Alpaca woollen mill packs a punch

A HUSBAND and wife team in the Borders are expanding their clothing mill after a surge in demand for their yarns made from alpaca wool.

Juliet and John Miller are taking on a third workshop unit in Coldstream to cope with the amount of fleece that Britain’s alpaca farmers are asking them to turn into yarn.

The Millers have owned their own herd of the South American animals, smaller in size than a llama, for the past two years and began processing the fleeces themselves about a year ago.

They received a grant from the Scottish Borders Creative Cluster Project – run by Business Gateway with Dumfries & Galloway and Scottish Borders councils using European Regional Development Fund cash – to increase the mill’s marketing. The result has been a surge in orders. The “ultra-soft” yarn made from the coats of alpacas is in particular demand to make scarves for the winter.

Juliet Miller said: “We have been delighted with the amount of business the mill is generating, with orders received from as far away as Devon, Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and northern France.”