Toft Alpaca Blog

Some extra curricular knitting...off piste with a Pom Pom hat!!

2012-01-27T01:49:00.000-08:00

Take one Toft beginner Pom Pom Beanie knitting pattern and eight old friends... Add lots of snow, a few mountains and a couple of hours embroidery time.

Team Toft hats are born...

This is a really easy and super quick knitting pattern and is unisex one size fits all- the lovely chunky garter stitch is very stretchy and a perfect head hugging shape.

We can now without hesitation assure with certainty that this hat is great for the slopes. Our survey confirms that they are incredibly warm, and due to the weightless Pom Pom they stay on your head at high speed.

Sewing the initials was a bit of a challenge initially- as you can see!

Maintaining the flexibility in the fabric was essential, so keep the stitches loose. Following several experiments the final letters were sewn using four strands of an Aran weight yarn. We chose to use a bright red Merino wool yarn- but any yarn including our Aran alpaca yarn would be fine.

Now we've cracked it there's no stopping us. A steel hat with a cream Pom Pom and letter for example will look fantastic.

The knitting kit for the hat can be bought here. The pattern is also contained in our Pattern Book.

For subscribers to the Toft Mailing List (sign up here) the knitting pattern for this easy beanie will be coming out to you FREE a bonus. You're welcome! Thanks for staying up to date with us.

Finally...send us your photos or share them with us on Facebook- we'd love to see them.

Crafty things made from... crafty things.

2012-01-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these crafty items made from, well, crafty items.

Many of you may be familiar with knitting needle bangles and rings, 'zip' earrings, and needle point necklaces, well good for you. We'd just like to marvel at them for a short time and think about how lucky we are to be surrounded by crafting tools. We admire them not simply because they help us to create beautiful knitwear, or keep our knitting needles safe, or do up our jackets, but beacause they have their own pleasing aesthetics. It's a bit like buying a fur pom pom, just because it's so pretty, we know it's done and we know who you are!

Take a look at this article written in 2009 about designer Liana Kabel (maker of the craft jewelry) we're coveting several more pieces! We'll be showing you how to make your own jewelry from alpaca felt in May's shearing and felt workshop and Liana has provided us with lots of inspiration.

http://www.ecouterre.com/knit-wit-liana-kabel-recycles-vintage-knitting-needles-into-eye-popping-jewelry/

Carrie would like to thank her dear friend April for the beautiful cowhide needle case above and Liana Kabel knitting needle bracelet brought for her birthday several weeks ago and thereby inspiring this post!

What is your knitting style?

2012-01-12T08:45:00.001-08:00

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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The need to ski.

2012-01-11T01:19:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year when those who love to ski and board are dusting off their kit ready to brave the slopes. Kerry will be heading off in a week or so and with that in mind we thought a little look at the fashion of knitted skiwear through the ages would be fun, culminating in Kerry's outfit of choice for the 80s themed ski day (or could that turn into the whole week?).

Hopefully she'll bring back some pics of everyone wearing their matching alpaca pom pom hats complete with initials! As Vogue Knitting of old says what "Gay Glamorous Gadabouts" they'll be!

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Spot the difference birthday special!

2012-01-06T07:30:00.001-08:00

Today is Rob of Toft Alpaca Stud's birthday, we won't say how old. Yesterday Kerry and Shirley undertook a special secret mission to pick up his special present... and here he is, Archie the llama. Isn't he a beaut?! Apparently his face was a picture of surprise and shock (Rob's that is, not Archie's). His first thought was that some strange reverse llama rustling had been going on over night, until Shirley and Kerry assured him that Archie was in fact a new addition to the herd.

So can you spot some differences between llamas and alpacas? Regular Toft followers will notice the difference in shape, height, ears and jaw not to mention the look of his fleece and colouring. We can't wait to show him off during the farm tour on the next knitting workshop at the end of January for some real life spot the difference fun!

SALE on selected garments and accessories with up to 50% off- plus FREE UK mainland postage on all deliveries until 31st January 2012

2011-12-26T02:04:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at Toft- we hope you had a good one.

To celebrate the beginning of 2012 we are offering FREE* delivery on all parcels from 9am Boxing Day until 2pm 31st January.

The SALE also continues online with great savings on garments and lots of accessories.

*on all standard delivery UK mainland parcels

Christmas Holidays & Yuletide Greetings!

2011-12-23T05:47:00.001-08:00

As you may have guessed from our last post, we were feeling fully festive as of last weekend and the Toft Christmas Decoration Workshop, so today, on Christmas Eve Eve, that feeling has more than tripled!

On Wednesday Carrie braved Coventry went along to the Christmas party at BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire's Afternoon Show with Vic Minnett and a whole host of her lovely (if slightly random) guests who have featured on the show throughout the 2011. Vic's red reindeer jumper was a treat for the eyes (!) so much so that it was all too much for her to resist a beautifully homebaked gingerbread cupcake, so she didn't, it went down very nicely with a good cuppa. She even had a quick chat with Vic about the completed Knitivity, the characters of which stood proudly in a specially commissioned stable.

Yesterday was Christmas lunch day at Toft towers and what a feast it was!! All thanks to Shirley who made a delicious meal for us all complete with crackers and cranberry sauce, plus black forest gateau for pudding - yum!

So today is the last, last minute shopping day in the shop. Until 4pm this afternoon we'll be serving those who live life on the edge with their Christmas shopping and we have a lot to offer, so pop in and we'll fix all those present emergencies. After today however the on farm shop will be closed and we'll see you again on 3rd January 2012 - you can of course order online and we will aim to get your parcels out just as soon as we can in the midst of all those bank holidays!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Fully festive

2011-12-18T13:23:00.001-08:00

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The tree is up, the lights and music are on (much to Kerry's dismay) and we all feel that we've already had a few too many mince pies, but what really starts Christmas at Toft? A felt bauble Workshop of course and what a great time we had at said workshop yesterday. Shirley treated us all to one of her walks and the chilly sunny views were to die for.

Once back at the farm the knitting and of baubles, hearts & candy canes commenced, ready to be felted during lunch. Everyone was very creative with their needle felting. We had spots, stripes, stars & hearts adorning the fluffy alpaca decs, great effort ladies!!!

We may be busy but we can always find time for a Knitivity!!

2011-12-06T11:23:00.001-08:00

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When approached back in late October by The Afternoon Show on BBC Cov and Warwick Radio about a potential 'Knitivity' we may have thought we were busy- we were wrong.

Since then we have been posting hundreds of kilos of our alpaca yarn out across the UK (and global) and now the Christmas grip has really taken hold there's no stopping us. Despite a ram packed work schedule including three shows in November- we managed to get on with our task of creating the animals for the charity Knitivity. Due to our range of natural colours we seemed perfect donors for the four-legged attendees of the cattle shed. Using only our finest dk yarn and of course alpaca fleece stuffing we set to task knitting up the animals. It was very much a joint effort- non of us having ever knitted toys of any form before. I think it was a bit of an eye opener how long these things take to sew up- and how much difference a wonky eye can make!

The weeks continue and the giant to do list gets longer- so we outsource to many hands including Shirley (Toft Alpaca Stud) to turn her hands to knitting for the first time in thirty years.

Then Carrie went back onto the radio last week to boast of our progress- and she couldn't help but take up the challenge to teach a total newbie to knit the baby Jesus! So on piles the pressure...Toft is now providing more than the brown extras...the main man! Following a great afternoon masterclass in knitting the tiny oatmeal baby took shape. I think it nay well be the first time an alpaca Jesus complete with fudge hair, steel eyes and a chestnut smile has existed- I may well be wrong, but putting it out there.

Carrie will be back on-air this Thursday at 2pm to discuss the process of knitting up this fun project. The full Knitivity will be auctioned off for Charity later this month (we'll keep you posted). We hope to help raise some money with the softest Knitivity yet made!

So thanks to the help of many a knitter we have finished with our three sheep, a donkey and the ox (that's the bog brown thing!), and of course the man himself.

It's hard to lock the Christmas spirit out!

A new shoot with a few Toft classics.

2011-11-29T00:51:00.001-08:00

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The frost is heavy here this morning and we've got our hats and gloves on.

The Aran cable headband is perfect for bad hair/chilly windy days. Knit it yourself in a couple of hours for £14.

Our cable wristwarmers are a must have- in several colours to match all coats. £34 or knit for £16.

Team with a beginner snood or cowl knitting kit. East peasy and finished in hours. A great gift for getting someone you know out of Primark and into knitting. From £21.

Our cable and lace scarf is a gorgeous chunky number with the warmth of ten alpacas snuggling into you. A gorgeous gift to knit for someone special (aka yourself!) £61.

This striped jumper has been a hot this autumn. Shown here in mushroom and stone. Knit from £51.

And for the boys...

Sam wears a charcoal beginner cowl ( knit for £21) and some ready to wear fingerless gloves £29.

Get you needles out with these quickie projects (or you can get ready to wear if time is not on your side).

100 parcels!!

2011-11-28T10:51:00.001-08:00

We broke a Toft record today, we sent out 100 parcels! It was a hugely busy week on the website and what with Carrie & Kerry's Harrogate adventures with Laura, Lisbee and Katie it all added up to a manic Monday. Markie Mark the postman with the most-man nearly fell over with the shock but here he is looking very pleased with himself.

So excited were we all by this Toft record that even the doggies got their dickie bows on in celebration. Don't they look a picture!

Kerry is heading to Bluewater tomorrow for the last show of 2011 - yipee!! Catch her at this show in Kent for new alpaca socks and some gorgeous knitwear to warm up your Christmas.

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A lovely autumn day at Toft

2011-11-17T07:38:00.001-08:00

This week feels quiet, despite tonnes of orders and knitting queries, features in lots of places (check out today's Metro and Vogue's online gift guide), a photo shoot in London, a delivery of several hundred new scarves and the sample sale still continuing. Perhaps it is the quiet before the Harrogate storm?! We can't wait!

Kerry is out on a photo today so look out for lots of new 'urban' style photos on the website soon. Back at the farm the weather is beautiful and Carrie has some office assistance in the guise of Sharan our new intern who will be with us for 5 weeks. She's doing a stirling job labelling all the new stock ready for Harrogate and has been enjoying some lunches in the autumn sunshine plus lots of dog snuggles from Pete & Ace. She just needs to convince her Mum that getting a Pete or a Harvey is a brilliant idea, we'll keep you posted.

Oh and BIG news - Toft Alpaca Shop will be featured in the Life section of this Sunday's Telegraph, a little birdie tells us we might even have the cover! Exciting stuff!!

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Roof's arrived!

2011-11-12T01:45:00.001-08:00

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After another exceptionally busy week at Toft Towers a very exciting thing happened this Friday. The roof of our new building started to go up! We're sure that Rob would have a suitable poetic observation about this event, but being as we are so overcome with excitement that it might just be finished within a few months you'll just have to settle for a few pics, including a beautiful double rainbow from a few weeks ago instead.

In other news, Kerry has nearly sold out of pattern books & lots of yarn colours at a packed Dublin K&S show (no fear we can ship any orders!). Carrie's felt advent workshop was a huge success and everyone left with about 3 perfectly formed felt booties (just another 22 to go ladies!).

We're now looking forward to a short hiatus, then it's Harrogate here we come!

We're getting a roof!

2011-11-12T01:26:00.001-08:00

Another exceptionally busy week at Toft Towers has seen Kerry & Carrie return from NEC & Olympia, Kerry head off to Dublin on the slow boat -

Boy have we been busy! Here's what you missed...

2011-11-07T08:55:00.001-08:00

Since we last checked in we've been putting it about a bit. Following a great week north of the border we headed straight down to London to Spirit of Christmas at Olympia. We had a great week trading and are now urgently knitting up replacement stock as many lines sold out! Meanwhile we also had a team at the NEC Hobbycraft show in Birmingham where we also caused quite a fuss and sold dozens of pattern books and tonnes of yarn.

We are now preparing to head over the Irish Sea to the RDS Dublin where we will be at the Knitting and Stitching Show from Thursday through to Sunday.

And PS... we have been in all these magazines this month (plus check us out in this photo montage from The Observer http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/nov/06/alpaca-farming-wool?fb=native !!)

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Fancy getting creative with Toft Alpaca Shop?

2011-10-25T09:12:00.001-07:00

October, November and December are extremely busy times for us here at Toft Alpaca Shop. We love the build up to the big C word although it often means seeing the inside of numerous hotel rooms as we travel the length and bredth of the country with our alpaca yarn, knitting kits, knitting patterns and alpaca knitwear.

Not only does the Toft UK tour ramp up at this time of year but so do the craft workshops and this year they are not only held here at Toft Manor in the West Midlands!

For those in the south of the country we are visiting The Vyne in Basingstoke, Hampshire on Friday 17th November for two mini versions of our felt decorations workshop when we'll make one bauble together and you'll take home a kit to make two more. The Vyne is always a beautiful location and even more so at Christmas when it brims over with festiveness! Visit the National Trust website for more details and to book your place on either the morning or afternoon knitting and felting sessions held by the open log fire - lush!

Whilst at the farm in the coming months we have the following courses to look foward to:

Felted Advent Calendar Workshop - Friday 11th November, when we'll be showing you how to make little felt alpaca booties which can used as an advent calendar to use year on year.
Christmas Stocking Sock Knitting Workshop - Friday 9th December will bust all those sock knitting myths including the kitchener stitch and turning a heel by which time you'll be able to knit a pair of socks or a Christmas stocking with some exclusive red alpaca yarn.
The last of our workshops before Christmas is the ever popular Felt Decorations Workshop - Saturday 17th December. There are limited places left on all these workshops but if you get in touch quick we should be able to fit you in.

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Date for your Diary: 1st November Toft sample SALE with up to 70% off RRP on one-off knitwear!

2011-10-20T05:52:00.001-07:00

It’s that time of year again when we open up our doors to our sample sale. This year it’s going to be a corker of an event as we have hundreds of samples due to the pattern book and our new range of dresses.

There will be everything from handbags and cardigans through to socks and slippers this year.

Doors open at 10am on 1^st November 2011 at

Toft Manor

Toft

Dunchurch

Warwickshire

CV22 6NR

Here’s just a taster of one of the cardigans to whet your appetite… Prices will start from £10!

Just a normal Monday at Toft

2011-10-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

Just a normal Monday, dress the snooker room with weird and wonderful alpaca
knitwear related items for a Sunday Telegraph photo shoot including Kerry's
cardboard and alpaca yarn moose head. The very talented John Lawrence
visited Toft mid-morning and he and Kerry spent several hours talking
alpaca, taking some great shots of Kerry in situ, in our workshop space and
the hay barn. Pete took it all in his stride though, chilling out on
Carrie's chair. It's been super windy and chilly here today - a sure sign that winter is on
its way and the knitting needles need to start clicking in earnest to
complete all those jumpers and projects to knit from Toft Book 1!

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A big success at Ally Pally with our first book!

2011-10-10T11:13:00.001-07:00

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You were fighting over our new book at Ally Pally this year. As ever we sold out of several of our yarns and pom poms and buttons were flying off the shelves. We re-homed nearly 100 of our small Teds- including one to Marina (and the Diamonds) as a tour buddy.

Lisbee was spotted by a couple of fans- we think there may well be a correlation between knitters and fans of our Lisbee Stainton as she was spotted last year in Harrogate too.

An awesome weekend was had by all- thanks to all our amazing staff for all their enthusiasm and hard work- and it was great to meet all our fans again.

A catch up on the pattern book: revealing pattern #10, #11 and #12

2011-09-26T02:01:00.001-07:00

We’re nuts on legwarmers up here at Toft- here’s another pair designed to match our snood (as previewed last week). In the double knit using stocking st and reverse st st coloured stripes to make lovely structure.

Our simple aran headband is a gorgeous chunky cable- just one ball of our aran for this one.

And… the chunky moss snood- our easiest pattern in the book, and great for total beginners doing their first ever cast on.

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Harvest time. Malvern Autumn show big veg selection.

2011-09-25T14:02:00.001-07:00

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Not sure much needs to be said about the following photos. Prize winning vegetables.

It's all go now as we gear up to Ally Pally.

This prize pumpkin weighs in at over 2180 balls of our Double Knit yarn!! That's one big pie...

2011-09-25T14:01:00.001-07:00

Pattern #8 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-20T14:52:00.001-07:00

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A simple round neck fine sweater in stocking stitch. A classic everyday sweater shown here in steel. If you can't wait for the pattern book, this one is available as a knitting kit right now. Our new lace chestnut is gorgeous (dark brown and chocolatey rather than too red).

We're off to Malvern Autumn Show this weekend where you'll find us out of our trailer and in a tent (let's hope for better weather than Newbury last weekend!). Knitting with your yarn in plastic bags on the increasingly muddy tradestand floor is not ideal.

And finally we caught this snap of a Guanaco at Newbury show. It was hiding in with the llamas and a few alpacas. Guanacos are the largest direct relation of the llama and alpaca- South American Camelids. So much more like a camel in foot and leg shape than our alpacas and still very pretty- well we thought so anyway.

Pattern #7 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-19T10:08:00.001-07:00

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Ever the fans of snoods, this bouncy striped number is super toasty and knitted in our Aran yarn. A simple knit, but a great way of combining two of our gorgeous natural colours. This is cream and black, but it looks great in silver and steel, mushroom and stone, fudge and chestnut...

Just another one of the patterns in our first book. Pre-order now on our website, or come and buy a copy at Alexandra Palace in just over two weeks!!

GUEST BLOGGER: Cometh the hour

2011-09-17T09:02:00.001-07:00

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5 years of servitude as Toft caterer and head of minor logistics and I am finally rewarded with my very own blog post. Today, dear reader, you find us at the Newbury and Berkshire show. Resplendent with cow parades, tractors, giant onions and astoundingly good ale and pork pies, it is one of the country's better agricultural shows. High points for me have been the final of the young farmers women's tug of war and Old Joe's Suicider. Low points have been finding out the Jaguar XK150 for sale opposite our stand is £65k and having to repeatedly pull the mannequins out of the sporadic downpours. I am sorry to report that one of our large bears got his paws slightly soggy, but will be brought to our hotel room tonight to dry out. If you have a soggy toft ted, or have just sponged them clean, let them dry in a warm place, but avoid radiators or hair driers as it makes them grizzly. Our first proof of the Toft pattern book is getting lots of love despite me spilling coffee on the cover this morning. Only three weeks to go until my wife is a published artist, I could not be more proud. I had better sign off before the boss finds my post abandoned, not that she gives me wages to dock. Doug Lord - guest blogger.

Pattern #6 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-16T06:19:00.001-07:00

The Cable and Lace Beanie (with or without Pom Pom). A must have to combine with your Chunky Cable and Lace scarf this winter.

Less than 150g of Chunky, you can get this beanie out of the end of another project (Bulb Bag perhaps). Quick to knit so we think perfect for gifts for friends and family this Christmas.

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Front Cover Preview Toft: Book 1

2011-09-15T01:47:00.001-07:00

Nothing like drip feeding you with information about our pattern book. Today we are pleased to reveal the front cover. This 80 page book is the perfect size to fit in your handbag (or knitting bag).

More previews of the patterns behind this cover to follow tomorrow

Oh and did we mention the book will also contain yarn samples? Touchy feely too!

Order today… http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?AltProdID=BOOK1

Front cover preview for Toft: Book 1

2011-09-15T01:40:00.001-07:00

TOFT_BOOK_COVER.pdf Download this file

Nothing like drip feeding you with information about our pattern book. Today we are pleased to reveal the front cover. This 80 page book is the perfect size to fit in your handbag (or knitting bag).

More previews of the patterns behind this cover to follow tomorrow

Oh and did we mention the book will also contain yarn samples? Touchy feely too!

Order today… http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?AltProdID=BOOK1

Pattern #5 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-14T03:23:00.001-07:00

We have already had a bit of a frenzy over this one. Here are our hearty lace socks and stockings! Knitted in our fine yarn they are labeled as ‘advanced’ and certainly aren’t for the fainthearted knitter. Model shot coming soon.

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Yarn store moved, walls going up, and we're on the road again.

2011-09-13T12:40:00.001-07:00

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In between all this Pattern Book hype, we don't want you to forget that the builders are still very busy here at Toft. The yarn store has been safely relocated and is getting fully stocked for the Christmas rush. Now that's out the way we can push on with the development with the floors going in this week. The first real bricks went down today- it is all getting a bit exciting. We are still full steam ahead for January.

Meanwhile we are off to the Newbury and Berkshire Show this weekend. Come and join us at what is a great show with plenty of real agriculture- not just shopping! Our final agricultural show of the year, and penultimate outdoor show. Malvern Autumn Garden show next weekend completes the season. For all our show dates see

http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/shows.aspx

Pattern #4 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-13T02:04:00.001-07:00

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The Plait Hat

A heavyweight hat knitted in our Toft Chunky Yarn. Rated as 'intermediate' difficulty, it is on two needles rather circular like many of our designs. With a 'helmet' like structure this is a very warm winter hat that is very popular with snowboarders.

Pattern #3 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-12T05:03:00.001-07:00

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And here we have the fine race back vest. Simple and wearable as a layer over t-shirts and shirts in the Autumn and Winter. Quick to knit and with a bit of grafting to get you a seamless professional finish.

Loads of you have pre-ordered already to guarantee your copy.

http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?AltProdID=BOOK1

Pattern #2 Toft: Book 1

2011-09-09T00:09:00.001-07:00

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The gorgeous chunky cable and lace scarf. Part of a short series of matching hat and wristwarmers- once you've mastered this stitch there will be no stopping you.

Don't forget to spread the word on Facebook for a chance to win one of five knitting kits, and if you like the look of these patterns guarantee your copy...

http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?AltProdID=BOOK1

Drum roll please! Pattern #1 From Toft: Book 1

2011-09-08T00:50:00.001-07:00

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To countdown to the launch of our first Knitting Pattern lookbook on 6th October (Ally Pally). We are going to show you one design from the book each day. A couple are old favourites, but the rest band spanking new patterns.

You can pre-order the book on our website at the moment. Alongside all these gorgeous patterns there are dozens of pages giving you the full story of Toft yarn- from shearing and spinning through to giant button sewing tips and wet felting advice.

We have designed knitting patterns from beginner, through intermediate and a few advanced- to inspire and challenge you. There are even a couple if crochet patterns in there too!

Guarantee you will receive your copy early January by ordering on our site £15.

http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?AltProdID=BOOK1

So this is an Aran cable sweater, suitable for the intermediate knitter ( a few cheats up our sleeve that make it not as hard as it looks!). Written for sizes 8-18.

Kerry gets her skates on!

2011-08-31T10:11:00.001-07:00

Whilst the building works proceed at a scarily fast pace the yarn store has had to be moved. Until January our temporary store will be a short truck ride away and then a two man opening job. So today Carrie and Kerry took new batches of yarn to the store and did a bit of sorting out, it also allowed us a chance to assess which colours and weights we need to send to the mill next- a mushroom DK for instance and a new steel DK.

In other shop news Kerry, fresh back from her holiday, took receipt of some vintage roller-skates today. Here she is testing them out in the office and also taking an important call with the pattern book designers. Luckily amongst all the sorting out we've found some knee pads that may well come in handy!

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The ultimate festival companion...a moss snood.

2011-08-30T08:45:00.001-07:00

Beautifully modelled by Lucy Gilbert. Our easy peasy chunky knit snood is great for keeping the chill off as we move into Autumn.

Great yarn labeller, shame about the noise!

2011-08-25T08:19:00.001-07:00

Scott (aka Bai Zude as featured on Toft Alpaca Stud's blog) has been super helpful this week after about 100 kilos of chunky and aran alpaca yarn arrived back from the mill. Carrie, womaning the fort whilst Kerry suns herself (quite deservedly so) just wouldn't have had a chance to do it so Scott stepped in. What a happy yarn labeller he is I think you'll agree. Shame about his dreadful taste in music heard emanating from the snooker room but it's a price worth paying for all that yarn labelling to be finished this week!

Festival of Quilts 2011

2011-08-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

It's been another hectic week here at Toft Towers. We've done another photo shoot with Gianni this week and also been editing lots of press releases - Toft seems to be getting about even more than usual so look out for us, you never know where we'll pop up! Our media page features details of where we've appeared but if you think we've missed anything just let us know.

Kerry had a fantastic time at the Festival of Quilts last weekend. Felicity our intern who helped Kerry at the show on Thursday and Friday took some great shots of all the goings-on, it certainly was a busy and exciting show, one we look forward to attending again next year - perhaps by then Carrie might have actually made the quilt she keeps threatening to after buying some gorgeous fabric at Knit Nation!

We've also had two more births at the farm, the last two of the season in fact. A girl born on Monday called Elom (Star Wars planet) and a boy today called Ikrit (Star Wars character) were our last cria of 2011. We now look forward to seeing their fleeces in 2012's shear - wow how weird does that sound?! Here is Elom taking her first steps and a little friend looking on.

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Whilst some of us were frantic with a photoshoot...

2011-08-10T08:10:00.001-07:00

Monday's photo shoot with Gianni, photographer extraordinaire, was frantic
to say the least. Carrie's technical knitting videos took up most of the
morning although once she had one in the bag the rest were done in just one
take, how professional. The afternoon was knitting kit shots and new
products but there's still lots to whizz through after the parcelforce lost
box debacle! Toft also had another visitor on Monday in the form of Hannah,
Kerry's little niece. It was obviously an exhausting day here at the farm
and she had a lovely snooze on the sofa with Pete whilst the photo shoot was
going on around her. It's alright for some!

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Toft Alpaca Shop's 5th Birthday Party!

2011-08-08T10:22:00.001-07:00

The Toft 5^th Birthday Party 2011

To celebrate The Toft Alpaca Shop’s 5^th Birthday we held a two day celebration of all things alpaca and textiles.

We kicked off the party on Friday with a lunch for our knitters. Although only twelve were available to join us it meant we had a great time and we could all sit around the large table together and chat. After a walk and talk around the farm to ensure that these ambassadors of our craft were up-to-date and well informed in ‘alpaca’ we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and then some bunting knitting ready for Saturday’s party. Several of our knitters managed to join us on both days, and others that couldn’t make it Friday enjoyed coming along with their families at the weekend.

Saturday was brilliant. The first car entered the car park at 9.45am and the last one left at 5.30pm! we had a full day of activities for all the family, including farm walks, alpaca halter training, wet felting, knitting lessons, and spinning. Well over two hundred of you passed through the gates of Toft this Saturday (we were so busy we had no way to count!) and the fifty car carpark was full from start to finish.

We couldn’t have made the day so successful without the help of all our staff and volunteers- and I am sure those of you that came along would like to share in a pat on the back to:

Carrie : for endless enthusiasm in shop serving and stopping all the knitters getting in a tangle!

Linda: for proudly showing off her halter trained alpacas (and managing to squeeze in the shearing of four too!)

Emma: for being wonderful with all the children and helping create Bertha (the lifesize felt alpaca).

Izi: for boldly diving in at the deep end and learning and then teaching wet felting to all the children.

Myra (gran): for providing an endless stream of tea and coffee to all.

Lorna: for providing a wonderful welcome to all and being the best shop sales assistant around- she now knows her knit from her purl alright!

Doug: for always helping out those who needed it whether washing cups or doing truck tours of the farm.

Joel: for his help with all the wet felting.

Jack: for expert car-parking management.

Scott: for some fantastic farm tours (the feedback has been wonderful!)

Felicity: for demonstrating knitting all day.

Laura: for getting stuck in at the knitting all day.

Kate: for doing a very long drive up to show her support for the Toft she has helped create (and take all these great photos).

Jen: for being on hand to assist with whatever needed doing.

And of course Rob and Shirley: for allowing us to once again dominate their home for a whole weekend, and for their tireless ability to chat alpaca, run halter training, and help wherever help was needed.

And all those others who did your bit (hog roast team, the Lord family, the Newport family).

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I fear we may be celebrating each year from now on!!!

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Two more sleeps 'til party time!!

2011-08-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

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With just two more sleeps to go until the Toft Alpaca Shop Birthday party it's all hands to the pump- there isn't much left to do now. Kerry or should we call her Miss Fix-it has today, with a little help from some friends, created a near life size alpaca from MDF & chicken wire. Here she is, her name is Bertha (Birthday, get it?) & on Saturday we'll be inviting our guests to do some wet felting which will cover Bertha giving her a lovely alpaca fleece.

Other preparations today have involved the making of numerous signs, finger knitting for some planned yarn bombing and a little more blanket cutting for the giant yarn.

Tomorrow is our Knitters lunch. We can't wait to say thank you to these marvellous ladies. Photos to follow.

Answer to Friday's question & some huge balls of yarn!

2011-08-04T00:06:00.001-07:00

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So so sorry not to have blogged since Friday, it's been a crazy week here at Toft. Preparations for the birthday party this Saturday are going swimmingly (no pun about the weather forecast intended!) & we're all very excited about the fun & games we've got planned for all our visitors.

This is Kerry cutting up some alpaca blanket that was made over 5 years ago, in order to make some giant yarn to knit up on giant needles. With the size of the needles being broom-handle, you'll probably only want to knit a row or two each but once we've all done that it'll look marvellous!

Oh & the answer to how many knitting kits we have? Over 70- wow!

Just for fun - guess how many knitting kits we have?!

2011-07-29T08:35:00.001-07:00

It's the season for interns and work experience just now, so this week and for the next few weeks we are joined at Toft Towers by Felicity Thomas. She's just graduated from Winchester School of Textiles specialising in handknitting and menswear, photos to follow. One of her tasks this week was to update the pattern books and folders - you know, those cavenous files that we delve into to get your patterns whenever we're at shows?!

Well here they are all laid out (with a few newbie alpaca toys looking on) just guess how many knitting kits and patterns we have now? Answer on Monday

And just for good measure here is Pete, looking cute, because why not, it's Friday! Have a great weekend everyone!

Hats off to all of them...WINNERS in the Toft 115m Knitting Design competition 2011

2011-07-27T09:19:00.001-07:00

A little bit later than we had promised (there were lots of entries to consider), but well and truly worth the wait...

Here are the results from the 2011 Knitting Design competition.

WINNER:Linda Irving-Bell

Congratulations to Linda Irving-Bell for creating this stunning hat design. Knitted in our 'silver' Aran weight yarn and inspired by the clematis flower. We love this sophisticated design and can’t wait for it to be a knitting kit later this year (in fact we will be casting it on very soon!)

RUNNER UP: Jane Inkle

This gorgeous Chunky hat design by Jane Inkle has been awarded runner up. The design was inspired by giant ropes and fishing nets, seen around the East Yorkshire coast. The sandy colour of the ‘camel’ alpaca perfectly matched the local sand!

RUNNER UP:

This pretty lace headband or neckwarmer has been created by Ruth Ward using our Double Knitting yarn in 'black'. For a first ever attempt at lace design we thought this was fantastic and certainly well deserved runner up.

We also decided to award a JUDGE'S CHOICE- one of our favourites that didn't quite make it: a crochet alpaca by Linda Ulfsparre Sewell.

We would also like to make a special mention to Helena Callum, Jenny Nicolson and Elspeth May for fantastic presentation and photography of their entries.

We will be putting up a display of our top 10 entries at our Birthday Party next Saturday 6th August. We are hoping to see lots of you at Toft Manor, Dunchurch to celebrate a day of spinning, knitting and felting alpaca. All are welcome 10am-4pm. Hog roast and refreshments now available.

Another stonking weekend at the CLA Gamefair

2011-07-25T03:02:00.001-07:00

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Lucky for us the CLA Gamefair is always on our doorstep. This year it was back at Blenheim palace, and once again we spent a glorious three days trading.

It was a very busy weekend filled with many a returning customer and picking up a few new alpaca addicts. Not enough tune to grab many pics...

We have returned to Toft this morning with far less than we left with on Thursday (albeit with a lot more sunburn!). Time for a well earned nap this week before we gear up for our Birthday Party a week on Saturday.

Alternative head-wear

2011-07-25T01:51:00.001-07:00

This is Rebekah Sanders our work experience girl who was a great help for the short but sweet time she was with us last week. Not only did she yarn label a mountain of chunky yarn, but she also did some work on updating the media book and helped Kerry set up at the CLA in a record time for the amount of goodies we took to Blenheim! Here she is sporting, rather dashingly I think you'll agree, her finally finished lace work hat - apparently this took quite some doing and she should be very pleased with the results it looks great!

Rob is also appearing in the blog (anyone noticed yet that he tends to be the comedy element to this blog?) with his alternative head-wear for Friday - a pair of glasses stuck in his hair - he clearly needs a knitted hat to keep that mane under control!

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BIG Knitting with Ingrid Wagner

2011-07-20T04:02:00.001-07:00

Ingrid Wagner of Big Knitting fame came to visit Toft Towers this week and we just had to take the opportunity to snap her alongside her van and some huge needles - the weather as you can tell was a little blustery!

Ingrid describes her work as Rugs, Art and Big Knitting and her website is a feast of beautiful pieces created with fabric and various other media. Kerry brought several pairs of Ingrid's Big Knit Slippers early this year and we're all waiting for the cold weather (even colder than now?!) to wear these once cashmere blanket beauties. We often see Ingrid at shows when we're all running around like headless chickens, so it was great to show her around the farm and catch up over a cup of coffee.

Knit Nation done and dusted for 2011.

2011-07-18T09:49:00.001-07:00

We had lots of fun this weekend at Knit Nation. It was great to see so many familiar faces and show off our freshest newest knitting kits after the parcel debacle of last week (& no the parcel still hasn't surfaced!). Kerry set up a great looking stand but she was so busy she didn't actually get a chance to take a photo of it.

Saturday Carrie attended a Knitting with Colour workshop with Susanna Hansson (of Bohus Stickning fame) and loved every minute of it. The workshop included stranded knitting (with floats carried behind the work), intarsia and slip stitch knitting. The little hat photographed is all stranded work using Toft DK yarn and yes that is a Mollie Makes felt phone in the background, we're slightly addicted.

The yarn used in the slip stitch knitting, a technique that does a very impression of a hounds-tooth pattern, was kindly donated by Susanna via a Washington Knitting Shop called Great Yarns. The yarn is a Merino mix called Prism and is available in lots of beautiful hand dyed colourways.

Carrie made several new Ravelry buddies including KatyLouise who can be seen here sporting some of her handknitted wardrobe (she's seriously talented!).

To top off the already great weekend it was also Carrie's first year at Toft so the Lord's and the Pett's had a blue curaco fuelled evening out in London starting with Chinese and a trip to several bars, the impressively decked out Blackfriar was one of them and The Giant Robot diner.

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Could you be on the look out for a box of alpaca knitwear - somewhere in the UK...

2011-07-15T07:29:00.001-07:00

It started off as a great week, lots to blog about and lots of things going on in the office. We've a new work experience chap in the form of Joel, our Izy's brother, Kerry was at the Great Yorkshire Show meeting Prince Charles, Carrie had lots of visitors to the shop and Rob sold untold amounts of goodies to the Yelvertoft WI after their Toft farm picnic - he also wheeled one of their older members around the farm and up a few very steep hills, wish we'd have been there to get a photo!

Then we had some worrying news - hence not blogging since. Our box of gorgeous one off samples that Gianni has just finished photographing in London didn't turn up. Carrie made lots of calls to find out where and why is was missing and to be honest, we're still in limbo. As a result we're attending the Knit Nation show this weekend with even newer knitting kits than the new ones we had planned! Amongst the new things are a Fine Halter Neck Dress, a Fine Bobble-ended scarf and something we're really excited about, a crochet Solomans Net & Flower scarf. This Toft favourite, is soooooo beautiful and finally available as a crochet kit (thanks Ruth!) - we think you'll love it!

But since these items are so very freshly baked we can't post any photos of them - you'll have to attend Knit Nation to see them. So instead here are a few of the new photos Gianni shots. Remember to keep your eyes peeled for a brown cardboard box in the UK somewhere, about so big, held together with brown tape, full of one off pieces of knitwear, a plastic leg and a matching hand, so it shouldn't be too hard to find right?!!

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2011 - the year for knitted alpaca dresses apparently...

2011-07-11T07:14:00.001-07:00

Just a few news items today that caught our eye. The first is an article from the Sydney Morning Herald about a couple who got married recently (in what looks like a beautiful location) and the bride wore an alpaca flapper dress embellished with hundreds of sequins and beads - it's too dye (!) for - sorry!

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/lifestyle/weddings/katie-jacobs-and-zachary-bailey-20110711-1h9jj.html

Okay so it's not really a knitted alpaca dress but there's no denying that this little number isn't! These photos are some of the final pieces by student designer Jodie Perrins. Using Toft Chunky yarn she created this full length dress inspired by traditional English sports as reflected in her collection title of 'Bowl Me Over'. We're not sure how practical this dress would be on the cricket pitch but it would certainly be a talking point for any spectators! More info on Jodie can be found on her website at http://jodieperrins.carbonmade.com/, her photographer for this collection was Holly Booth.

Kerry is on route to the Great Yorkshire Show today until Friday when we're off to Knit Nation! Lots more news to follow.

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Soggy alpacas & scrumptious yarn

2011-07-08T06:18:00.001-07:00

It's a very soggy day here at Toft Alpacas, so a little cria born this morning was a great surprise to us all. Not only is she a week early but Alpacas tend to hold off giving birth until nice dry sunny days. We've probably said before that since Alpaca mums don't lick their babies they are usually born before about 3pm and generally on dry days in order that they'll dry in time for colder nights. Heyho, this mum was obviously keen on today for some reason!

At first we thought this little girl belonged to Vitoria since she's such a dark colour, but she is actually from November Gold the light fawn alpaca in the photo and Jaina, one of our champion stud males who is a medium brown. That's why Shirley is looking so happy, a Jaina girl is bound to have a beautiful fleece. She'll soon be given a Star Wars name beginning with N because of this lineage and Helen is busy scouring a Star Wars website for possibilities.

Kerry went to the mill this morning to pick up more gorgeous yarn. A few favourites that haven't been around for a while are now back in stock, namely Silver and Steel Chunky and we also have a new addition to the Aran colour range; a beautiful Mushroom that's very soft and has a real shimmer to it. With that news we're off to try and decide which of our new knitting kits to try out next with these fab colours.

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Our favourite stitch pattern of 2011

2011-07-07T08:33:00.001-07:00

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The cable & lace knitting stitch pattern, quite frankly we love it! We've adapted this stitch for several of Toft's 2011 Knitting Kit Collection (available online now) including gloves, a hat & a scarf. Here you can see Pete, Kerry's little monkey dog sporting a little coat of cable & lace- have we gone a step too far?! Naahh!!

A busman's holiday in Estonia

2011-07-04T03:28:00.001-07:00

Can I ever get away from knitting?

Truth told Carrie may have packed her knitting for a weekend away in Brighton, but Kerry was heading off hoping for a purl free weekend.

Error. Tallinn had been yarn bombed…

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The travels of Team Toft

2011-07-03T10:06:00.001-07:00

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Team Toft have taken a break this weekend, both Carrie & Kerry have escaped the Midlands for sunnier climbs & some naughty treats. Essential things for the suitcases included swimwear, a cute dress, an alpaca snood for chilly evenings, heels (natch), a Toft Bulb Bag within which many other essentials can be crammed (including a well read issue of Craft Business) & some alpaca yarn for the journey. What can we say, we love our products & who wouldn't with the winning combo of luxury & practicality ;-)

Back to the farm tomorrow when we'll be taking stock of some delicious new chunky alpaca yarn.

N.B. Yes those are a couple of crocheted apple cosies in Carrie's knitting bag as featured in the 1st gorgeous issue of Mollie Makes Magazine.

CAKE!

2011-06-28T08:04:00.001-07:00

At the Toft office we are never ones to pass up cake (well most of us aren't!) and today was no exception. Alpaca owner Evelyn brought in some scrumptious french apple cake and being french herself this cake was baked to perfection. Rob decided he should offset this cake eating with a spot of weight lifting - although with this vintage spindle that Kerry found at Woolfest we think he might have to do quite a few reps!

Woolfest was great by the way, Kerry had a very successful show and there was lots of interest in the new samples for knitting kits that will be landing very soon.

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Is that Toft or the Italian Riviera?

2011-06-26T06:24:00.001-07:00

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Whilst awaiting some very late friends & wanting to keep out of the way of Toft Manor residents at the weekend, Carrie & Martin soaked up some rays at Toft overlooking what could well be mistaken for an Italian lake.

Fleece collection somewhere south of here...

2011-06-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

On our way down to collect another trailer load of huacaya fleece this afternoon...

Glad I hadn't left it five days later. Fleece sorting Wednesday again next week and then off to Cumbria for Woolfest on Friday.
Sent from my iPhone

Fancy an alpaca muffin with that cuppa?

2011-06-16T04:29:00.001-07:00

Our recent intern Emi e-mailed us this week detailing her plans for a summer of alpaca fun when she returns to Japan.

Firstly she'll be visiting a Mawata manufacturer who make duvets. Mawata or hankie is a method of stretching silk cocoons over a wooden frame and drying them to create squares of raw silk. Emi and Carrie investigated this on You Tube and the Yarn Harlot's blog after talking about hand spinning when Emi was last here. The Yarn Harlot describes using hankie to make a pair of mittens and instead of spinning using a traditional wheel she just pulled the silk into a strand of fibre ‘something (very vaguely) resembling a light worsted weight yarn’. Fascinating, huh?! Emi has lots of silk pupa a home and hopefully this hands on training will allow her to use them to great effect!

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2011/02/02/mine_mine_all_mine.html

Another visit Emi is making is to a Japanese alpaca farm called Nasu. Their website is beautifully designed although their take on the healing power of alpacas is an interesting one (we used Google translate – we aren’t actually fluent in Japanese!). The most interesting thing though has to be alpaca muffins which aren’t made of alpaca but camembert and if anyone knows the link between the two, answers on a postcard please! The cookies look interesting too and Emi has promised us a taste when she returns – we look forward to it!

http://www.nasubigfarm.com/index.shtml

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Damn, thought we'd escaped!

2011-06-15T03:42:00.001-07:00

The Toft Alpaca show team were sheared on Monday evening after sweeping the board at the Kenilworth show the other week. Their indignant expressions made it quite clear that they thought they'd escaped the shearer this year! That said they all look much happier now that those beautiful but incredibly warm and thick fleeces are off their backs.

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You won't lose that Cria wearing that jacket!

2011-06-13T06:50:00.001-07:00

Friday at Toft Alpacas was Felting Workshop day. As well as a few loyal customers we were also joined by several alpaca owners and some of our lovely knitters. They all enjoyed a day of wet felting and unusually most people decided to make a bowl, Carrie had to gen-up on how to dry them as now one had ever wanted to make one before. The thing to do is to leave it drying around your chosen bowl, once you've worked really hard to get that lovely shape of course.

The weekend was busy too with two new brown Cria's born 10 and 11 days premature, Ambria the little girl is the one with a Cria coat and a floppy ear, and the boy is Garafano. Ambria's cria coat certainly makes her stand out in the field and should there be any on-coming traffic in her field she'll be spotted a mile off! (Not that we ever have more than a mower or the odd tractor anywhere near that field!).

We received Central St Martin's student Ana Oqunan's photos today and immediately poured over them - we love the mood of her stylish photo shoot. We're not quite sure of her technique, it's embroidery, but is it a crochet stitch? We'll have to ask Ana herself, but we'd like to thank her in the meantime for the great photos.

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Fancy an alpaca cape?

2011-06-08T04:48:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since we posted and quite frankly we miss it, so here we are again! It's been a very busy few weeks with Kerry at the Bath and West, Marie the intern has returned for Wales and the alpaca stud team wiped the board with their wins at the Kenilworth show!

Before she went away Kerry visited the Central St Martin's fashion students end of year shows because Toft Alapca Shop sponsored two students this year, both with very different takes on knitwear design. The first was Ana Oqunan with beautiful and technically brilliant embroidered pieces, we're just awaiting her photos and the second was Katarina Benakovic who worked mainly in Toft's chunky yarn. Katarina sent the yarn to the Natural Fibre Company to have it dyed a beautiful blue. Here are some of the photos from her show, including an amazing floor length blue alpaca cape.

We can't wait to see and share Ana's photos with you!

Oh and have you seen our birthday party mentioned on the Simply Knitting website? We think lots of you might have since demand for our competition yarn for 115m challenge has rocketed recently! http://simplyknitting.themakingspot.com/page/simplyknitting?entry=toft_alpaca_celebrations_and_design

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A glorious morning at the Royal Bath and West Show

2011-06-02T02:14:00.001-07:00

> > Sitting outside M & S waiting for it to open to gran some goodies to sustain me through another day of trading. Sounds ridiculous when surrounded by all these local produce food halls...but it is the only way to get some vitamins in this bacon bap and pasty lovers haven! > > Our stand backs onto the holding pen, so horse eventing from 7am. > > Our summer sale continues today, but looks like I'll have an empty tent by Saturday. Find us on the main aisle. > > >

Make way for new knitting kits!

2011-06-01T05:23:00.001-07:00

The office has been taken over with new knitting kit samples back from our lovely knitters - they do work hard and we love them for it. Once the sampling process is finalised they'll go to Gianni to be photographed and new kits will include some new cable garments designs, lots more lace knits and even our first foray into crochet! Did you know that alpaca yarn is great to crochet with and the five weights of Toft yarn give you an endless choice of projects. Here are a few sneaky peaks of new items - can you guess what the intarsia picture is? Look out for it at our upcoming show stands and let us know if you guessed right!

We had another cria born over the weekend, she's in the distance of this field photo sporting a little cria jacket to protect her from the wind.

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Herding about

2011-05-25T08:58:00.001-07:00

We all got out of the office again for a while today to help Linda herd the young girls back across the farm - it's always good fun careering around the farm on the quad and the truck, especially for us office dwellers. Here are a few photos of the girls we were moving, including one little stunner who looks like she's growing a beard! Poor thing, Ben the shearer missed a bit so Rob will no doubt have to do a Vidal Sassoon on her.

Alpacas tend to obey straight lines so when we are moving them around the farm all we really need is man power to hold up strategically placed ropes as you can see Rob doing. These girls went back to join their two Suri friends who haven't seen them since they were sheared. Ursula was so excited to see them she galloped around the field greeting all her friends with her tail actually wagging like a dog. Alpacas a very social animals and this was lovely to see!

Back in the office Kerry got a warm up hug from Harvey and Pete who are now best buds.

Oh nearly forgot, we caught sight of our resident Ghostbuster in action yesterday armed with his trusty green back pack and spray gun ridding the trailer of paranormal activity - phew! Who ya gonna call?!! Rob-gutbuster... only, give me a while to get there and make sure there's a brew on would you...

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Goodbye to our interns & hello cria

2011-05-20T09:10:00.001-07:00

We're all feeling a little weary this Friday after a very busy shearing week. Here are some more shearing photos, this animal is Viola, we all tend to know her because of her unusual looks - you can't really see here but she is brown with a white face. At Toft we 'throw' one colour animal over another of the same or similar colour (by throw we mean mate, we don't actually chuck them about!) in order that we can hopefully produce a single colour animal, thereby giving you brown yarn, cream yarn etc. However this doesn't always work 100% and it didn't with Viola, or Lord Such (the brown and white cria) hence their white bits.

After shearing we had lots of births and for those who are a bit squeamish look away now, this is Maggie May giving birth to Mira, we've also had Lord Such, Betty and Nessa so that makes the total 4 boys and 3 girls so far!

Emi has now left us to get on with her spinning mission and today is Marie's last day at the farm before she spends next week at Haggers Mill in Banbury where we have our yarn spun. It's been a really eventful few weeks and it's going to feel very empty without everyone next week. That said we have lots more to look forward to...

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Shear madness...

2011-05-18T07:09:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again - Shearing Week! It's almost as busy as Christmas for us here at Toft with 200 animals to shear and all their fleeces to be sorted.

The fun started on Friday when an extended team Toft put the shearing tent up (also available for Toft wedding receptions, birthdays and BBQ's). Rob did lots of directing and numerous funny accents which confused Marie more than the term bongle (a elastic tie for the tent of which we have many apparently) whilst a bemused Pete looked on - it's all very different here to Anglesea where Kerry rescued him from!

Yesterday Carrie was joined by 10 ladies from as far a field as Essex for a day of alpaca felt jewellery making not to mention a tour of the farm and lots of shearing and sorting information from Rob and Kerry. They all left with a small bundle of hand dyed fleece, huge smiles and promises to return in August for the birthday party!

Ben the shearer and sidekick Jamie managed all 200 animals by 2pm today just in time for the heavens to open and another huge lunch prepared by Shirley - our anti-rain dances seem to have worked up 'til now, but we don't mind anymore - bring it on!

More photos to follow - oh and we've had 4 births since last week!

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A May of Cria & Interns

2011-05-11T08:23:00.001-07:00

It's only the 11th of May and already it's proving to be a very busy month. We have Marie a new intern with us for the next few weeks and our lovely Emi has returned again after a short hiatus and a visit to a weaving house in London. Marie is a spinning mill apprentice from Sweden so she has a great interest in the animals as well as the shearing and spinning process. Her and Emi had a masterclass with local spinners, weavers and dyers guild member Dorothy today. The three of them enjoyed a cosy morning in the shop with the fire on (it's been mighty chilly here today) learning the technicalities of hand spinning, it was great, the shop looked like a craft centre! Marie was using a drop spinning bobbin, plying and then knitting with her alpaca yarn, whilst Emi has plans to use her yarn for her University project and also try her hand at dying some of it in varigated colours.

It was an excitng day yesterday too with a new Cria born just before lunch. Alpacas are almost always born before about 3pm in the afternoon to give them time to dry off in the sun because their mothers do not lick them and during freezing cold South American nights this could be a problem. Newborn Cria should be standing and feeding within a short while and this little girl (who was not so little, hence Mum needed Shirley's help) was up within 10 minutes. Marie caught her first unsteady steps on camera.

Another new addition yesterday to the Toft madhouse was Lump/Garth/Pete (almost certainly Pete now!) Kerry's new Affenpinscher-Poodle cross. He's finding life a little odd right now but we're certain he'll settle in very soon - let's just hope he doesn't pick up any of adventure dog Harvey's biscuit stealing bad habits!

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A May of Cria's & Interns

2011-05-11T07:34:00.001-07:00

It's only the 11th of May and already it's proving to be a very busy month!

Winning Weekend!

2011-05-09T08:47:00.001-07:00

Toft Alpaca Stud and Toft Alpaca Shop enjoyed a great weekend in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire at the National Alpaca Show 2011. We came back winners in every sense. The alpacas did us proud and Rob and Shirley can now add 1st prize Huacaya Junior Male Black for Ison, 1st prize Huacaya Junior Female Fawn and Junior Champion for Nashira plus three third place rosettes to their show prize board.

As for the shop it was great to meet old and new alpaca friends and arrange with some the drop off of lots more lovely UK bred alpaca fleeces to make our gorgeous new season yarns. Adventure dog Harvey had a whale of a time, even 'manning' the stand by himself for a while - although a lack of opposable thumbs did hinder card sales somewhat.

In the office we're all very excited about the arrival of two new puppies whom Kerry and Rob are currently on a road trip to collect. Tomorrow at Toft = Bedlam! Can't wait!

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First Cria of 2011

2011-05-05T04:49:00.001-07:00

Subscribers to Toft Alpaca Stud will already know that the first two Cria of 2011 have arrived. They are two healthy boys named Gollum, a white huacaya with a brown patch on his neck and Edgar, a white suri with fawn ears. They were born whilst Carrie was away, so she had a lovely alpaca welcome back this morning and spent a while in the paddock taking some photos of the little fellas.

Whilst wandering the field she also had a good look at the show boys who, we think you'll agree look stunning - just in time for the National Alpaca Show at Stoneleigh this weekend. Rob and Shirley will be showing several Toft boys and girls amongst some 350 alpacas appearing at the show. Kerry will be going along too with some lovely alpaca goodies suitable for spring and yarn to satiate your luxury knitting or crochet habit!

In shop news, we have just two places left on next week's Shearing and Felt Jewellery workshop (17th May) and a we've also had our first delivery of furry pom-pom's. We're fighting the urge to attach these gorgeous little balls of fluff to every piece of clothing we have! They're available in the shop for just £6 and we can take orders via the telephone, we'll just have to wait for photographer extraordinaire Gianni to shoot them before they're on the website. They would make a wonderful fluffy addition to any beanie hat, or on the ends of a cute hand knitted scarf, or on the back of your mittens, as a kooky brooch, strung together as a necklace-scarf... okay, new obsession admitted!

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Making felt whist the sun shines!

2011-04-20T05:30:00.001-07:00

In preparation for Toft's Felt Jewellery and Shearing Workshop on the 17th May, Carrie and Emi have been making some felt jewellery and enjoying the sunshine here at Toft. They've been coming up with some new designs and ideas as well as documenting it all for the new workshop notes. Today Emi is busy mixing colours and dying fleeces like some kind of mad professor of colour! So far we've got a rich gold, an orange, lilac and a beautiful green (Carrie's favourite so far).

If you would like to join us on the Felt Jewellery and Shearing Workshop there are still some places left. We're hoping for a lovely dry day so that we can get lots of animals sheared and show you how we literally get alpaca from field to fashion! The workshop date is Tuesday 17th May and for a mere £45 we include tuition, materials, a tour of the farm and shearing demonstrations, not to mention refreshments and a home cooked lunch! To book just follow this link http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?AltProdID=shearing

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Emi's first trip to the mill...chunky yarn back in stock!

2011-04-12T07:56:00.001-07:00

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We are very pleased to have Emi staying with us at Toft at the moment to complete a three week internship in all things alpaca. Admittedly she has had a couple of dull mornings this week...with mountains of yarn labelling to be done! But most of the time she has been getting stuck in and enjoying getting to grips with alpacas and the processing of their fibre. We have done a trip to the mill and packed the truck to the rafters to get is back to base. We picked up two gorgeous new grey batches- a dk charcoal and a chunky Heather. For the rest of the week Emi will do fleece sorting, yarn categorising, and even some hand dyeing...not a filing cabinet in sight!

If you are interested in doing work experience with us don't hesitate to get in touch.

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A great end to a glorious weekend at Wonderwool Wales

2011-04-11T02:15:00.001-07:00

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For all of you serious about your fleece and fibre, you will have been aware that this weekend we went to celebrate British wool at Wonderwool Wales. Following a very early start through Worcestershire and Herefordshire over to the Royal welsh Showground we setup the stand in record time and got ready to meet lots of lovely spinners, weavers and dyers. Doug, Harvey and I had a great weekend meeting lots of old friends including Lynne Wallace of woolly wonders and Carol Keats of willow studio. I met these lovely ladies for the first time five years ago when toting with the idea of setting up TOFT. They were and still are very supportive, and I would recommend checking put there work- Lynne is a knitwear designer and Carol does amazing handspun and woven one-off pieces. Despite it really not being my usual thing I painted a smile on my face and took to the 'sleepwalk'. This runway display of all things knitted, woven and felted was a great attraction for all those at wonderwool. Thankfully I had Harvey as a prop modelling a new dog coat knitting kit by Woolly Wonders. A style statement for any well-heeled pooch!

On the way back we managed to enjoy the countryside in the sunshine and stopped off at a great pub for some supper- Live and let Live- a great watering hole that is very dog-friendly. Harvey was pooped after so much attention from ladies over the weekend!

I have a bit of breathing space now before the British Alpaca National Show at the beginning of May- just enough time to get all the new designs typed up, printed and onto the shelf! Sent from my iPhone

Joys of Spring

2011-04-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

Spring has sprung at Toft Alpacas and we are busy with the obligatory spring clean. Carrie has a new knitting machine out of the deal and the shop has a new roomy sewing box - at least it was until we did a spring clean.

It's lush knowing that we've got new designs on their way from Peru and our local knitters not to mention getting lots of odd-jobs done in a rare quiet week! When we say quiet we mean 'Toft quiet' which is very different to the OED definition - there has been near riotous fleece and halter judge revision with Rob & Shirley, new bed deliveries for the holiday let, food deliveries for the Alpacas, work experience girl Emi who is with us for 3 weeks, some random and impromptu fleece dying in preparation for the felt jewellery workshop in May and lots of press cutting work to name but a few events so far this week.

Kerry and Emi have gone to the mill this afternoon to collect new batches of DK & Chunky. It's a great chance for Emi to see the all the processes at the mill and reports are she's taken thousands of pics so we'll get those up very soon.

Remember that now is a great time to take advantage of our on-going sale!

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A Marvellous Mother's Day

2011-04-05T05:14:00.001-07:00

Toft Alpaca’s visited Hampshire last weekend in the beautiful National Trust setting of The Vyne, near Basingstoke. Their Mother’s Day event promised to be a lovely spring day with tours of the house, tea and cakes and a selection og stalls from which to purchase something unique.

It being an old stomping ground of Carrie’s she packed up her car, leaving just about enough room for the husband and spent a weekend in the area, culminating in an early Sunday start to set up in the cute marquee complete with handmade bunting.

The weather stayed dry thankfully and the house and ground were soon full with fudge and cupcake eating families. Toft’s hand-turned buttons were a big talking point as usual and the classic Net and Flower scarves made many a Mum’s day.

Thank you to all at The Vyne for a lovely Sunday and we hope to see you soon! Next stop on the Toft 2011 Tour – Wonderwool Wales 9^th & 10^th April.

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TOFT get the cover of April Image Magazine

2011-03-31T06:19:00.001-07:00

Sitting down to a rare nugget of time off in the hairdressers...not so lucky. Delivered straight to me is the latest copy of Image magazine, a property and lifestyle mag based in Warwickshire- and we are the 'best of british' cover article. It is a full write up on Toft Alpacas and the Bettinson clan, with some slightly dubious closeups!

Pick up a copy of this free mag in a hairdressers, restaurant or newsagents in Warwickshire and enjoy four pages of Tofty goodness. Sent from my iPhone

One Country Living day down and four to go!

2011-03-24T01:36:00.001-07:00

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If you're in London this week and haven't begun to contemplate mother's day, then Country Living Spring Fair us well worth a visit. We are in the business design centre until 3pm on Sundays on stand e24. Yesterday was filled with lots of old friends including Amy from Mooreland and Mansions, Carrie's mum and a very welcome visit from a Toft-clad Guru Kaur (with some fantastic jam for us). Today Carrie will be joining me in London from the midlands and Helen will be in the shop and office.

It is another gorgeous spring day down here, and pretty guaranteed to be a good one at the Country Living Spring Fair 2011. Sent from my iPhone

Bright knits at the final day of Stitch and Craft...

2011-03-20T02:41:00.001-07:00

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We've had another good weekend in Olympia despite not seeing a peep of the sunshine as the tradestand is underground on the newly created knitting floor. Just enough time to change our socks at home this evening and then we're back at the business design centre in Islington for the Country Living Spring Fair from Wednesday. We have got a big stand at this event so be sure to come and see us- we will be taking final product in with us. If you ever want to check which shows you'll be able to catch up with us at check our website for full details.

http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/shows.aspx

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Olympia Stitch and Craft 2011

2011-03-18T03:03:00.001-07:00

You will find Toft at stand LG14 until Sunday at this year's Stitch and Craft 2011. Brought to you by Twisted Thread, the organisers of the Knitting and Stitching Shows, this event also incorporates Papercraft.

This year the organisers together with the magazine sponsors (simply knitting and the knitter) have created a lower ground area dedicated to knitting. In previous years this show has had little to show in the way of smaller yarn companies, but they have created a 'knitting boutique' to let them in. All in all far more 'knitting' than there usually is- hopefully this will continue to grow for next year.

I spent the first half hour of the morning raiding Ingrid Wagner's Big Knitting Studio to buy gorgeous cashmere blanket balls to knit up her new slipper boot knitting kit. Complete with pre-punctured and lined soles, I'm pretty sure they will be a big hit for her (I bought four sets!!).

I can hardly avoid mentioning that the knitted wedding is here in all its glory! I'm glad I got to see it in the 'flesh' because the past couple of weeks I have read about it everywhere- way beyond the knitting magazines.

There's some great work on show, and all together looks like it is on the way to becoming more of a noteworthy knitting event, rather than one for general crafters that can turn their hands to everything.

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A desk based day...

2011-03-17T10:19:00.001-07:00

With Kerry enjoying her first day at Olympia (!) Harvey, Ace and Carrie have had mainly a desk based day catching up on lots of website bits and bobs, as you can see it’s been taxing.

Albert's Arrival!

2011-03-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

Now, when you think of Toft Alpaca Shop you probably think of luscious Alpaca yarns, gorgeous Toft Bulb Bags and of course Toft's hand-turned wooden buttons. Well the man responsible for producing these beauties in all their sizes and varieties is one Albert Bick, local wood hand-turner extraordinaire and here he is.

Albert doesn't often visit because herdswoman Linda is his next door neighbour and she tends to bring in fresh button deliveries to us, but since he was bringing the mother-load to us before his lengthy holiday to source new woods, he thought he'd pop in.

As well as another massive Toft button made of Oak (nuzzled by one of the Queen's Corgi's perhaps? Ref. previous blog post about our massive Horse Chestnut button) Albert brought an array of fabulous buttons and toggles ready for lucky customers at Olympia and Country Living. The stunning dark wood buttons with black burrs are Jarrah Burr wood and Kerry has already nabbed the Giant one for herself, perhaps not for her Bulb bag but just to look at and stroke fondly - we're all a bit weird about our buttons here, but we know we're not alone!

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Day two at the British Alpaca Futurity 2011

2011-03-12T02:04:00.001-08:00

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After an early start chatting about alpacas on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire at 7am this morning we are back in tradestand 15 (by the coffee!) in hall 2 at stoneleigh park. With over 400 alpacas here it's a great spectacle to see. We have lots of alpaca goodies to keep you warm in the somewhat 'cool' hall. Getting ready for this evening's fashion show this afternoon...photos to follow!

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Fun & Fashion at Futurity 2011

2011-03-10T09:25:00.001-08:00

For those of you who aren’t in the Alpaca-know, British Alpaca Futurity is a yearly Alpaca enthusiasts event which usually takes place (as it is this year) at Stoneleigh Park Conference Centre, near Coventry. It’s a great event for owners, breeders, enthusiasts and designers from around the world. As well as stands of alpaca knitwear etc, lectures for the die-hards there’s always lots going on in the central ring.

Last year Kerry had a great time catching up with old friends in the alpaca world and making new contacts, from breeders to avid alpaca only knitters. One of the highlights of the show is the Fashion Show on Saturday night and Toft Alpaca Shop will again being sending several models down the catwalk with some of our new 2011/12 designs during the showcase of UK designers. Here are some photos of the catwalk show last year – we had to count all the Bulb Bags back in carefully because the models loved them so much!

If you live in the Warwickshire area it’s really worth a look in and to whet your appetite BBC Coventry & Warwickshire will be featuring live interviews tomorrow morning with the Futurity organisers and Saturday morning with Toft Alpaca Shop’s own Kerry talking about all the goings on!

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Are you out there?!

2011-03-08T01:45:00.001-08:00

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3?!!!

Toft Alpaca Shop are feeling felt-tastic!

2011-03-02T03:58:00.001-08:00

It's been a couple of days since our last post which is quite unlike us, but it's because we've been busy felting everything in sight after our training with Jamie Lewis (JLewiscrafts.co.uk). Kerry & Carrie finished their felt mice in unique ways and I think you'll agree they look rather life like (!) in this line-up.

The felt demo box is out from the depths of the fleece store ready for this Friday's Introduction to Felt workshop at Toft Alpacas. This box contains a few horrors including a biological detergent washed bulb bag and plait hat, a shrunken jumper that doesn't even fit the Adventure Dog, and some fleece in various stages of carding/spinning process.

The Toft Felt Workshop day will consist of a lovely farm walk in the sunshine that we've ordered, then some 'expert' felt making tuition using various techniques including wet felting and needle felting. Carrie is looking forward to practising her new found love of wet felting again after last Friday and sharing the satisfaction of creating your first pieces of wet felt artistry!

There are still a couple of places left if you want to book but be quick, last orders is tomorrow (Thursday 3rd) before Shirley goes shopping for the wonderful lunches that the workshops are also becoming known for!

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Fluffy Thursday

2011-02-24T14:29:00.001-08:00

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Boxes of beyond soft fur scarves, teddies & slippers are now all labelled & ready for new homes.

With all these fluffy items about the office, adventure dog Harvey, who is in dyer need of a hair cut, was on his guard in case he ended up being labelled too.

Gorgeous day at Toft today. Felt workshop office jolly tomorrow, is it Friday again already?!

Un Grand Grand Button!

2011-02-22T11:34:00.001-08:00

There was an excited office atmosphere today as the huge button Kerry had commissioned from Albert arrived on our doorstep. Here it is expertly modelled, points if you can guess who by...

Apparently this piece of Horse Chestnut was admired & stroked by the Queen herself at the first ever Royal Show. She was alleged to say it was the most beautiful example of Horse Chestnut she'd ever seen. Well who knows if this really occurred or indeed how many other examples of this wood type the Queen had seen on order to form this opinion!! Hell who cares, what a great story!

Not going outside.

2011-02-21T06:59:00.001-08:00

It's quite a wet and gloomy day here at the farm, so these two photos were not taken today, mainly because we don't want to get wet and cold outside! The first is a shot from the recent Toft Manor/Toft Alpacas photoshoot. As part of which Rob, Kerry and Shirley were asked to pose with three handsome male alpacas in the courtyard of the Manor. You can read more about these three 'pet' boys on Toft Alpaca Stud Posterous blog. The full shoot and 4 page article will appear in Warwickshire's Image magazine soon.

Harvey Spandangles, show stand adventure dog, has been telling us all about his new pad, however he was far too mucky after an adventurous walk this morning in the rain and mud to pose for a photo, so this one will suffice. Taken in the late summer he's modelling, rather superbly I think you'll agree, a pixie style hat. They've not quite taken off as successfully as dog-coats this year but it's only a matter of time apparently!

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Another chaotic day on farm

2011-02-17T12:02:00.001-08:00

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With visits from Cheryl, Elizabeth and Pauline today our Toft office was full of knitters and their knitting. As we are working on new designs at the moment we have hot and cold running samples overflowing out the doors.

Amongst dozens of new socks, scarf and adult and baby garment designs for winter 2011 we also have a GIANT button sign (and we mean giant- over 50cm diameter!) and we have cast on a big union jack project in our natural colours.

Tomorrow morning we have a journalist and photographer from Image magazine coming for an 'at home with the Bettinsons' feature. Followed by visit from Kate with some new mitten patterns, another 150 buttons from Albert and then finally the arrival of our design samples for 2012!

In between everything else we are catching up on lots of sewing up and felting...but not a show in sight this weekend. Just enough time to walk the dogs and grab this video of the views across the top of Toft overlooking Draycote Water.

Great to be back on farm on a glorious day.

2011-02-16T07:28:00.001-08:00

Time to kick back a little bit and get creative. The next few weeks we have a rare gap before commencing the next series of shows in London. Some well needed time for new designs and workshop planning 2011. Announcements to follow shortly on our Toft Birthday Party this summer...And our first pattern book!

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And we are back in Blighty.

2011-02-15T05:04:00.001-08:00

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After what we can only describe as one of the most professional pack-downs of our careers as window dressers we wheel span out of the Grande Halle and back into the maze of a carpark next door.

It was a 'three nutella' morning as we fed ourselves up on our final round of baguettes before heading off to our tourist thang.

We got back on the Chunnel and headed into London late Monday. It seems very odd to be sitting back behind a desk with no 'parce que', 'avec' or 'alpaga' to explain.

The full story of Paris to follow shortly, complete with speed knitting videos, metro adventures and an abundance of lace creation images.

A bientot Paris!

Whilst the cats are away, the mice are...

2011-02-13T02:35:00.001-08:00

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... teaching 12 newbies to recognise their knitting from their purling.

It was a stunningly crisp and bright day at Toft Manor on Saturday, just perfect for a tour of the farm with the newest alpaca enthusiasts! Helen was a great help to Carrie, who would have needed wings to fly around the table of mild knitting catastrophes! Everyone managed at least one ball for their knitted necklace, but most of all we all had a really fun day!

The next intro to knitting workshop is set for 1st April, book your places soon!

Proving to be nothing but a good snack.

2011-02-13T00:02:00.001-08:00

The final chance to buy Toft yarn without postage to France today. All patterns in French, and sone great SALE offers on a couple of old designs.

Already 'big' buttons are sold out, and the chunky yarn in dangerously low.

Next year we will be making limited edition buttons avec le nom de bois en francais for this show. One hundred if each size and when they go they're gone.

We will need quite the specialist dictionary for this one...or answers on a postcard!

And to prove we are working...

2011-02-12T16:04:00.001-08:00

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Once again big crowds for the speed knitting at Le Grande Halle (videos to follow).

Perhaps we should host our own competition in 2011...

Meanwhile plenty of couples getting 'valentined' in the city of love this evening.

A romantic day back on B3.5 planned for us ...the final day squeezing out long-forgotten verb declensions for another year.

To prove we're not just in the NEC carpark...

2011-02-12T10:37:00.001-08:00

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Team Toft at large in Manchester

2011-02-04T08:12:00.001-08:00

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Thursday at Stitch & Craft Manchester was a good, if a tiny bit quiet towards the end kinda day. The knitting workshops were popular & afterwards the space doubled up as a place to leave the hubby to snooze whilst you tried on a multitude of Toft hats & scarves.

We had some very trendy visitors to stand B6 & Carrie took the opportunity to snap this unusual wooden brooch.

So after a good day's work we went back to the hotel dodging the rain & marvelled again at the crazily long chandelier chain in the foyer. Supper was delicious, the service & location at The Restaurant on John Dalton St was so good! We finished off the night in the trendy Panacea with a glass of fizz & a taxi back, lovely!

Star spotting in Manchester

2011-02-03T02:10:00.001-08:00

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Since we arrived last night we've been literally falling over A-listers! Okay so Johnny Vegas & Simon from the Gadget Show aren't quite A-listers but still, it's left us wondering who's next! I managed a photo of the back of his head.

The stand looks great even if we do say ourselves & people are already booked onto our workshops- can't wait!

Supper was scrummy by the way & we inadvertently celebrated Chinese Luna New Year in China Town, Happy New Year!

Thank goodness for the window!

2011-02-02T12:03:00.001-08:00

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We've arrived in Manchester & had a busy afternoon setting up the stand which is looking great, photos to follow. We'll be running intro to knitting, knitted necklace workshops at 11.30am & 2.30pm at our stand B6. Just checked in to the hotel & thank goodness we booked a room with a window (yes, windowless ones are available!) because we would have missed out on this view! Not to mention these masterpieces. Off to China town for supper now, yum!

The final chapter of 2010

2010-12-22T05:21:00.000-08:00

Tankfully the Toft Team were kept lovely and warm head to toe in our knitwear through the final tour dates of 2010. November kicked off with Country Living London.

This was our first setup in Islington’s Business Design Centre, and it proved to be quite a chaotic one. Through all five days of trading we were overrun, and had to call in stock deliveries everyday to keep up with the handbag and headband sales.

We had a very busy event and it was great to see so many of our regular online customers.

From there we did a pit stop back at Toft and headed off up to Glasgow with the same event.

This was only our second time across the border with the Toft tradestand, and proved to be an equally successful event.

It was very chilly that far North, and our hats went down a storm.

It was a really long journey back on the Sunday evening, but fuelled with lots of coffee and muffins we made it back to Leamington Spa just after 1am.

After a chaotic Monday swapping all the stock and loading two vehicles and a horse trailer…we set off for Harrogate for The Knitting and Stitching Show.

This year it was a very big and busy event with Gok Wan’s Fashion Fix being filmed on the Friday night. Forget ‘Team Toft’, we were an alpaca army as we setup and manned our two tradestands.

Thousands of you came and said hi at A90, or TG124 and enjoyed a five minute rest bite putting your feet up on our sofas.

We had the usual suspects Kerry and Kate, dragged Carrie out of the shop and office, and were joined for the week by Laura and Lisbee.

It was a touch and go train experience for Kate Laura and Lisbee coming out of London with the snow and the minus seven weather conditions (little did we know then it would set in for Christmas).

Lisbee was thrown in at the deep arriving five minutes before we started trading on the Thursday not knowing one end of an alpaca from another. We are hoping the Bettinson/Stainton Toft anthem will be with us soon *

see their latest musical collaboration and follow them on twitter/myspace.

Dimbleby & Capper and Lisbee Stainton

So we had a phenomenal time in Harrogate despite the very heavy snow and treacherous driving conditions.

It took a rescue mission by Rob and Doug to get us out on the Sunday evening and we all tested our muscles carrying the little remaining stock and sofas across the road and into the trailer.

Then…we were back in Harrogate for another weekend of snow at Simply Christmas- great to see so many Great Yorkshire Show customers, but sadly the weather killed the crowds.

Since then we’ve had all hands to the pump getting thousands of parcels out to you. We have made everything automatic 24hr delivery, the knitters haven’t stopped and we have sold that many knitting kits we have no tote bags left until January!

We have changed the opening hours of the on-farm shop for 2011. We will now be closed on a weekend from February through to October. The website will still be fully open for orders.

Happy New Year.

Alpaca Farm Workshop-tastic!

2010-10-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

Carrie took a morning workshop with two of our lovely Toft Knitters, Margaret and Kate on the finer points of Circular Knitting a week or so ago. Some of you might be thinking 'what on earth?', whilst some may think, easy. Either way there is a bit more to it than just knitting in the round and making a tube - because lets face it, unless it's a cowl neck or a snood it's not much use! Kate and Margaret learnt several ways to join in the round, how you're always knitting the right side when your working in the round and also the Magic Loop Method. After several hours of knitting, nattering and tea and biscuit consumption they had it down and were looking forward to working up some circular Toft patterns in the near future. For everyone else we'll be putting some videos on the website detailing some circular knitting point - it'll be the first of many Toft Alpaca Shop mini-demos available on the website, including Katie's snood demo and Kerry's Net and Flower Scarf demo!

After the fun we've had recently at our workshops, we're really looking forward to the Cable Workshop on Saturday 13th November (where you could make this Cable Beanie) and the Festive workshops on 3rd and 17th December (where we'll be making Toft's Felt Baubles)- there are still some places left on these workshops and gift vouchers for all of our workshops are available. If you're wracking your brains for gift ideas, they make a great and unusual present for that crafty person in your life.

We just love showing people around the farm, getting them excited about British yarn production and best of all scrummy alpaca yarn and gorgeous luxury fashion products. So much so that we've added new dates and workshop topics for next year, the new workshop dates are;

*Sock and/or Glove Workshop on 21 January 2011 - learn techniques and tips on how to knit these items that people often find needlessly scary.

*Introduction to Knitting on 12 February 2011 - Toft's infamous beginner knitting workshop where we'll teach all the basics to newbies and offer advice to intermediates - usually we knit the gorgeous Toft Knitted Necklace.

*Felt Workshop on 4 March 2011 - learn the various felting techniques so suited to alpaca knitting or fleece, including wet felting, needle felting and knitted felting.

*Next Step Beginner Course - Pattern Reading on 1 April 2011 - If you've loved the Introduction to knitting and want to start that next challenge this is the workshop for you. We'll de-mystify all the pattern jargon that probably looks like a foreign language just now!

*Alpaca Jewelry and Shearing Workshop on 17 May 2011 - To coincide with our shearing week, come and join us to learn more about the process of field to fashion and make some gorgeous knitted or felted (or both) jewelry using alpaca yarn and fleece. A fantastic opportunity to see the inner workings of Toft Alpaca farm!

More details can be found on the website and you can book there for yourself or to give as a gift, alternatively give us a call at the Toft office on 01788 810 626.

For any Toft Alpaca fans in the south of the country Carrie will be visiting National Trust property, The Vyne nr Basingstoke in Hampshire on 17th November to run a version of Toft's Festive Workshops, one AM and one PM. We'll be making 3 baubles using knitting and felting techniques, and Carrie will be teaching knitting from the beginning if necessary so all are welcome. A roaring fire and refreshments are included all for £35 pp. Call National Trust Box Office for bookings on 08442 491 895- they're filling fast!

For Toft Alpacas on the road team there is no let up now until December, we'll travelling around the country again with lots of alpaca goodies, yarn, and luxury garments for the discerning shopper and alpaca fan! This weekend the team can be found in Dublin for The Knitting and Stitching Show (29 October), then Birmingham for the ICHF from 4-7th November , Country Living London from 10-13th November, Glasgow for the Country Living Show from 18th-21st November, The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate from 25-28th November and lots more to follow in December! Phew - an exhausting schedule but we love meeting you all so come and see us if we're in your area!!

Oh and don't forget to visit us for the first Toft Knitter's Group on 1 November at 4pm!

We've more exciting news about late night Christmas shopping, a sample sale and Christmasy events coming soon...