Congratulations
You are a very special person.
The Dark Sky Alpacas of Cornwall have generously donated their beautiful fleece to make your truly unique Cornish Alpaca Smock.
Grown in Cornwall, spun in Dorset and knitted in Somerset - a true West Country luxury product.
Meet your suppliers!
Goldie, Ghost & Lorient and the supporting cast
Our alpacas have joined together and kindly donated their fleeces to make your smocks in their purely natural colours.
Goldie, our dark fawn Huacaya and the matriarch of the herd, lends her name and her fleece to our fawn smock.
Ghost provides the grey for the alternative ‘Goldie’ colour.
Lorient, one of our stud males with wonderful New Zealand genetics, and the finest light suri fleece is lead alpaca on the light cream coloured smock named after him.
All the rest of the herd have contributed with suri and huacaya combining to make 3 beautiful colours of yarn with wonderful drape, softness and strength.
In the light cream team are Suris Lorient, Bolero, Twiggy, Daphne, Daffodil, Morwenna and Mrs Tishell and Huacayas Tina, Ivory and Peaches.
Making up the fawn yarn are Suris Freya, Janice, Aida and Patagonia with help from Huacayas Goldie, Nutbush and Toranaga.
The gorgeous silver grey comes from Suris Sancerre Rose, Inspector Maigret and Borasco partnered with Huacaya Ghost.
The Cornish Alpaca Smock - How It's Made
Growing the fleece
Alpaca fleece was referred to by the Incas as the ‘fibre of the gods’ and it’s what alpacas are bred for. It’s important to shear alpacas regularly so that they don’t overheat in the summer - Huacaya are shorn annually whereas Suri are sometimes left in fleece for 2 years. Their wonderful fleece is then ready to turn into something luxurious and very special.
Shearing day!
Spinning the yarn
Taking the raw fleece and making it into fine yarn is a specialist game, especially as we want our smocks to reflect the wonderful draping quality given by Suri fleece.
Our unique blend of 60% Suri and 40% Huacaya have been spun to 2/20Nm by Phil Allen at Two Rivers Mill in Dorset producing three different, entirely natural colours which are fine, strong and consistent enough to be worked with on a professional knitting machine.
We chose to work with Phil because of the exacting quality that he produces and his willingness to help us to work with the Suri fibre in particular. We also love the fact that he keeps our production team local to the South West.
The results!
The Design and Knitting of the Smock
Our Cornish Alpaca Smocks are inspired by the traditional Cornish fishermen’s smocks. In creating them we wanted to reflect the local area and history and make a garment that is grounded in the environment that we and the alpacas are lucky enough to live in – quality clothing for the rugged outdoors but with more than a touch of luxury that make them appropriate for many other special occasions.
Anila and her team at the British Alpaca Fashion Company in Exmoor helped us to translate the concept into the finished smock designs through a series of design workshops and prototypes before we went into production on our two final designs in three wholly natural colours.
Working with their state of the art programmeable knitting machine and skilled seamstresses our finished smocks are a testament to their creative flair and attention to every detail – and of course, we have kept the team local to the South West!
The finished product - your truly unique Dark Sky Cornish Alpaca Smock!
Caring for your smock
You’ll find that your smock is pretty good at ‘resisting’ dirt and is naturally warm in cool weather without overheating you if it turns warmer.
Alpaca fleece is washable up to 30 degrees but does not like to be spun – so choose a machine cycle that is short (about 15 mins) and without spin – or play safe and handwash.
The fleece will really appreciate an eco-friendly detergent and after washing should be dried flat on a clean towel.
As with all knitwear, be careful to avoid pulls and snags but you should find that you alpaca smock is less prone to ‘pilling’ than other similar wool.
We hope you enjoy it for a very long time to come.
Our West Country Friends
