Record numbers of alpacas have been entered in the halter classes at the British Alpaca Futurity 2015 on March 27/28 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, making it the biggest show in Europe.

Over 440 alpacas will be competing in the halter classes and over 100 fleeces in the International Fleece Show with fleeces coming from as far away as Canada.

The judges this year are Wade Gease (USA) and Peter Kennedy (Aus) two extremely experienced judges and judge trainers.

The Plush Show, an innovative textile show, will be the latest new venture for the British Alpaca Futurity 2015 with 50 plus stands, workshops featuring the brightest young designers and makers and hosted by the designer Belinda Harris-Reid and theatre director Rachel Vowles. This will showcase all sorts of natural fibres from alpaca to wool to mohair and silk and vegetable fibres.

It is one of the few shows where you can see hundreds of alpacas and the products made from their fleeces under one roof. Members of the public will be able to meet the breeders of the alpacas and buy textiles made from their fleeces.

Designer, makers, hand dyers, people working in the world of fibre, textile artists and companies selling exquisite hand-made objects and designs will be exhibiting at the Show, applauding the British making and designing industry.

Workshops will run throughout the two days, twelve a day spread out over four rooms. They include freeform knitting, tunisian crochet, revitalising vintage, Fair Isle, recycling inner tubes to make a bag, lace knitting, silk painting, microwave dyeing, indigo dyeing and needle felting. All the details of when, where and how much are on the P-lush website www.p-lush.co.uk. Book early as numbers are limited.

Knitters are invited to take part in the Sit-n-Knit-a-Bit campaign running up to the show by making something using our special scarlet Plush needles and crochet hooks to raise money for Target Ovarian Cancer. These are on sale on the Plush website and buyers are asked to get knitting and post pictures of themselves on social media linked to the Plush website.

Visitors can draw on the expertise of hand spinners, weavers, machine knitters, hand knitters and crochet makers in The Making Hub where they can add their design to 'The Red Dress' a collective project at the show.

The artist in residence is Yulia Badian, there will be three graduate students exhibiting along side the felt makers The Black Sheep Collective.

For breeders it is an opportunity to compete and compare their alpacas to the others being shown and network with alpaca folk from the UK, Europe and farther afield.

The British Alpaca Futurity is designed to be the showpiece for all British alpaca breeders, large or small and exists to promote British breeding and the quality of the herdsires resident in the UK.

The alpacas shown will normally be the progeny of ‘nominated’ herd sires although alpacas that are not the progeny of these herd sires can be entered on payment of a slightly higher entry fee. The Futurity Champion Huacaya and Suri Herd sires will not be present at the show as it is the number of points won by their progeny that will win the cup and purple sash for them.

The points scoring system for the Futurity Champion Herd Sires is such that only points won by the top nine performing progeny of a nominated sire will be used, making the Futurity Herd Sire Champion awards less dependent on progeny numbers entered.

The book of the show, called The Experience, a coffee table publication, will be on sale and will include free patterns by the exciting knitwear designer Belinda Harris-Reid and Rachel Vowles, information about the show and fascinating articles about alpacas and their fibre.

The Futurity is hosted by a group of British breeders, Classical MileEnd Alpacas, The Alpaca Stud, Bozedown Alpacas, Houghton Hall Alpacas and EP Cambridge UK, to showcase British alpaca breeding to the rest of the world. It is a great opportunity for alpaca breeders to network with other breeders from Europe, For more information as it happens, follow us on facebook.com/plushshow