Well, last night I had a big disaster in my utility room.  Johnny, one of my felting students had given me a present of some beautiful Alpaca and I decided to try washing some of it in the washing machine prior to carding.  Thanks Carmen for THAT tip, what a catastrophe!!  I put the Alpaca in a pillow case, tied the top with cotton cord and set it on a cool silk and wool cycle.  When the cycle was over and I opened the door an amazing amount of brown ‘gunk’ was pooling within the rubber of the seal and the pillowcase was extremely wet and heavy.  Maybe I shouldn’t have then decided to rinse and spin the package on a higher setting but nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Anyway, this morning I am the prowd owner of what looks like a raw fleece collar, some of the fibres felted together, some are shaggy and unfelted.  Never mind, I learnt a lesson and in actual fact I think that with a bit of judicious pruning I may well set a new trend in fashion accessories this Winter!