Purl Alpaca Designs - Workshops at Anglesey Abbey

I had the pleasure of being invited to visit the new knitting workshops by Purl Alpaca Designs last Saturday and being Creative Director of UK Handmade who was I to refuse? Set in the new visitors center at Angelsey Abbey the workshops are a perfect way to try alpaca yarn (as opposed to the more usual sheep wool) as well as just providing a wonderfully relaxing day in beautiful surroundings, meeting new people and learning new skills.

The workshop allows you to try on various garments from Purl Alpaca Design's current collection, then you are given the kit for your chosen garment and off you go! Beginners are welcome too, the ladies I met were of varying skill and discovered that people knit in completely different ways. Workshops like these are a great way to share techniques.

Purl Alpaca's yarn is undyed; the range of colours available are down to the fact alpacas come in a range of colours from black, brown, grey and cream and each pattern / garment  is named after the alpaca it came from. Each one has a little postcard of its own complete with bio, very cute.

I was also shown the raw fleece which is a lot finer than sheep wool, it is perfect for spnning and felting and is available to buy on their website alongside the kits.

Purl Alpaca Designs is run by Tracy Birch who owns her own herd of alpacas and looks after the fleecing and milling of the yarn, whilst the patterns are the creation of knitwear designer Kari-Helene Rane, both of whom attend the workshops. Tracy explains the whole process from 'Field-to-Fashion' and Kari-Helene is on hand to help you with the actual knitting. All in all makes for a fabulous day out, especially when you get to meet a couple of the alpacas too!

I highly recommend these workshops which continue up unitl Christmas. More details can be found over on their website

http://www.purlalpacadesigns.com/knitting-workshops.asp

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/angleseyabbey.htm