Each winter we are faced with the same chilly problems - how do we keep warm and still look fashionable? Mother and daughter duo of Rowandale Alpacas, Colleen and Stephanie Rowan may just have the answer and it’s all thanks to alpacas. Stephanie has been breeding alpacas at their Smythesdale farm for three years, while her mum has designed custom made scarfs from their wool. This week we caught up with Stephanie to talk about the benefits of alpaca wool.
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Is alpaca wool different to other wool?
It contains no lanolins, is naturally fire retardant and is as soft as cashmere, but lighter in weight and much stronger and warmer than wool. Alpacas also have a fine crimping in their wool, at the base of their bodies, the finer the crimp, the more desirable.
Their wool is hyperthermic, tell me about that?
Alpaca wool is hyperthermic and water proof, so that means it is incredibly warm and seals in the heat, great for chilly Ballarat winters. You will often see alpacas standing out in freezing cold rain, thinking “go into your shelter where it’s warm” however, if you put your finger into their wool, you will feel that it is very dry and warm. That is because the water beads off the wool and sits on the top keeping the animal warm and toasty.
Do the wool colours vary?
According to the Australian Alpaca Association (AAA), there are 16 natural colours that alpaca fibre comes in, ranging from white to rose grey.
From growing the wool to finishing a scarf, how long is that process?
Once a year around January/February the alpacas are shorn. This takes around half an hour each alpaca and is a very laborious process. I then bag up all the wool and spend about an hour going through the wool, discarding any vegetable matter or off cuts of wool. Each animal yields about 2-3kg of fleece. I then send the fleece to a small company in the Mornington Peninsula to be spun. This takes about 3-5 months.
A scarf will usually take around two weeks to complete, sometimes a bit less depending on how busy mum is.
Rowandale Alpacas
1000 Glenelg Highway, Smythesdale
