Calling for help with an Angora question

[judymac]

I have a citizen-science request. Does anyone here have a rabbit with multiple agouti bands in the fiber? This chocolate agouti has chocolate/fawn/dove gray bands.

The ARBA Standard of Perfection calls for 'one or more' bands. Here's the request: if you have a rabbit with multiple bands like this one when you blow into the coat, would you please do me a favor? Could you please remove a pinch of the fiber, and lay it on a piece of white paper, and take a photo or scan of the hair. We want to see how many bands are actually on an individual fiber. (If you can also take a photo of what the rings look like when you blow into the coat, that would be awesome!)
This is a chestnut agouti doe while her coat is being blown during grooming:

You can see where the chestnut/fawn/slate gray pattern repeats. What we need to know is, is it repeating on a single hairshaft?

 

[CheleBelle75]

Here is my 8 week old chestnut agouti boy.

 

[judymac]

Here is my 8 week old chestnut agouti boy.

Wonderful! What a beautiful boy. I can see the golden tips of the next coat coming in at the base. Now here's the question--If you were to snip a few hairs at the base, or pull out a few hairs when he molts, and put them on a blank piece of paper, would there be a second band of gold on the base of the hairshaft, or is it the tip of another hairshaft--the beginning of the next coat?

 

[CheleBelle75]

Wonderful! What a beautiful boy. I can see the golden tips of the next coat coming in at the base. Now here's the question--If you were to snip a few hairs at the base, or pull out a few hairs when he molts, and put them on a blank piece of paper, would there be a second band of gold on the base of the hairshaft, or is it the tip of another hairshaft--the beginning of the next coat?

I have no clue but I will try to get a few hairs and get a picture

 

[hotzcatz]

Frequently the inside rings are the beginnings of the next coat coming in. It's best to shear them without clipping those incoming tips since those really short fibers can cause "neps" or "nits" in the finished yarn. Maybe where the term "nit picking" comes from, I'd expect?

 

[Alaska Satin]

Frequently the inside rings are the beginnings of the next coat coming in. It's best to shear them without clipping those incoming tips since those really short fibers can cause "neps" or "nits" in the finished yarn. Maybe where the term "nit picking" comes from, I'd expect?

I think it comes from picking louse eggs, called "nits," out of someone's hair.

 

[hotzcatz]

I think it comes from picking louse eggs, called "nits," out of someone's hair.

Hmm, yup, you're probably right now that you've mentioned it. Sometimes my fingers type faster than my brain. But neps in yarn are just as annoying?

Anyway, back to the agouti rings thing, have you found a definitive answer yet? I'd think there's just one sequence of color bands per hair, but I have no proof either way. Agouti Amy is getting sheared tomorrow (hopefully) so I can look at her hairs.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Hmm, yup, you're probably right now that you've mentioned it. Sometimes my fingers type faster than my brain. But neps in yarn are just as annoying?

Anyway, back to the agouti rings thing, have you found a definitive answer yet? I'd think there's just one sequence of color bands per hair, but I have no proof either way. Agouti Amy is getting sheared tomorrow (hopefully) so I can look at her hairs.

I would much rather picks neps out of wool than parasite eggs out of someone's hair!!! But maybe that's just me, with a few too many years as a wildlife biologist...

I hope you'll post photos of Amy's fiber.

I haven't had any angoras for years, so I have no evidence, but I'd be inclined to agree that it's probably one sequence of bands per hair. There's a show coming up on the first weekend in December, so I'll ask my angora breeder friends for some agouti samples and try to get them under the microscope. Stay tuned!