Merry Christmas!

This is the ultimate seasonal use of alpaca fibre:


Made with a long strip of white felted fibre from Ambrosia, with a smattering of black from Moira, the whole piece dyed green and sewn around a wire frame. Eighteen white felted discs from Ambrosia and six red merino discs fashioned into Christmas flowers with large crystals for centres. Three strips of the green trimmings plaited together at the bottom and a length of spun Pela to attach to the front door! et voila.

To wash or not to wash? That is the question.

No! Not me, I had a shower this morning.

The middle of Ambrosia's fleece is so dirty that the carded stuff tooks positively brown. If I spin it like that it will be impossible to get the grime out of the twist but I have had problems washing fine baby alpaca before.

I decided to try one batt, call it the sacrificial batt if you like. I filled the sink with tepid water with a very small dash of hand wash liquid, as I pressed it under the water I caught a wiff of the first rain after a long hot spell in the summer (quite evocative). The water instantly turned brown so I swished it about a bit then fished it out, it looked like a sheet of fine felt. I rinsed it anyway and carefully stretched it out onto a towel were it could be rolled up and wrung out. Lo and behold, when I unrolled the towel I had a fluffy white batt ready for drying and spinning.

So I have now washed six batts and can't wait to get spinning.