Facing Up to Llamas Can Be a Soft Adventure

At Pet-A-Llama Ranch and Woolens Shop, it is considered good manners to feed the locals. With the bribe of a handful of feed, it is possible to meet and make friends with a llama in record time. The beast’s gentle tickling nibble, not to mention its long lashes shadowing soulful brown eyes, can make a llama enthusiast of any traveler.

At that moment it seems especially good news to learn that the llamas here aren’t hurt when their fur is removed. Nor are they shorn like sheep. Llama hair is brushed off, and the strenuous grooming that removes excess hair may actually be pleasurable for the animals, if they’re in the mood to stand still.

Pat and Chuck Warner own the Pet-A-Llama Ranch and Woolens Shop, on the outskirts of Petaluma. Pat, a retired nurse, and her husband Chuck, formerly a telephone company employee, have been raising llamas for 13 years. The last three have been spent at Pet-A-Llama, about halfway between Petaluma and the town of Sebastopol. The Warners keep about 20 llamas, which they breed to sell as pets and brush regularly to get fur that they use to make beautiful hand-spun yarns and fabrics.

Inside the cozy, wood-paneled Pet-A-Llama shop, Pat demonstrates how yarn is spun and transformed into soft, warm fabrics in natural colors on large, hand-operated looms.

The shop sells spinning wheels and looms, carded fleece ready for spinning ($2.50 per ounce) and other weaving supplies, as well as balls of yarn ($3.50 per ounce) and fabrics by the yard (from $18).

A variety of ready-to-wear fashions are sold at Pet-A-Llama Ranch and Woolens Shop (555 Lone Pine Road, telephone 707-823-9395).

Made by Pat and other wool-working artists around Sonoma County, they include coats ($250 and up), jackets ($200), vests ($75-$100) and scarves ($20-$25). Also sold are novelty items such as furry llama puppets ($20).

Double-bed-size blankets are $135, and stunning llama serapes that double as coats and blankets are $150.

Pat and Chuck Warner are among an increasing number of city sophisticates who have traded urban living for lives in Sonoma County--that beautiful band of land that hugs the Northern California coast and boasts extraordinary groves of redwoods and spectacular stretches of grapevines. Many have become accomplished ranchers and artisans, and wool-working is a popular way of earning extra money.

A short drive from Pet-A-Llama Ranch is Occidental Artisans (corner of Church and Second streets, Occidental, 707-874-3856). It’s a seven-member collective run by five independent spinners and weavers, one woodworker and a jeweler. There are no animals to be seen (except, perhaps, an occasional cat), but inside the collective’s small white wood house, members raise rabbits, goats and other fur-bearing animals.

Animals are plucked, brushed or shorn for their fur, but never skinned. Production is on a small scale, with most fur used for spinning and weaving by the collective’s artists.

Collective member Tori Rometti keeps about 30 rabbits for Angora. The rabbits shed their coats every seven to 12 weeks and make about a pound of fur a year. Rometti knits the fur into a few scarves and sells most of her hand-spun yarn for about $12.50 per ounce. The collective also sells other home-spun Angora yarn for about $7.50 per ounce, and hand-spun mohair for $5 per four ounces.

Member Karen Emery, who keeps just two rabbits, specializes in knitted Angora work. She uses most of the yarn she makes to create charming, hand-knit open-finger gloves in white and a natural color ($45). Beret-style hats or caps cost about $75. Smaller caps cost as little as $5, and Angora stuffed bunnies are $19. Emery sells her creations under the Royale Hare label.

Sharon Cahn, who lives in Sebastopol, keeps rabbits and goats. She makes hand-spun Angora, mohair and wool yarn, which she knits into unusual items. Something she calls “Pocket Bunnies” ($9.50) are fuzzy, long-eared creatures designed to nestle in a pocket.

Using yarn produced by Rometti and Emery, Rosemary Blaney knits handsome, one-of-a-kind sweaters, most of them with elaborate and colorful patterns. They sell for about $248.

In nearby Freestone, Pastorale (12779 Bodega Highway, 707- 823-0640) sells locally produced clothing and other items. L.K. Dickenson’s bib-like scarves sell for $57, while long, wrap-around scarves by Pat Dahlgren are $48.

Hand-sewn sheepskin caps cost $38, children’s vests are $58, men’s vests are $165 and women’s mouton coats go for $395 (wool inside) or $450 (wool outside). Upstairs, in the loft, is a large selection of sheepskin rugs and blankets as well as hand-loomed blankets.

The brochure “Farm Trails” lists most Sonoma wool workers and contains a map that shows where to find them. Contact the Sonoma County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 10 Fourth St., Suite 100, Santa Rosa, Calif. 95401, (707) 575-1191.