We are happy to have Burton Alpacas and Circle O Alpacas from west of Brandon joining us again this year. These two neighbouring farm families share a booth at the festival. They sell multiple products from their alpacas including raw fibre, roving, yarn, and handmade and machine made items. They shear their own alpacas and have all their yarns milled in Canada.
When asked how they got started in fibre arts owner Christine Burton said “It was a natural progression from raising an animals with such amazing fibre characteristics to the vast possibilities of what can be done with it. We started with machine made socks and quickly progressed to rovings and a variety of yarns and everything that can be made with them.”
Christine said their work is inspired by the love of their animals and the hard work the animals do to grow that beautiful fibre. Also “Creating something unique and beautiful that someone else will use and love — that is inspiring!”
Her favourite thing to create is a new colour scheme for their hand-dyed yarn. Like so many fibre artists, Christine loves playing with colour. “There is no such thing as a mistake!” when it comes to colours, she says. Make sure you stop by and see the beautiful yarn, finished product and rovings at Circle O Alpacas andBurton Alpacas.