Skylark's first cria of the year - Pipit

JandJ Pipit

This is our first cria of 2013. 
Skylark managed to be the first to give birth on Friday even though she is not due until Monday. Her cria are often early & even though Martin checked the girls an hour before there was no sign that Skylark was about to produce. Born at 2pm, this handsome, jet black little boy is Pipit, all Skylark's cria are named after birds Raven, Wren, Robin, Ani, Kitt & Swift.

JandJ Archie

On Sunday 24th June at 12.45 Ani finally gave birth to Archie, it had been a long & slow birth lasting all morning. I think that most births are very similar, it's probably that most of the mums to be do not show that they are about to give birth but we were watching Ani very carefully for any little tell tale sign. At the end Archie was just eased out a little.He is the first cria out of our stud Comet who is a handsome boy just like his father Van Dyck, with the same face & curly top knot. Archie is Ani's first cria & she is a very good mum just like her mum Skylark.

JandJ Swift

Swift with a milky mouth

Last Friday, where has this week gone! Skylark gave birth to a beautiful little girl called Swift. As Skylark is my alpaca & one of the original 4 she is very special to me & I was determined to see the birth. For a not too big alpaca she is always huge at the end of her pregnancy & we have often seen bulges of legs appear on her stomach, when we sheared her back at the end of April she looked ready to give birth.
Skylark always gives birth later in the day, only once with Wren it was 11am, with the other 4 it  has been between 1 & 2.30 so I kept watch. At 2.30 nothing but she was so uncomfortable & by 3 we definitely had an alpaca on the way,  Swift arrived at 3.30 much to my relief. 
Swift is beautiful, gorgeous shiny jet black & because of this very hard to photo.Skylark's cria are named after birds so we have Raven, Wren, Robin, Ani & Kitt. Swift was up & trying to feed within 15 mins Skylark's babies are always like this, especially the girls, they whizz around on the first day & then become calm & relaxed like their mum. 


All day Clementine has been uncomfortable so I am hopeful for another birth tomorrow. She is 11 months & 6 days & so are Miss MoneyPenny & Ani, all are pregnant to different sires.

First cria of 2012 JandJ Magic

Yesterday morning in all that horrible weather our first cria of the year was born. Luckily when the weather is bad & the babies are due or are a newly born we often shut our girls in the barn overnight to protect the cria more than anything else as we have mums who would like to be out in all weathers with their cria at the bottom of the field but we also have mums who like the warm & comfort of the barn & wouldn't dream of being out in the rain! 

 Gem & Magic at 7 hours old

Motherly love
In the background Skylark, Ani, Miss MoneyPenny, Clementine  & Spirit

Anyway our first girl to give birth is Gem, this is her first cria he was born at 9.20am & we watched the birth along with the other girls in the barn especially Clementine who kept checking him. Gorgeous little dark brown boy who we've called Magic.Gem is a brilliant mum & Magic is doing well, he had to have a coat on last night as it was so cold & we are hoping that he will get chance to go outside tomorrow if it stops raining long enough.

Yorkshire Alpaca Show at Thirsk

JandJ Hope

We had a fabulous day at Thirsk yesterday. Very early start but it was worth it. We took 6 alpacas & came home with 5 rosettes and a sash. James was one of the penning stewards & we took some of our products to sell as we are members of the Yorkshire Alpaca Group.

It was the first time we had entered any girls this year & we decided to take Hope, Peace & Ruby Tuesday & our boys who we have shown before this year Kitt, Frazer & Diesel.

The stewards decided that Peace should be moved from the brown class to the black class. This meant that in the first class of the day, the intermediate female black huacaya class, Hope was the first alpaca into the ring & Peace was 5 alpacas behind her. Hope was given a 2nd Rosette and Peace a 5th. As the 1st & 2nd of each class go forward to the Championship for Champion Black Female Huacaya Hope was in the ring again & this time came away with a Reserve Champion Black Female Huacaya sash. We are so pleased with this, as it is our first sash & Hope is the daughter of Mississsippi Moonlight one of our original 4 alpacas.

Ruby Tuesday was next in the ring in a large class of fawn girls & unfortunately did not get a rosette. People wandering round the pens though did really like Ruby the best out of all our alpacas.

Next it was the turn of the boys, Diesel was first as he is black & came out with a 5th Rosette.

Kitt was next, he is a gorgeous beige & the son of my alpaca Skylark, & he came out with a 2nd Rosette.

Frazer was last, our lovely white out of yet another of our original 4, Luminaria who always has gorgeous cria, he was in a large class, the top 6 were pulled forward & Frazer was one of them, then the judge placed them in order & he was moved to 3rd place which he kept and came out with a 3rd rosette.

My 3rd Designer

My third designer is Siobhan from www.stitchology.co.uk. Last year we decided that we would like to have something a little different & I found Siobhan's gorgeous gloves. They are so different, quite holey but of course being alpaca amazingly warm. I have 2 pairs, 1 in Skylark of course & 1 in Logan who is black, wore the Logan ones to most of my events last year, when everyone else was complaining of cold hands I was warm. We decided to knit along & a short version, the long ones are the ones above, both sizes come in Logan, Lana, Kasper & Bond but we can of course knit them in any of the colours.

We also have a lovely shrug from Siobhan which is so light & pretty to wear & of course warm.

I have managed to get a place in the Etsy Showcase today & my featured items are the shrug above in Kasper & Lana & gloves in Logan.

My Designers

I have realised that I have not blogged about my designers & seeing as this year I have 3 more thought it about time I did.

The first designer I approached when we set out on turning our beautiful yarn into scarves was Joanne Seiff. This amazingly was just 2 years ago. I saw her Boa scarf & loved it so much asked if we could knit them with her permission. This was granted & we have knitted them in every colour, my favourite is Skylark as she is my first alpaca, I wear this to every event & it was lovely & warm in the snowy weather we have had this year. Joanne has since had 2 books published Fibre Gathering & Knit Green, I have a copy of both of course.

Skylark in her boa scarf

Today I have managed to upload a photo of Skylark modelling a boa scarf in her fleece. As Skylark is my alpaca, we each picked one, I chose this scarf to wear at the events we have attended over the past year. She is my best friend a month before she is due to give birth & then until she decides she is pregnant again & will stand & be cuddled & stroked. When she had Ani at the beginning of the month I sat on the floor at the side of her & angled Ani's head under to find the teat. Skylark spat yesterday so I think my cuddle time is over for another year.