To celebrate 15 years breeding alpacas, Snowshoe Farm is offering 15% off all alpacas and stud fees through the end of 2014! And you can extend the savings by reserving a 2015 breeding now. A deposit will hold a breeding to any of our herdsires – including multi-champion, Snowshoe Aristides … Read More
Fall is here and that means a very busy time on the farm! During the next month, most weekends bring either a fiber festival or an alpaca show. Weekdays are filled with getting ready for the next weekend’s event. That means dyeing yarn, skirting fleeces, chasing down all the odds … Read More
Here’s our newest offspring sired by our multi-champion, Snowshoe Aristides: Snowshoe Pleione. This photo was taken just as we were getting ready to shear her. This little girl is a pistol. She’s gaining weight like crazy, leads the rest of her group out to pasture and is already chewing her … Read More
Last year I was invited to dye some of our alpaca yarn for felted pillows. I worked with Alison at woollymama fiber arts and her client who was looking for several pillows to match the colors in her rug. With surprisingly little difficulty, I came up with two colors, a red … Read More
Lace shawls and shawlettes are very popular knitting projects and there’s no better use for a luxuriously fine, drapey alpaca yarn. I just finished the Annis shawlette in 100% hand dyed alpaca from Snowshoe Farm. Annis is a fairly easy pattern. Just be sure to set up for the nupps … Read More
Christmas in July!! Yesterday we received seven batches of yarn from the mill. This is the last of our 2013 clip. The yarn includes fingering, dk and worsted weight; some are 100% alpaca and some are alpaca blended with wool or wool and tencel. The colors range from white to … Read More
And she’s over a month early…. At 301 days gestation, she’s by far the earliest cria born at Snowshoe Farm. She’s small – only 11.4 lbs – but not frighteningly small. It took her about an hour to be able to hold herself sternal and about 4 hours before she … Read More
Shearing season is coming to an end and that means it’s time for breeding season to begin at Snowshoe Farm! There are two sides to breeding season: breeding our own females and breeding females that belong to our clients. For our own herd, breeding begins with the decision-making process – … Read More
Today was “the big day” for our four weanling males. They’ve been out of the girls’ barn for a while now, but have been housed in a small barn away from the “big boys”. We don’t like to put small males in with large males. The males play a lot … Read More
Done! Shearing is THE big spring chore at Snowshoe Farm and it feels so good to have finished. We shear early – usually the end of April – and, being spring in the NEK, the weather rarely cooperates. Generally, the alpacas have to endure a period of chilly temps before … Read More