If the late Mr. Kerry Packer had a son called Al....

From GO to WHOA....One of the main attractions of hand spinning your own yarn is being able to control or take part in a few extra steps of the creation process...Almost from the grass roots level to completion.....take this little hat for instance....it's for a beautiful little baby girl called Cloe. These cute little guys are, of course, Alpacas...they are the previous owners of the fleece that now is the pride ond joy of my fleece stash. As you can see they still have a beetles type hair-do's and a fluffy butt....Peter and Kay aren't THAT mean....hehe. These Alpacas are from a property in the yarra valley...if anybody wants to contact the owners just ask me for their details. Isn't that rich burgandy coloured fellow devine! The grey fleece is from a Suri alpaca...it costs an arm and a leg so I mainly use it in small quantities to highlight a hank...it really is something special...(It gave the kids quite a fright, though...they honestly thought I was spinning their Grandmother's hair...ewwwwww...err...no!) This is one of my favourite yarns. I have only used the photographed fleeces and plied it with 100% Merino (white) It has not been dyed at all yet it is still bursting with gorgeous colour...all natural. It's from my Sheepychic Rustic range. To make it I have spun off a bobbin of white Merino in a real chuncky style and also a bobbin with alpaca...interchanging the colour fleeces whenever it seemed right to do so...(very scientific...hehe) The two bobbins are then plied together to form the yarn.

I grabbed these daisies from eBay and I love the little finishing touch they gave Cloe's hat. You can just type in "embroidered daisies" in the search field and you can find them there. The user i.d.is "rtinga"...aka Robyn. Robyn is really friendly and quick to send what you order. These daisies are sooo cute!...perfect for kids hats or anything else...and lets face it...don't give the huge craft franchises or department stores your money...buy from the little guys...and gals!!! If anyone wants Robyn's email address I have it here at home...just ask.

Thanks Mr. Moley for taking time off the toy shelf to model for me. Hopefully we will be able to have a photo of the real Cloe!...stay tuned! xxx Ruth