ALPACA SHOW HAT...

One of the main events in the UK alpaca calendar took place last weekend. The British Alpaca Society's National Show was held at the International Centre in Telford, Shropshire. Spring Farm Alpacas and  West Wight Alpacas were both showing their prize winning alpacas and alongside the competitions in the show ring was one for an alpaca hat. 

The hat could be knitted, crocheted or felted as long as it was made from UK alpaca fibre, so I decided to enter a felted alpaca style 'sorting hat' ...

I used a beautifully soft beige baby alpaca fleece (sourced from the island) 

that I'd been saving for a special project, with a dark brim and 

different coloured highlights.

Both Spring Farm Alpacas & West Wight Alpacas did brilliantly well in the 

show ring with many of their alpacas 

winning in their various classes and there's more photos here 

They came away with new champions and many rosettes…

including this one for my hat!

It came 2nd out of 30+ entries and needless to say 
I was really thrilled...!  

EMBELLISH Autumn Bag...

Last Autumn the lovely people at Artwear Publications in Australia asked if I would design another project for them. This time a felt bag for EMBELLISH magazine with the emphasis very much on the finished decoration.

It was September and here in the UK the leaves had just started to turn, so I 

decided on an autumnal theme, with a falling leaf design in my favourite colours 

ochres, rusty browns and olive greens, with a touch of turquoise.

The magazine was due to be published in March when it would be 

autumn in Australia, so it all seemed to fit…

The bag is made from a piece of flat felt and this can be either 

wet felted or felted using an embellishing machine.

It is a very simple project!

It looks complicated, but the detail is all in the embellishing

 and you can have great fun trying out 

different coloured threads, stitch styles 
and adding beads & buttons.

Find out how to make the bag in the March issue of EMBELLISH. 

There's all the step-by-step instructions and lots of photos too
and they have even featured a close-up of the 
bag on the front cover...