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How It All Began
By
Larry McCool
I started working on an outlet for llama fiber about six years ago.
Having owned llamas for
ten years,
my wife Lee and I came to realize there had to be another reason for raising
these
wonderful animals
and a use for the beautiful and abundant fiber they produce.
Being a little bit naive, I started out looking for mills and
outlets that could process their fiber,
only to
realize, not only was there no existing processing for llama fiber but no
frame work
for marketing and
distributing of finished products. In my search, I found more than
enough
individuals and small fiber
pools doing yarn and roving but nothing in the way of finished
goods.
I knew that a llama fiber coop
could not support itself, dependent solely on spinners
and knitters.
As important as they are to the
health of the fiber industry, they could never be
enough to build
the
industry that I had envisioned.
With this information, I started hunting for processors who had the
expertise and interest in
working
with llama fiber. To my surprise, I soon discovered they were few and far
between.
Matter of fact,
very far between. I started contacting every medium and large fiber
mill who
made finished goods.
My first responses were, not interested, could not work with llama
fiber,
we
had too much or too
little fiber, this could never work, and it had already been tried.
First of
all, these were not acceptable
answers and I sure was not giving up that easy.
After months of e-mails going back and forth, I stumbled upon a
midsize mill in Canada that
could
produce blankets and socks. Lee and I decided to check them out by sending
our own
fiber up for
processing. I didn't want to use them in a group production run until I had
tried
them out myself.
They were not the fastest by any means, but they produced a quality blanket
and socks. Besides they
were the only ones interested. This was Custom Woolen Mills of
Carstairs,
Alberta. We sent them
50lbs of raw fiber and got back 6 blankets. You can imagine
with that
small amount of fiber, we did
not receive back much variety in color or style. But it
was a start,
and with these in hand, I started
promoting the idea within out local llama group,
the Willamette Valley Llama
Association in Oregon.
The interest started quite slow, but after two years, and many
letters in our newsletter and
talking to
members, we got together after one of our quarterly meetings. I presented
our
blankets
and what
information I had been able to put together and a small group of visionaries
decide to
meet on a
Saturday at one of our owner’s farm to see if there would be enough
interest
in forming
a Llama Fiber
Coop. I think there were 15 people there that day and we
went about
setting up
a committee to look
into the official formation of a structured group.
Out of this was formed,
the Pacific Northwest Llama
Fiber Cooperative with the directive to
organize members, gather
fiber and
produce finished products
to promote and market llama
fiber. This was another example
of me being
naive. This was in the fall
of 2004. I figured we
would have this up and running by
the next Spring. Was
I wrong. Luckily, one
of the people
who volunteered to help me get the
coop started was Ken Erion.
Ken had some
background
in formation of a business so that was
my awakening into how long
and what it was
going to
take to do this in a professional manner.
That next year we started forming the coop as a legal business, LLC
and a registered
Cooperative
with the State of Oregon. This took longer than I thought. As Ken was
working
on the legal
issues,
I continued to search out producers and outlets for our finished goods.
Earlier that year
I started
getting contacts from other mills in Canada and two or three here in
the US.
Some of
our most
promising contacts had been Quail Run Mill in Spokane, WA,
Taos Valley Mills
in
New Mexico
and Exotic Fibers of Canada in addition to
Custom Woolen Mills.
Fiber started coming in from members and by June of 2006, the coop
had collected over
3000 lbs
of fiber and of which we have graded and sorted 1200 lbs. As a loose knit
board we
decided to send
fiber for production to 3 mills. Quail Run, as they were making the very
finest
blankets, Custom
Woolen Mills for blankets and socks and Taos Valley for yarn to be woven
into other finished goods.
At first we received blankets and socks back from the mills. We can
now put
together a committee to
study our options for marketing product. The plan is to have a
complete sell
through of our first
production run and then move forward with a larger production
and a wider
variety of product to
offer. As we had grown in size and presence, in 2007 I was
contacted by one
of the very largest and
best known mills in the U.S., Pendleton Woolen Mills.
We met with the Bishop
Brothers, who are the
two Vice Presidents that now run most Pendleton
operations. They expressed interest in
working with us and
producing blankets and other items
on a large scale for us. We began by
putting together a couple
hundred pounds of fiber for them
to do an initial production run.
Pendleton had never attempted to run Camelid Fiber, but if this was
successful, the coop
would
then need to produce fiber in the quantity of around 1000 lbs of two
different colors.
The first
year
Pendleton produced 100 blankets for us. This small production run sold out
in a little
over 2 months.
In 2008, we made a very large financial decision and had over 500
blankets
produced. When this
came together it moved the PNLFC into another playing
field. So as
you can
see, a five fold
increase. We now are producing a full production run
of Hand Woven
Rugs from
Texas. These are
produced in many sizes, 2x3, 2x7, 3x5 and 4x6.
We followed this
up with a
large order of beautiful
knitted socks in two styles.
As you can see the groundwork has been set. The interest has really
been growing with
new members
joining all the time. In 2009, we now have over 50 members from Oregon,
Washington, Montana and
Utah. Membership is open to any llama farm in North America.
But it is
also evident that for us to
get to that next level we will need quite a few more members
and a lot more
fiber. New products will
be created, new markets will open up but we will need
a huge effort and
support from the entire llama
community. For this to reach the heights we
know it can and should reach, we
need each and
everyone of you to see the vision that 15
people did on that Saturday in
2004.
So as you can see, I hope I have sparked your interest and created
something you can get
behind
and support. Lets show the rest of the fiber industries that Llama Fiber is
every bit as
good, if not
superior, to anything that is produced from any other fiber animal out
there.
We need your help!
Its time has come, so please join us in this venture. I may not know every
path it will take us,
but I can guarantee you one thing, we will always lead and never follow.
Thank You,
Larry McCool, President
Pacific NW Llama Fiber Cooperative
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