can you use just pure rabbit

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

I am very new to this section.. I am very interested in producing my own to knit scarfes ect.. I like the angora rabbits as I like the clean face... Now I was told that I shouldn't just spin just rabbit fur.. I should mix it. Can someone explain

 

[Miss M]

I think it has to do with how insanely warm the wool is? I can't remember for sure, though. :thinking:

 

[PSFAngoras]

Typically people don't like to spin just rabbit because it has no natural oils of its own. The causes the fiber to unravel easily if not enough twist is applied or go go flying through your hands If your using a wheel. It's not as hard as it sounds though, and once you get the hang of spinning pure rabbit you'll have a hard time going back to anything else.

Here's some tips to remember:

It is easier to spin pure rabbit if the wool was plucked off of the rabbit, no matter the length. I'm not sure why this is, but its true.

Start with as fiber as long as you can get your hands on, you can learn to spin the shorter stuff later, but its harder.

It is easier to spin from a cloud of fiber than a prepared product as prepared materials are already all aligned in the same direction and separate easlily. When the fiber is still in a little puff just like you harvest it off the brush, its not all aligned, so it holds to itself better.

Make sure to use enough twist to hold the fibers together. It will unravel very easily otherwise.

Make sure when you make angora yarn to at least make it a two ply. Single can loose their twist as their worked with and you'll end up with a fluffy ball of fur, just like what you started with.

Hope this is useful.

__________ Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:28 am __________

And angora is insanely warm too, 7x that of sheep wool, but I've been able to wear my angora stuff when the weather is in the 50-60's without dieing of heat exhaustion. <br /><br />__________ Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:31 am __________<br /><br />Oh, and it also does go further when blended, that may be another reason people usually don't use it straight. Adding even 10% angora to a project makes a huge difference in he appearance, feel, and thermal quality of a skein of yarn.

 

[Secuono]

My guess why plucked works better is because there is oil and the hair root, which would make it catch easier.
How come I don't hear about micron levels, I thought that is what helped it catch and hold, as well as determining how soft it is...

 

[PSFAngoras]

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the micron range it typically falls into is 11-14 microns

 

[Miss M]

And angora is insanely warm too, 7x that of sheep wool, but I've been able to wear my angora stuff when the weather is in the 50-60's without dieing of heat exhaustion.

Thank you!

 

[Toady]

I'm a spinner and although I haven't used pure rabbit as yet I know a lot of people who do and have had no issues with it, yes you don't get a heap from juts one rabbit which is why I think a lot of people blend it with other fibres. Also wool helps provide some bounce in the yarn which can help an item keep its shape.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

I decided to buy the rabbit mix yarn instead of buying the rabbits..It is cheaper and I have other projects that I am working on. And not to have so many mouths to feed... So I want to knit a scarf.. But not a long one.. I guess I should use a three ply and how many skeins do I need. or grams

 

[skysthelimit]

Angora by itself has very little drape, no fiber memory, another reason why it's blended.

The amount depends on the design. A really cool feature of Ravelry is you can search by amount of yarn, so my patterns fit the amount I've spun, but occasionally I do spin to fit a certain amount. When I crochet big scarves I rarely use the whole skein, half of a Caron skein (3oz, 107 yards) made a nice sized cowl for me. Knitting takes less yarn than crochet, so You can probably get 1 oz of Angora and 2 oz of wool, maybe Merino or Shetland, maybe Mohair? Alpacas nice too.