Brilliant swap package!
Wow, I recieved my swap parcel from Dawn Edwards and it was fantastic! It is amazing to post a friend part of your stash and in return receive part of theirs, you never know what will come out of the exchange!! Check out these gorgeous goodies (much better picture in Dawn’s Flickr images), don’t they look divine??? Obviously I could loose no time in trying out the beautiful fibre, a 70% romney and 30% mohair combination. I was extremely excited to be trying out a fibre that was totally new to me and in some of my favourite colours, olive, golden lime and deep purple. Carmen called over this afternoon to do a bit of felting together and we drooled over the wool/mohair mix before I decided to make a vessel as a trial run. BIG mistake! Before starting I searched in all my books to check out the type of project I should submit the wool to, didn’t find much info so decided to make a vessel. I laid out 4 layers using the resist method and the colours were very beautiful but the vessel was not!! It was patchy and definitely not strong enough for what I had intended but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I reworked the felt into a totally different shape and put it in the oven to dry. It now is a sculptural and organic piece which I intend to stitch into (WOW, I can’t believe that I said that) and I promise to put up a few pictures sometime over the next few days. I am going to ask Dawn what she usually makes with this type of fibre and tomorrow have planned to combine it with some richly coloured silk to make a colourful and lightweight scarf. Thanks a million Dawn for such a challenging and great package!
Nicola Brown Fine Art Textiles 
Hi Nicola,
Well so much for my intended “rest and relaxation package” Hope I didn’t cause too much stress. Here’s the background “scoop” on the Romney wool/mohair blend. I bought 5 great big bags of it at our local fiber festival in differing colors because it was just gorgeous. I wasn’t able to help myself, bought it without any notion of what I was going to make with it. Hence, the need to destash! I did make a hat with some of it, but found that the mohair was a bit too scratchy for me so close to my head. So, in light of both of our wondering about it’s felting properties, I contacted Liz (www.fibersofmichigan.com) who produced it, and here is her response to my inquiry:
HI Dawn,
You can use the fibers to felt – either wet or dry. There’s enough wool in them to hold the wet felt together – mohair doesn’t felt but the wool will. I used to make purses out of the roving by wet felting – got some gorgeous swirls because of the colors.
You can dry (needle) felt anything – so that’s not a problem either.
Some people even rug hook with roving – or weave with it – used as weft.
Hope this helps!
Liz