. Andy has done a review of the book but suffice to say the title does not fully capture the detail in the book: coverage includes a history of camelid fibres, some focus on alpaca fleece preparation and spinning, and much detail on dyeing camelid fleece as well as opportunities in natural colour and with natural dyes.
A little gem the book is available direct from Doe and priced at $25. Well bound for practical use it is also a great instructional read as really capturing Doe's passion for camelid fleece. It will become a reference document for those fascinated by alpaca and camelid fibres. Enjoy!
We will be attending and supporting the coming Novadown (Ellis Fibre) Fashioned Feathers Wearable Art Show at the Otago Museum on 28 April 2010. The Art Show supports the NewZealand Asthma Foundation and we are keen to support this worthwhile charity.