Angora stuff

I have had my angora rabbits for about a year and a half now. I have harvested wool from 4 different rabbits - 2 coppers, a chocolate and a red. The red was only a small amount and I no longer have that rabbit so it is just copper and chocolate for the time being. Mocha, the chocolate, has been the best producer as far as volume of wool. Penny has the best sheen and is my favorite colour. I combined most of Penny's wool with some sheep wool last year and got enough to crochet a hat. I have been saving Mocha's wool and started spinning it a few weeks ago. I am not mixing it with anything but I did decide to ply it with a gold thread just to give it a bit of extra kick! I am very happy with the yarn so far. As it is pure angora and a fairly thick yarn I am going to use it in a open, lace-like pattern and make my self a bolero. I just hope I have enough yardage!

I have also collected several gallon sized ziplock bags of odds and ends, less than prime wool that isn't really suitable for spinning but I have been keeping it and plan to try using it for some felting projects though I am not sure yet what that will be!

Here is a picture of some of what my little herd has produced for me so far! The 2 balls are copper and red mixed with equal amounts of sheep wool. It is niceish but the sheep wool I used was coarse and did not do the angora justice! The chocolate skein is about 50 yards of the yarn I am working on for my bolero. I still have quite a bit more to finish. And the hat I made which is the only actual project I have finished using my homegrown wool. I have done a few samplers with some small amounts that I was playing with as I learned to spin but up until now I haven't really had enough volume to make anything.





So . . . in conclusion, I have decided that I need more bunnies. Actually less bunnies in total but more angoras. So I am going to start cutting back on the mini rex herd and increase the number of angora's. I am thinking 2 each of the colours I want to keep which will be chocolate, black, copper and ?? possibly tort or maybe even white (that I could use for dying.) I think the black would be neat for dying as well - it would give a cool effect with the different shades.

I do love these bunnies as urban homestead "livestock." They are relatively cheap to feed, don't take much space, they're friendly and fun for the kids to play with, entertaining and cuddly when I need a pick me up, useful as wool producers AND as great fertilizer producers for the garden!!