UK ALPACA is a family-run yarn
business that was set up 11 years ago by
Chas Brooke and Rachel Hebditch, who
have more than 100 alpacas at their farm
in Devon. Connoisseurs in their field,
Rachel and Chas have been breeding and
selling pedigree alpacas under their
business name, Classical Mile End Alpacas, for more than
20 years. Their voyage into farming and yarn was quite a
turn of events: “Before this, Chas was in the professional
audio business and I was a TV producer,” Rachel says.
More than 130 alpaca breeders in Britain sell their fleece
to UK Alpaca after the annual shearing in the spring and
summer, through a number of collection centres scattered
around the UK. “As one of the ‘noble’ fibres, alpaca is soft,
luxurious, stronger and more resilient than the finest
sheep’s wool,” Rachel explains. “It is prized for its silky
feel, lustre, weightlessness and warmth, and comes in
a variety of natural shades. We make a range of 4ply and
double-knit natural and dyed yarns in baby alpaca and
silk or superfine alpaca and wool.”Until recently, the team has been working solely with
huacaya fleece – however, it has now launched an exciting
new wool made from suri alpaca fleece. “Suri alpacas are
relatively rare,” says Rachel. “They make up just 5% of
the world alpaca population. But by last year, we had
managed to collect enough suri fleece from British
breeders to start processing the wool. It went to Bradford
for scouring and top making, and is being spun for us
at the Two Rivers Mill in Dorset.”Luxury and lustre
So, what’s so special about suri? “Suri is a long, draping
fleece known for its lustre, and is often used in material
such as suiting because of its drape and sheen,” says
Rachel. UK Alpaca chose to make a 4ply, mixing the
white superfine suri with baby huacaya and silk to give
the yarn more loft, before dyeing it into a range of soft
muted shades, named after wild flowers.
Because suri is so long, lustrous and draping, it’s often
used in places like Peru and Italy for making cloth. “As the
fleece is so slippery, we had to add a bit of huacaya fleeceUK Alpaca’s newest yarn is spun from British
suri alpaca fibre, much-prized for its incredible
softness and lustre. Colette Earley finds out more
RARE BEAUTY
UK Alpaca’s fibres
are all sourced
from UK flocks1
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