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!