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Alpacas are friendly, gentle animals. They are
"camelids", but unlike their larger llama cousins, they do
not spit much except at each other. Instead, they like to
come up and give us "nose kisses".
Alpacas have a life-span of 15 years or so. Females
produce one baby or “cria” at a time. The gestation
period is about 11 months.
Alpacas are hardy animals. Like us, they seem to enjoy
being in the mountains in Telluride in their layers of cozy
alpaca.
Alpaca is as soft as cashmere and warmer than wool. It
comes in many natural colors ranging from white to jet
black with shades of grey, fawn, caramel and brown in
between. It is hypoallergenic.
Alpaca is a good “green” choice for keeping warm. The
fleece is a naturally renewable resource that grows back
every year!
We shear our alpacas once a year in late May. The
alpacas seem to like how light and cool they feel after
they are sheared. They do look funny, though, without
the 5 inches or so of thick fleece padding their long,
skinny necks.
Shearing takes about 15 minutes per animal under the
skilled hands of Sonny Gustamantes. Sonny has been
shearing animals in the Four Corners area for over 40
years. An adult alpaca yields about 4-5 lbs. of fleece a
year.
After shearing, we take the fleece and “skirt” it to
remove the larger bits of debris. We send half of the
fleece to the AFCNA Co-op to be made into blankets,
socks, scarves and sweaters. The other half goes to a
mill in Maine to be spun into our own yarn. We sell
products from both the Co-op and from our own
"homegrown" San Juan Alpacas yarn in the Telluride
Farmer’s Market during the summer. These products
are available year round on this website. We hope you
will check them out!
Please contact me with any questions or to place
an order:
Kim@nimlok.com
(847)507-9416
"camelids", but unlike their larger llama cousins, they do
not spit much except at each other. Instead, they like to
come up and give us "nose kisses".
Alpacas have a life-span of 15 years or so. Females
produce one baby or “cria” at a time. The gestation
period is about 11 months.
Alpacas are hardy animals. Like us, they seem to enjoy
being in the mountains in Telluride in their layers of cozy
alpaca.
Alpaca is as soft as cashmere and warmer than wool. It
comes in many natural colors ranging from white to jet
black with shades of grey, fawn, caramel and brown in
between. It is hypoallergenic.
Alpaca is a good “green” choice for keeping warm. The
fleece is a naturally renewable resource that grows back
every year!
We shear our alpacas once a year in late May. The
alpacas seem to like how light and cool they feel after
they are sheared. They do look funny, though, without
the 5 inches or so of thick fleece padding their long,
skinny necks.
Shearing takes about 15 minutes per animal under the
skilled hands of Sonny Gustamantes. Sonny has been
shearing animals in the Four Corners area for over 40
years. An adult alpaca yields about 4-5 lbs. of fleece a
year.
After shearing, we take the fleece and “skirt” it to
remove the larger bits of debris. We send half of the
fleece to the AFCNA Co-op to be made into blankets,
socks, scarves and sweaters. The other half goes to a
mill in Maine to be spun into our own yarn. We sell
products from both the Co-op and from our own
"homegrown" San Juan Alpacas yarn in the Telluride
Farmer’s Market during the summer. These products
are available year round on this website. We hope you
will check them out!
Please contact me with any questions or to place
an order:
Kim@nimlok.com
(847)507-9416
| About Alpacas |
| San Juan Alpacas |
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