Valentines Day is coming February 14th!  This year get your loved one something unique, get them something alpaca!

February 12, 2011, Big Rock Alpaca Farm along with our friends from Paso Ligero Alpacas will be at  Brown’s Orchard North in Emigsville located at 3100 North George Street, Emigsville, PA 17318.

Brown’s will be having seminars throughout the day on different topics related to gardening.  We will be there with several alpacas for viewing and several unique alpaca products offered for sale.

When:  November 13,14 and 20, 21 2010  12:00 Noon to 5:00 PM all days.

Where:  Big Rock Alpaca Farm
186 Big Rock Road
East Berlin, PA  17316

We plan to have a lot of exciting things going on at our open house this year.

As if Peekaboo and Thunder Storm aren’t enough to come see, here are some of the things we’ll have:

• A tractor pulled hayride
• Bourbon red turkeys and guineas to view
• Antique tractors for viewing
• Hand spinners spinning alpaca fiber
• The Sock Lady with her antique sock knitting machine (Sundays Only)
• Jeannas Passions, Homemade soaps, lotions, lipcare and bath products
• Our farm store

As we get more details pulled together I’ll update this page.

Alpaca Stand Setup At Ashcombes

We will have a couple alpaca along for everyone to see and pet.  Not quite sure who it will be yet.  It will probably be different alpacas from day to day.

Hope to see you there.  If you can’t make it out you can shop for alpaca products at our online store located at http://shop.bigrockalpacafarm.com.

Latest News:  There will also be a friend bringing her spinning wheel to demonstrate spinning alpaca fiber from apx. 9:30 – 12:00 on Saturday!

Information on the hand spinning offer has been moved to its own page.

Are you a hand spinner that loves trying different things? Hand spinning with different blends of fiber? Maybe hand spinning some hand dyed fiber to see how it turns out?

Hand spinning wheel

We would like to see how our alpaca fiber blends with other fibers and how it dyes. We just don’t have the time to do the hand spinning to use up our fiber. We could send it out to get processed, as we’ve done in the past, but we’d like to see some more variety.  Even getting it processed at a mini mill means we’d get 4+ pounds of the same thing.  We’d like to get 3 or 4 skeins of something unique.  We may either sell it in our shop, online or in person, or use it in a craft.

What we would like to do is find a couple hand spinners willing to spin up the fiber into yarn for half of the fiber. How it would work is we’ll wash, card and blend the fiber into bats on our Howard Brush Drum Carder.  We’ll send you half of the fiber blend to spin for us and after you send it back we’ll send you the other half with which you can do whatever you like.

This is something new, for us, that we’re trying so we’re open to working with your ideas if your willing to the work with us and give us suggestions.

If this is something you think you would be interested in please let us know:

With all this great alpaca fiber that we have around we decided to become a Howard Brush Drum Carder distributor.  We have been using The David Drum Carder, which has three drums, making processing the alpaca fiber faster than a normal two drum drum carder.  We got the fine toothed drum carder @ 90/120 TPI.

David Drum Carder

David Drum Carder

The fiber we dyed with Kool-Aid was carded with the David Drum Carder.  It makes wonderful batts for dying or felting, as well as hand spinning.

Visit our online store purchase this wonderful drum carder.

Online store now open!

As a grand opening special we’re offering these alpaca skier hats for $18.00 each, normally they sell for $22.00 each.? This great price on this great hat is available for a limited time.

Colorful lined alpaca skier hat Colorful lined alpaca skier hat

These fleece lined alpaca skier hats are lined with super soft fleece covered with 100% alpaca in colorful patterns.? The brim is a traditional roll up.? Hit the slopes this winter with this great hat keeping your head toasty warm.? Adult sizes in two different color themes, blue or green.

Click on the title line of the post or here for the opportunity to order.

[Note:  12/21/09,  Special over, price changed back to $22.00]

Open House

November 7, 8 & 14, 15 2009

12:00 Noon to 5:00 PM

The first weekend of our open house is rapidly approaching. It looks like the weather is going to cooperate nicely. Hope you’re able to come! Call if you have any questions about the open house.

The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar

The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar

The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar day on June 13, 2009 was a wonderful day.? The weather cooperated and didn’t rain, but on top of that it wasn’t terribly hot nor was it too cold.? When we arrived we found that we were placed under a nice shade tree across the road near the creek.? Across the open green space there were groups of people spinning and weaving.

It took Cimarron and Silver Ray a little to settle in to the routine of being handled and petted, but they did splendidly.? And Josh, but especially Jake, did a great job of handling them and telling the people about the alpacas.? We had several people comment to us about them and we really appreciated those comments.

We spoke to many people, some were familar with alpaca fiber and the difference between suri and huacaya fiber, but we were able to show many people the differences.? We also had several different stages of processed fiber for people to see, including roving, yarn and sheets of felt.? For those of you that were interested in purchasing some of the fiber, by all means, give us a call or drop us an email so we can make arrangements to get you some of the finest natural fiber in the world.? You can call 1(888)544-SURI (7874) or send an email to ‘info @ bigrockalpacafarm.com’ [without the spaces around the '@' sign].

All in all is was a great day and we got to meet so many nice people.? If any of you would like to visit the farm, please feel free to contact us to schedule a visit, there’s no need to wait for the open house.

On June 13, 2009 Big Rock Alpaca Farm will be showing off some of our alpacas at The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar.? The two that we’ll most likely have there will be Gaston and Silver Ray.

Silver Ray has already been shorn, but since Gaston will be getting back from Nationals earlier in the week we’re planning to still have him in full fleece and to hand shear him on Sunday.

The day makes for a great family outing.? There is no admission fee or pre-registration required and lunch can be purchased there in support of a local church.? There will be lots of different demonstrations going on for everyone to experience and learn from.

Kelly showing Frankie

Kelly showing Frankie

We’ll have a couple of our alpacas there and will also have some of the their raw fiber and fiber in various stages of being processed.

We look forward to seeing all of you there!

One of the products that we have found very popular from our stand at Ashcombe’s has been the alpaca ski hat.? They sell for $16 and are very soft and warm.? The alpaca ski hats are also very colorful.? I don’t know that I’ve seen two of the alpaca ski hats that are the same.? Keep in mind that alpaca is 5-7 times warmer than wool and not scratchy like wool so these alpaca ski hats are much more comfortable than a comparable wool hat.

We have several of these in stock right now but they are sure to go fast at the open house.

Alpaca Ski Hat