Suri fleece
Dec 08: We have done our shearing early again this year and we revealed some lovely fleeces. 10 of our 2 year old males that we shore at 1 year, have yielded another beautiful fleece which we will use for processing. It will be interesting to see the results when we have them spun up with less twist to try and retain more of the lustre.
The Northern Region of AANZ recently held a forum, at Kemblefield Winery Hawkes Bay, called Focus on Fibre. One topic of particular interest to suri breeders was about the research project that we are involved with and other suri breeders from New Zealand and Australia, presented by Molly Gardner from Banks Peninsula, who is the breeder heading the project.
The trial is being carried out by the Agresearch mill in Christchurch on processing fine micron suri through to fabric. This will then be presented to Italian fashion manufacturers to establish an end use. Progress to date has shown the fibre performs well in the commercial machinery and a fantastic end result is expected.
A new era has emerged at Surico Alpaca this year with the beginnings of our foray into the processing of our fleece.
With the Alpaca Expo 07 coming up we at Surico and encouragement from Terri Crawford decided we should create something in suri for the fashion shows. We took Terri on our Squeals on Wheels mating rounds to various parts of the country. To Fielding to visit a knitting designer, to Hawkes Bay to visit Mesa, to Whitianga in search of a weaver.
We were able to get some fleece spun into yarn at Mesa in Hawkes Bay, they were beginning to produce some fine yarns in huacaya and successfully followed on with our suri fleece. With the opening of this mill it has allowed us to get small quantities of fleece processed. At Mesa they are now producing a very popular line of alpaca knitwear.
Now we needed to find a weaver, we approached Ester Nitschke who is a talented weaver and to our delight also a talented tailor. She was so enthusiastic and encouraging when we visited - we knew then we had a winner.
We showed her our sketches and pictures and the next morning she was on the phone to ask where to send the samples of fabric.
Because of Esters enthusiasm we embarked on a second garment for the catwalk.
It was very gratifying to see the Alpaca Expo 07 fashion shows with two 100% suri outfits.
Our thanks goes to Terri Crawford and her encouragement, enthusiasm, and advice in overseeing our project. Terri has worked in the fashion industry for many years and has the knowledge and flair to know what works. She has been responsible for the two very successful, professional Alpaca Industry Fashion shows in 2005 and 2007 at the Alpaca Expo.
Our thanks also go to Ester Nitschke, a very talented lady who has a wealth of knowledge about the techniques of weaving and creating garments. She has a very interesting background in fashion and has been involved with the Woolboard fashion shows among other things.
The two outfits were made especially for Alpaca Expo 07, one, a winter white simple shift dress made from fleeces from our top line of suri, with a lustrous dark brown cape made from one of our stud males, Zodiac. The other was a wrap mini skirt and wrap jacket also made in winter white.
The fabric was 100% suri and natural colours.
We intend to continue with our R&D into the ways suri fleece can be used at the high end of the fashion market.
