Llamas, Rugs and Wally Dee
Wally Dee Henderson and Ingrid's Handwoven, Inc., team up to create beautiful home decorating items.
by Joyce Schmautz - ILR Customer Service

As I write, I have just completed a telephone conversation with Wally Dee Henderson about her llamas, her llama rugs and her life. One gets the idea that the surface was just scratched. Like a cup filled to overflowing, the stories just spilled one into another.

Wally Dee was born in Germany and given the name, Waltraud. Her earliest memories included bombings, explosions, living in the basement of a bombed out building, and meeting her father after he was released from captivity when she was about 7 or 8 years old. She learned to speak English when she was 14 years old and came to the US with her military husband, Marshall, in 1964. They settled in Kileen , TX .

Wally's first encounter with llamas was in the late 1970's when she came across an advertisement for llamas. Being a self-described ‘animal freak', she was immediately ‘taken' by the images. She did not rush out and buy a llama because she did not feel she could afford them, but she went ahead and signed up to be a member of the International Llama Association (ILA). She received the subscription to the Llamas Magazine and would devour the photographs that each publication offered. “I would sit and cry because I couldn't purchase a llama. Finally, after 15 years, I cancelled my membership and subscriptions because I couldn't deal with my disappointment.” Instead, she surrounded herself with cats, dogs, chickens, goats, turtles and even a pet cricket. “The more animals I had around me, the happier I was,” Wally claims.

In 1997 she read about a Youth Show and Sale in San Antonio and decided to go. Her daughter told her father that he had better go with her because “Mom is going to buy a llama.” She was right. Wally Dee came home with her first llama, Taho, a white llama with a black spot on its side. She was immediately smitten by his sweet personality, as well as his beauty. A neighbor encouraged her to enter him in the San Angelo Llama Show and he won 3rd place.

She added more llamas to the mix and grew in her husbandry skills. Her husband purchased her a clipper and she added shearing to her lists of accomplishments. She showed her fleece in many shows, garnering Best of Show in San Angelo, and Grand Champion, Reserve Grand Champion and Best of Show at Estes Park Wool Market. As she began to accumulate quite a lot of fleece that she wasn't exhibiting, she wanted to find an outlet for it so that it wouldn't ‘go to waste'. Through various shows, she had become acquainted with a spinner and weaver, Mr. Reinhard Scoffthaler, the owner of Ingrid's Custom Hand Woven Rugs, Inc., from Pint Rock, TX. On the recommendation of Dan and Dale Goodyear, who were happy with his services, Wally Dee went to visit his business. There she found rugs, saddle blankets and other beautiful items.

Excited about the possibilities, she gathered up her fleece - all 62 pounds of it - sorted it by color and returned to Ingrid's. There they spun the fiber into yarn, using sheep's wool for the core (to give it body, strength and thickness) with the llama fiber around it. The next step was to weave the yarn into the rugs. Since Taho was Henderson 's first llama, they wove a white rug with a black spot in the center of the carpet from his fleece and named the line of rugs they would weave, Tahoe. The weaving is done on a huge weaving machine nearly as big as the building that houses it.

A dozen rugs of various sizes were woven in the next couple of weeks, each depicting the llama's pattern and colors in the weavings. The natural colors will never fade and are unique in the feel that only llama fleece gives. Produced in the U.S. with moderate prices, this could be a successful way to market your fleece products.

If all of Wally Dee's llama accomplishments were not enough, I dared to ask if she spun her own yarn. “Not yet,” was her reply. “I haven't found time because I also have 2 green houses and over 1,000 potted tropical plants and trees I attend to.” Some of these are from places as far away as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan .

I hung up the telephone, shaking my head with wonder at the amount of energy with which this llama loving woman has been gifted. Her conversation brimmed over with joy and I wondered what else had been left unearthed.

Letter from Ingrid's Handwoven, Inc., to all llama owners and ILR members:

Dear Llama Farmer(s) and Fleece Producer(s):

First, I would like to take a moment to introduce ourselves, as to what we do. Ingrid's Custom Hand Woven, Inc., in Paint Rock, Texas, was established in 1979. Since that time we have been hand weaving 100% wool area rugs and saddle blankets. In the past couple of years, we have added mohair to our products. We have sold and shipped these products all over the USA and abroad to exclusive stores, such as Ethan Allen, Decorators at Martha's Vineyard in MA, and accounts in Europe. We are a member of the Better Business Bureau in San Angelo, TX.

And here is what we would like you to know:

A short time ago we had a request, from folks like you, to make rugs of their own llama fleece. With our enthusiasm and experience with natural fibers, we were able to make a fine product and do justice to the fleece. The first couple of folks to entrust us with their fleece were Dan and Dale Goodyear of Berry Acres Llamas, Robesonia, PA, and Wally Henderson of Tup Tim Place Lamas, New Braunfels, TX. They were very pleased with the results and actually gave us more orders to weave rugs for them.

So, if you should have some extra fleece and would like something made out of it that will last a lifetime as a home furnishing or to remember one of your favorite llamas and admire its fleece, we are here for you. For more detailed information, you can call us at 1-800-752-8004 or email schofft@attg.net.

Thank you.
Reinhard Schoffthaler. (President)

Facts You Need to Know

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