Okay, all great questions. First, fiber. I do sell some raw fiber and yarn, but mostly I spin and knit 100% angora accessories like hats, scarves, mittens. I usually sell out of all I produce. The angora/wool blends also sell, they are less expensive and can have pretty colors, but nothing feels like pure angora. People will pick up the pretty blends, and like them. But then they pick up a pure angora item, often say it is like 'picking up a cloud', and often buy it. I don't find spinning pure angora to be any harder than pure wool or blends, it's just a little different.
Because you don't want your quality homegrown angora to be like the commercial stuff, which is spun without much twist so it still looks fluffy (but has no strength at all), you're going to want to add a bit more twist to the yarn so it is strong and can survive real use (I use angora for my barn wear). If you use the amount of tension on the spinning wheel that you use for wool, it will try to pull the fine yarn in onto the bobbin before you are ready, and the yarn may break. There's a simple solution: start treadling your wheel (not spinning at this point, don't need yarn threaded through, you're just making the treadle (foot pedal) go up and down which makes the wheel move.
Almost every type of wheel has some sort of tension devise that makes the drive band go looser or tighter, usually some type of knob. Turn the knob so the band gets looser until the part outside the bobbin with the hooks on it (called the 'flyer' because it spins rapidly 'flying' around the bobbin) stops spinning. Now, slowly add tension back onto the wheel until it just starts spinning at normal speed. This gives you the least amount of pull that will still do the job of pulling in your finished yarn onto the bobbin.
If you've never spun before, check out and see if there is a spinners guild near you. They often have spinning days or spinning classes or just a helpful member that can get you started. You can learn the basics in just a few minutes, the rest is simply practice. And don't despair if your early yarns look lumpy and bumpy. They're called 'art yarns' in the knitting/weaving world, and people pay extra for those! Spin-off Magazine (yes, there's an entire magazine devoted to spinning by Long Thread Publications, which also produces Handwoven) has a list of spinning guilds at
Spinning Guilds | Spin Off
Luvin' Buns Rabbitry has a little video on spinning angora on a pencil on her Facebook page at
, scroll down to December 13, 2022 to see the video. You'll find plenty of videos on YouTube to get you started spinning as well. If you are using a drop spindle for your angora, let me share a little trick I learned from an Eastern European spinner who spun all the yarn for her family. She could spin faster on a drop spindle than most of us on wheels, but she did it differently than the average spindle user. Instead of twirling the spindle and then letting it drop, suspended by the yarn, she would have a foot or two of yarn not on the spindle, give the spindle a good twirl, and let it spin. When it started to slow down (and definitely before it starts to go backwards), she would twirl it again and let it spin, maybe even a third time if the hanging string was longer. Now tuck the spindle under your non-dominant arm (I spin with my right hand, so I tuck the spindle under my left arm), and just let it sit there while you spin. You already have all the twist built up in the yarn on the spindle, so you don't need to spin your yarn with the spindle dangling. This takes the 'drop' out of drop spindle spinning. Simply hold the twist you've built up on the spindle's yarn back by pinching the yarn with your left hand, while your right hand pulls the loose fluffy angora cloud of fiber back with your right hand. Pull until the fibers near the spindle yarn are about the same size as you want your yarn to be, and then unpinch your left hand and run it up the pulled-thinner fibers. The twist will follow your hand, and magically become yarn. After a while, you'll just learn to keep your spinning hand moving faster than the twist is moving up, and not have to worry so much about the tight pinch.
If you are having trouble getting your fibers to draw out easily into a nice yarn-width, you're probably doing what I did at first. I took a speed-spinning class, and everyone was spinning away merrily, and I couldn't get my fiber to draw out. The class took a lunch break, and I kept at it, still with no luck. All of a sudden, the yarn just started flying, spinning so incredibly easy, and I had no idea why. What was the difference? When the teacher came back, she explained. Apparently, I had been letting the twist in the already-spun yarn travel up into my handful of fiber, holding it back from pulling any thinner into yarn. Once I learned to keep the twist out of my fiber supply, whether by pinching the twist off until I was ready, or simply spinning faster than the twist could travel up the yarn to my fluffy fibers, the spinning was easy.
I personally like the very soft (and personable) English angoras, although I cannot resist the satin fiber, with that sheen and color depth, and the softest of all angora fibers, so I raise them as well. My English make more fiber, but the Satin Angoras make the most amazing fiber. As to grooming, I find time and breeding selection make a huge difference. When I select bunnies for my breeding stock, I look for the ones that have nice soft coats, not hairy, but still have decent looking coats, despite being housed with mama and all of its littermates. Bunnies that start off all matted will often need a lot of grooming as adults. Bunnies that can maintain a nice soft coat despite having siblings play all over them are a treasure. Do I still get some matting on the fuzzy English cheeks or behind the front legs, yes. I wouldn't be spinning those anyway, so snipping those when necessary isn't an issue. Since I'm not showing, it doesn't matter. But, over the years, I've got a number of rabbits that go all three months between molts without needing groomed. You probably won't start out with stock that does that, and not all of my rabbits will, but you know which rabbits will become next year's breeders! Just select for the easiest keepers, and the most pleasant rabbits to work with. Rabbits that scramble and scratch may just not feel secure, you may need to change how you hold the rabbit to work. But rabbits that just don't want to be handled aren't fun to groom, they don't make it into the breeding program. Not every rabbit you begin with will be a winner, but be persistent, you'll eventually find stock that does what you want that can be a basis for your future herd.
Color is nice, but you can always overdye angora (even blacks and chestnuts, which make lovely rich deep jewel tones). Fiber quality and temperament is much more important. As has been mentioned, you need to decide whether you prefer to shear your rabbits every three months, or pluck out shedding fiber. Choose your stock accordingly. I don't like to shear, so I chose old-style molting English, which molt every 3-4 months, producing 3-6" of fiber each molt. Shearing molting rabbits can be a problem, as my English are bred to have three coats of fiber at one time, the long one molting out, another medium coat about half that length, and often a third emerging at skin level. That's great for me in a cold climate, because even the rabbit that molts out in single-digit cold weather still has several inches of the next coat grown to keep them warm. That is awful for a show rabbit, which needs to show density, and only half of the coat (or less) is full length at any given time.
