Angora Love

We were brushing our Angora rabbit the other night, and he was just giving wool like crazy. My husband brushed and brushed, and I watched in awe. Then I grabbed my spindle. I mean, how can you worry about screwing up Angora wool when the little guy keeps making it like that??? I had also read a great excerpt from this book about how to handle Angora yarn, and I thought I'd take pictures as I went along. Firstly, of course, the spinning. The book recommended that I spin tightly, at a worsted weight, but the wool clumped up on me when I wasn't spinning skinny, like I'm used to, so I went with the skinny, but spun it really tight.


Secondly, I had already on a spindle some thinly spun merino, treated so it was superwash. These two were going to ply together great, since apparently you put Angora yarn in screaming hot water and agitate it, completely at odds with what you would expect to do with wool, and since the merino was superwash, neither should felt. Well, the book said the Angora wouldn't felt. I wasn't at all sure, but I wasn't listening to myself. I was listening to this lady who wrote this book. heheh. I had to keep reminding myself that the little guy was just downstairs growing more wool, and it would be okay if I screwed it up.

So I spun it up.


Then I put it in hot water in the sink and agitated it, then shocked it in ice cold water. Honestly, that's what the book said, and I was just going on faith. Amazingly, it didn't felt, even with all of that mean treatment. But that wasn't the end of it, because the next part is the most fun. I got to thwack it hard against the counter, each side. It makes the Angora "bloom" and become all softy. It also loosens it all up, which is why it needed to be spun so tightly in the first place.




And then I had pretty yarn!!!!


So I made something with it.


The only thing for this bunny that didn't come from an animal was the beaded eyes. I even stuffed him with Angora. Now he's off as a gift, and my kids are bugging me for more. When I started to explain to my second child that he sort of took awhile, my first daughter whispered, "She just started it today." I've been outed. These little bunnies aren't hard, and I got the directions from this magazine. Since he was actually pretty fun to make, I'm going to make a couple more. I have another friend or two that could use a little Angora love.