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SPINNING THOSE ANGORA BUNNIESby Cynthia C. Faverty HARVESTING THE WOOL: The most important aspect of spinning Angora Rabbit fiber is harvesting the wool. The finished product will only be as good as the quality of the fiber from which it is spun. French and English Angora rabbits "blow their coats" (or shed or molt) about every third month. This means that the hair just about falls out into your hand with a gentle tug. Typically, English and French Angoras produce 2-3 ounces of premium rabbit fiber every third month. The rest is not 1st quality wool and there is only an ounce or so of that. If for example, the rabbit molts in January, April, July, and October, one can expect to harvest 8- 12 ounces of premium wool a year from a rabbit. At $7.00 an ounce this translates into about $56.00 to $84.00 dollars a year per rabbit.. After advertising expenses, housing, medical and food costs are calculated, one can see that the possibility of becoming rich from the production of rabbit fiber dwindles. There are three ways of harvesting angora fiber: shearing, combing and hand plucking. Shearing is the least desirable. Although it is probably the fastest method of removing the fiber from the rabbit, it leaves blunt ends and shorter lengths of fiber intermixed with longer ones. I have spun from sheared angora fiber. It is very very difficult, if not impossible to separate the shorter inferiour cuts from the longer cuts. It costs less because it is not the best and to the inexperienced it seems like a good deal. Regardless of the twist, these shorter pieces will cause irregularities in the yarn and will increase the likelihood of shedding over time. Combing and Handplucking take advange of the natural molt by waiting until the wool is ready to be gently removed from the rabbit. After the Harvesting, the rabbit is left with the shorter new growth covering his near-naked body. At this point they look like skinny rats bouncing around in their cages. Combing with a pronged comb (not a slicker brush) obtains nice consistent lengths of fiber in large groups or tuffs. Handplucking is also desireable and some use the two terms interchangeably. Handplucking would not include the use of a comb, however. There are no shorter hairs to worry about with these two methods and the fiber consistently averages 4 to 8 inches in length. Combed and Handplucked angora fiber costs more than sheared for this reason. GRADING THE QUALITY OF THE WOOL: Quality also depends not only on where the wool is harvested from but how clean it is and how free of matts it is.
There may be some slight variations on grading the quality of rabbit fiber, but everyone agrees that premium quality is matt free, long, and perfectly clean and handplucked or combed. FRENCH VS ENGLISH ANGORA English Angora is the silkiest of the Angoras. It does not have guard hairs. French Angora is supposed to consist of 30% guard hair. There is not much difference in the actual spinning of the two fibers. However, French Angora blooms more due to the guard hairs. English Angora needs to be "abused" a little to achieve this bloom. Giant Angora is similar in quality and guard hair to the French Angora (I am not familiar with the harvesting practices of Giant Angora fiber). Satin Angora is lighter weight than the other Angoras and for this reason it takes more of it to make an ounce. SPINNING ANGORA Once the fiber is harvested it is up to the spinner to decide whether to card it or not. Most Angora can be spun just as it is plucked, one tuft at a time. Some Spinners may prefer to card it.
"ABUSING" THE ANGORA Once the Angora is in hanks it can be dyed and/or "abused". Just like wool, it accepts dyes readily and looks beautiful. To achieve a "bloom" is easy. Take a bowl of ice water and another bowl of hot water. Dunk the skein into the hot water, squeeze out the excess water and dunk the skein immediately into the ice water and swish. Squeeze out the excess water and then, holding one end of the hank, slap the other end forcefully on a table. Grab the other end of the hank and slap the remaining end on the table. Now, repeat the process until you have the quantity of bloom that is desired. This is for REAL! I know it is hard for wool spinners to believe. BLENDING ANGORA WITH OTHER FIBERS Most people blend their Angora fiber with other wools and fibers because Angora does not have a "memory" like wool. Pure angora fiber is beautiful and it is 7 times warmer than 100% wool. It should be used with care on Baby Garments because the babies can't tell you when they are too hot. It works beautifully on collars, cuffs, yokes, mittens, hats, scarves, and accent pieces. So, most spinners blend angora with other fibers. I have blended Angora 50/50 with Jacob wool. It was gorgeous. 
This sock's cuff and 1/2 the leg are knitted from a 50/50 blend of silver angora and Jacob wool. It was really too nice a yarn for this sock but the owner loves the feel of it. Most blends that I have seen range from 20-30% Angora and 70-80% wool. It adds a wonderful softness, that gorgeous fluffiness and extra warmth. To blend, weigh out the wool and then weigh out 20-30% of that total weight in Angora. Card the wool first. Card the Angora once. Then run through both together softly blending in the angora. Angora is fairly fragile and shouldn't be run through the carder again and again. I like to blend silver angora with silver wool. |
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