Recent Rabbit Spinnings

Been working on adding new stock to the Etsy store, so naturally I've been spinning like a mad woman lately. Here are some of the recent yarns.

Sport weight REW, Lace weight Red, Red, Chestnut, Opal, and Black.
I'm in love with the natural colors, so I had to share.

Okay, back to my wheel! Hubby's sweater won't spin itself!

BEAUTIFUL!

THIS is what makes me think Angora is in my future.
I love the yarn and I love rabbits....

That's amazing PSF. How someone can take a pile of fur and turn it into yarn baffles me. How long does it take to spin one of those.

It does however make me wonder, how does a potholder get turned into a sweater?

I love the opal and the black! Why bother dyeing when the natural colors are so gorgeous! How many ounces are you spinning at a time for those skeins and how much is the final yardage, if you don't mind me asking?

:in_love:
(Please don't mind the drool on my keyboard...)

Subtle, natural colours, wonderful texture, and just oh-so-totally-gorgeous overall!

@ Homer: I love angora particularly because you can take a pile of fluff and directly make it into yarn. It's usually very free of vegetable matter, and it doesn't have lanolin, so you don't have to go through the lengthy process of washing, picking, and carding like you do with wool. I just wash it after spinning. As far as time, I probably should figure it into my spinning and therefore pricing, but I don't really keep track of it. The thinner the yarn is, the longer it takes to spin, since you're creating more yardage. If i had to guess, each of these probably took about 2 hours to spin, give or take.

As far as how to make a pot holder into a sweater, I couldn't tell you, but if you put a sweater in the dryer you'll end up with a pot holder!!!

@ Nymphadora: I don't measure out my fiber before I spin, i just go for it. I don't show often, so I brush out their coats every week, regardless if they're molting or not. I often get an ounce or two in between molts and a few ounces when they do molt. When it's spun depends on how much other wool I have to spin and my available free time. If I wait to spin for a couple of molts, I usually get monster skeins that are 6-700 yards spun at fingering weight. I'm starting to break the larger skeins into smaller skeins by yardage though just because that seems to be what people like to buy. I prefer the larger skeins myself, but as I own the bunnies I don't have to factor cost into my projects.

The skeins are as follows:
REW - 54 yards of Sport-DK weight, 1.1 oz
Red (both skeins turned out the same)- 83 yards lace, 0.9 oz
Chestnut - 144 yards lace, 1.2 oz
Opal- 84 yards, 0.8 oz
Black- 137 yards, 1.1 oz

Those look great! I'll have to teach myself how to spin once my pile of fluff box gets too full XD I'll probly mix mine a bit so it wont be as high quality but we'll see :/ I have 2 english angora lionhead mix and a pure english angora. the pure is a marpie but 98% white, one of the cross is a full white and the other is a blue vienna marked so it'll be a varying white with bits of grey through it when I spin it (unless I just end up using it as plushie stuffing)

ohh that red yarn is beautiful! i don't think i could ever handle the grooming requirements of angora, but i shall live vicariously through you guys! maybe when i get a wheel and get decent i'll have to hit you guys up for some fluff to work with! in the meantime i feel like a soft red scarf may be in my future...

PSFAngoras":3fn7ri1v said:

As far as how to make a pot holder into a sweater, I couldn't tell you, but if you put a sweater in the dryer you'll end up with a pot holder!!!

Click to expand...

I can vouch for this!!! Ruined one of my favorite sweaters a few years back... :evil: :lol:

PSFAngoras":3fn7ri1v said:

@ Nymphadora: I don't measure out my fiber before I spin, i just go for it. I don't show often, so I brush out their coats every week, regardless if they're molting or not. I often get an ounce or two in between molts and a few ounces when they do molt. When it's spun depends on how much other wool I have to spin and my available free time. If I wait to spin for a couple of molts, I usually get monster skeins that are 6-700 yards spun at fingering weight. I'm starting to break the larger skeins into smaller skeins by yardage though just because that seems to be what people like to buy. I prefer the larger skeins myself, but as I own the bunnies I don't have to factor cost into my projects.

The skeins are as follows:
REW - 54 yards of Sport-DK weight, 1.1 oz
Red (both skeins turned out the same)- 83 yards lace, 0.9 oz
Chestnut - 144 yards lace, 1.2 oz
Opal- 84 yards, 0.8 oz
Black- 137 yards, 1.1 oz

Click to expand...

Thank you for figuring all that out for me! I like the monster balls of yarn as well, personally. Why make a join in your work when you don't have to? :mrgreen:
Do you have a jumbo bobbin for those oversize skeins? I don't think I'd be able to spin more than 6 oz. at a time on my wheel currently, but I'd love to make even bigger skeins...

I don't have a jumbo bobbin. My largest skeins are about 6-7 oz of fingering weight, it's all he Kromski bobbins will hold. I had heard that Kromski was going to make a super size flyer and bobbin, almost twice the size of the jumbo, for the Sonata sometime this year, but I haven't heard anything yet.

As it stands, I think my winter project will be to build a very crude version of an Ashford Country Spinner, with a giant plying bobbin for much larger skeins with pegs that I can stick in the face of the wheel so it doubles as a skein winder. . I hate skeining off the larger skeins by hand on my kniddy knoddy. Takes forever!! If I can find a good place to mount my yard counter than it will be like an all inclusive finishing wheel!!

That winter project of yours sounds fantastic, PSFAngoras
I need to figure out something other than a niddy noddy to wind those lengthy skeins up, too, my arms were starting to ache last time. I like the look of the big 'ole skein winders, I just don't have the space for one right now. Maybe if your plans go well I can buy a copy of the plans off you? :lol:

I was seriously tempted to buy the jumbo flyer and bobbins for the Ashford Kiwi that I own, but they're so expensive! I have to sell a lot more yarn if I'm gonna try to afford one of those by next year...

Final question (for now, I'm sure there'll be more later): What does your yard counter look like and how does it work? I'd love to have something that keeps track as I spin...

I kinda just wing things, I'm not good at following plans, but I'll certainly post pictures when o get around to building it.

I know what you mean, the jumbo flyers are VERY expensive!!. That's another reason I thought of just building my own wheel. I'll probably have as much in parts as it would cost to buy a super sized flyer. The kit for the wheels they do come for already is like $250, and each additional bobbin is $40 or so. My wheel is one of the higher up models Kromski has to offer and it was already $680. That's like half the wheel over again!!

My yardage counter is home built, but it's based off the Schacht model. They wanted like $200 for theirs though!! I built mine by mounting one of those little wheel on a stick foot counters that realtors use to measure houses to a board and adding a few eye hooks to keep the yarn in place. I also cut a groove in the wheel for the yarn to travel in. It needs a few more eyelets on the in feed side to keep better tension on the yarn so it doesn't slip on the wheel, but it works well when you get the tension right. It's meant to be used as you're winding your yarn onto the kniddy knoddy or ball winder. Just wrap your yarn in a full circle around the wheel and you're off! Cost maybe $40 to build, and that was with the shipping cost for the wheel in a stick thingy.

I used to have a cheap Susan Boye brand yard counter that looked like an egg. It was like $12 off eBay. I didn't realize how poorly it did until I tried the new yarn counter out. The Boye one was inconsistently off by as much as .2 yards per yard!!! It added yards instead of counting them short, so I had to go back and measure 4600 yards of yarn for my Etsy store yesterday to make sure I was listing the correct yardage. I wouldn't have bothered if the actual amount were over what I posted, I sell by weight so it doesn't matter, but I don't want people buying what is supposed to be 100 yards and then coming up 20 yards short for their project.

That's amazing!!!! And the colors are so beautiful :in_love: You are very talented :goodjob:

:bow:
That's an awesome yard counter (and you're right, I couldn't find a decent one for under $100)... I might ask DH to make me one for my birthday!

A swift should be easy enough to build, too... :hmm:

Now that we're getting closer to the moving into our new home (closing escrow in the next week or so, fingers crossed) I'm finding more and more projects that I have to postpone until after we've moved. But there's a wonderful little extra bedroom that was previously used as an office that I think will become my new workspace and craft room. I'll have a big table for my sewing, lots of storage, and a lovely space by the window to spin all day long. So of course I'm planning way more projects than I possibly have time for in the next year. :lol:

If only spinning tools weren't so gosh darn pricey... I looked at getting a few extra bobbins for my Kiwi, but alas, they'd cost more than I can currently justify (since I can't actually start any major spinning projects for another few months). :roll:

At least I still have plenty of fiber... maybe I'll go dye some this weekend to take the edge off!

Absolutely gorgeous!! The colours are so beautiful, I want them all.
Spinning is on my list of things to start when I have more time. Sounds like a great reason for more rabbit math. :?

Lovely yarns! If they were mine, I'd pull the reds for a separate project and make the others into a shawl with graduated colors.

Have you tried using a swift instead of a niddy noddy? Goes so much faster! The last swift I bought was one of those plastic and wire ones that someone sold at a garage sale as a 'lingerie dryer'. I just paid them the fifty cents they were asking and didn't try to tell them what it actually was. Also picked up one of the wooden ones for $5 at a different rummage sale, but sold that one since it was kinda clunky and large.

If you can find fiber tools at a non-fiber sale, they're usually quite inexpensively priced. Especially if the folks having the sale haven't a clue what they are.

There's some swifts which are basically crossed sticks with pegs on them that pivot in the middle. Wouldn't be rocket science to make one of those.

Um, would I be cheating to ask for a link to your Etsy shop?

Love LOVE those skeins of yarn, the colors are fantastic!

List of things to do now include learning to spin, knit and weave. I wonder, if my project list is undoably long, will I live forever? :lol:

@ Hotcatz - I don't have a swift yet, that's why I was planning on building one into a new wheel. I don't have a large house, only 700 sf, and too many hobbies, so the more I can consolidate my ever growing stash of yarn gadgets the better! I already take up well over my allotted half of the spare bedroom, and I haven't even started making mead yet!

@GBov - here's the link.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PostageStampAngoras

If you plan on getting into weaving you should look into the rigid heddle looms. They're usually more of a gateway machine, but I got one for my mom when she had to have surgery on her hands, keeping her from her knitting (pretty devastating for someone who can whip up an intricate cable sweater in a couple weeks just knitting in her spare time). The rigid heddle can be very basic, but she found you can adapt the use of a second heddle in some models and pick up sticks with any model and make nearly as many patterns as you can on a larger shaft style loom.

I keep trying to get her to put her woven scarves from her little cricket loom on her Etsy, but she hasn't done it yet. They're beautiful!

Just had a look, wonderful, beautiful stuff!

Weaving and the like will have to wait so right now I needle felt. Living in Fl, there isnt much call for wool garments or bed throws :lol: and the rabbit hide blanket is on hold until we move to a climate where it can be used instead of just hung on a wall. :roll:

I will put the loom name in my "For later" file though as branching out is calling me. Wool is as bad as rabbits, I went onto Etsy for ONE color of fiber and wound up spending way too much and ordering 13 colors and two combo packs.

It can definitely be like that!! I spent nearly $600 at the last fiber festival I went to, and all I brought home was wool! (I did fine a WHOLE paco-vicuña fleece for a very reasonable price though!!!)

Just wait until you get into angora rabbits, than you'll want one in each color so you can have the whole natural color spectrum!! Luckily I find that in French, or at least with the lines around me, that chocolate based rabbits have wool colors very similar to those of the black based colors, so I don't have to focus on bringing chocolate in my herd. Chocolate in Satin Angora is beautiful, but I found the Satins didn't produce enough wool for me to justify the cage space.