Shearing time again and the fleece is already in the mill.

It's that time of year again where the herd get a short back and sides and the whole team get a chance to be hands-on with these gorgeous animals and their fleece. 

The process is very labour intensive as we skirt, grade and sort every fleece as it comes off the animal. An initial separation of the coarser leg and tummy hairs from the premium 'blanket' fibre is done on the shearing table as the fibre is coming off. The fleece is then carried across to a wire mesh table upon which the really important job begins. Handful by handful we separate and marginally coarser fibres out to ensure that only the finest fleeces go into our yarn bactches. All fleeces are also checked for strength and condition (but I am proud to say every fleece from our herd passed this one with flying colours, so the animals are obviously in tip-top condition). Any foliage contamination is also removed by hand at this stage and lots of care is taken to ensure that all fibre is over 5cm in length as shorter fibres can cause inconsistency in the yarn. Following all of this fibre is weighed into one of four grades which will determine the yarn weight that he becomes. Until now most of this process has been relatively scientific, but the colour blending now required can only be described as artistic. 

As TOFT do not use dyes on their alpaca yarns the ten shades we offer need to be achieved through colour blending. Greys are made of black and white fleeces combined (there are not enough grey alpacas to go round), an our most complex colours are mushroom and stone as these involve every colour combined together. 

Thrilled to say that the first three batches of yarn are already in production down at The Natural Fibre Company. Back on the shelves soon. 

The Festival of Quilts 2012

The Festival of Quilts last weekend at the NEC Birmingham was a colourful and impressive show. The show took up two massive arena halls and had a presentation of over a thousand quilts.  The rooms were packed full of buttons, threads, fabric, sewing machines (some very impressive) and enthusiastic craft lovers.

This was the first show for Claire, Charlie and Harriet the new members of Team Toft.  It was a wonderful show and we all thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone who came to say hello to us.

As ever the Toft Stand was full of bulb bag kits, yarn and our softer than soft teddy bears (which people just had to stop and touch). We also took our 20% summer sale with us, ponchos, cross over dresses and snoods which proceeded to fly off the stand.  We did however, manage to get some time to have a wander and pick up a few treats for ourselves.

Claire was able to meet Kaffe Fassett, she brought his new autobiography and got it signed too which was a highlight for her.  The Cotton Patch stand was gorgeous, full of colour and patchwork kits including Kaffe Fasset and Amy Butler.

Magee was an exciting find of tweed patch work kits, they are Ireland based company but the colours of the tweed were beautiful.  Fabric Galore were selling Liberty Fabrics showing off there attractive designs and even had some Manolo Blahnik fabric for sale (not for long we’re sure).  The amount of fabric showcased was amazing!
 

The four days were very exciting for us at Toft we always enjoy meeting new and existing customers and helping them get on to the next Toft kit. As always it was a pleasure to meet some new customers who found us for the first time at this show.

We are looking forward to next year’s show already.  Look out for Toft coming to a venue near you, next stop Manchester 13^th to 16^th September.

An update from Charlie: off to the alpaca mill!

Our new team member Charlie gives her first impressions of a trip to the mill.

‘Monday morning saw us - Kerry, me, our new intern Olivia and Pete the Dog - piling into the Toftmobile and heading to Banbury to pick up some of our latest batches of yarn from the mill. 

Cheeky Pete!

Having been at Toft for just under three weeks I’d managed to get a good overview of the way this fantastic organisation is run – since arriving I’d got used to being greeted every morning by a field of friendly alpaca faces, had a whistlestop tutorial in fleece sorting, and spent time in the shop and on the website getting to grips with the gloriously unique products on offer. But something was missing. How does the meticulously sorted fleece come to be spun into the top quality yarn gleaming in rows under our newly installed workbenches? The answer could only be found at the mill!


Laura and Richard met us on arrival, and after the requisite fussing Pete always demands we were taken on a tour. The mill is an impressive centre of traditional engineering – all the machinery has been painstakingly adapted from the equipment used to spin sheep’s wool in order to process the far finer alpaca fleece in which the mill specialises.

A waterfall of fleece

Laura led us past vast flues, rollers and vats, explaining how each particular machine works to soften and refine the fleece flowing constantly through it.

Yarn ready to be spun

 She demonstrated the giant bobbins onto which the refined fleece is rolled before being spun into yarn on long rows of whirring spools.

A school of spools

She talked us through the minute changes that had to be made to ensure particular weights of yarn weren’t over-or under-twisted, and spoke with pride about the difficulties the mill had overcome in this area in order to produce Toft’s unique chunky weight yarn.

And then there we were, at the finished product – all boxed up, freshly returned from being laundered and ready to be loaded and taken home. I’ve still got a lot to learn, but another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place, building up a complete picture of Toft’s field to fashion production ethos.’

What is your knitting style?

Now that the Christmas and new year chaos is behind us (although the mince pies that Shirley keeps bring into the office are a constant reminder - particularly for our waistlines) it's time to get down to some serious knitting of our own. Not only are we working on the new designs for the Spring collection but we've actually got time to do some knitting of our own - for ourselves - I know, amazing!!

Carrie for example has cast on the Toft Striped Jumper and is already wondering if the 3.25mm needles are going to get the better of her. It's her knitting style to have at least 3 projects on her knitting needles at anyone time and although that is sort of the case right now (a pair of ugg style slippers 3/4s finished, and a new pattern for an intarsia baby-growbag 1/3 on the way) but a new year's resolution to finish one project at a time and use up the huge stash hidden throughout the house is causing some her some guilt about casting on anything more!

Which made us think. We all have different knitting styles just like our tensions.

Kerry is project in an evening kinda girl - any longer and she's not really interested. Big needles, thick yarn, finshed! Like the Pom Pom Beanie Hat for example.

Myra (she of Toft Alpaca Stud fame) has rediscovered her love of knitting, clicking away over the Christmas period. Having completed the Chunky Cable and Lace Scarf as a gift. So much so that she's missing it now that her projects are finished. We think she's probably in the market for the matching wristwarmers!

So what's yours?

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