Attention - Fantastic yarn and Fibre Give Away -with lots of other goodies too



This is a sample of MHE's fibre not the actual prizes for photographs of the actual prizes go and look at Helen's blog :)



I must draw your attention to a fabulous Blog Give away, that is to celebrate 1 year of myheartexposed on folksy.  "My Heart Exposed Yarns - Home grown natural dyes, home made, 100% natural organic spinning fibres and handspun yarns made by independent mother and daughter fibre artisan's Helen and Angelica Jacobs-Grant. No harsh chemicals or irritants are in any of our products so they are kind to your delicate skin and our environment. Inspiring creativity for life. MHE are proud to be regular contributors to The Fibreholics UK sample box scheme http://thefibreholics.co.uk/ More info and access to all of the online pages go to http://myheartexposed.co.uk/."



Examples of some beautiful hand dyed Kid Mohair (Rumplestiltskin)

(Duchess)

(Carmen)

(Phantom)

  See Helen's Blog for the various ways you can enter this 'Give away' competition there are Twelve fantastic  prizes up for grabs including generous vouchers for the online store, Helen's photographs of the prizes can be found on her blog.   Ooooh its exciting I love them.  Helen you are a fantastic 'Fibre Artisan' a real inspiration in many ways and a great cyber buddy x





Alpaca Adventure

How cute am I?

I am one of the worlds best/worst impulse buyers!  'Buy now, think later!' should be my motto.  I saw this and could not resist.  It looked so glossy and silky and soft and squishy and it spoke to me...'please give me a good home...'  Well I heard it anyway.  I have read about Alpaca fibre, I have fantasized about Alpaca farms...but as yet until this arrived a couple of days ago, this is the closest I have got.  (Just in case you are wondering I bought the fleece in the pictures below, but wish I had bought the cutie in the picture above.)  I now realise Alpaca fleece is very different to wool.  I have not tried spinning with it yet.  I have about 750g.  I have decided to wash it after I have spun it. I am worried that I may felt it before it even gets to the spinning wheel if I wash it first.  It does not smell, which to me raw wool can be quite whiffy.  It does not feel dirty, which to me, quite often wool can.  I have read Alpacas tend to get dusty rather than dirty as they have a penchant for dust baths, so you can spin first and then wash.

I read an article on the net last night that discussed the pros and cons of Drum carding or Hand Carding Alpaca fibre and made my mind up to try drum carding.  I spent almost two hours with my trusted and able 6year old assisstant and we manged to get about 80g beautifully carded into soft, fine, silky rolags.  I am new to drum carding and had a grand notion I would get the fleece prepared and ready in an afternoon, (the best laid plans of Mice and Men and all that).  I really did not expect it to take quite so long.  I am very tempted to spin with some this afternoon, but feel I should card more first.  I am going to try and spin 100% Alpaca but I am ready to blend with wool if I find it too tricky.