Wonderfully soft, completely handspun, 100% Angora in natural White from "J.T.".
Angora is a wonder to work with! It will give you a dreamily soft, warm and treasured keepsake!
It is 7 times warmer than any other natural fiber and is naturally water resistant!
The perfect fiber to use for any close to the skin garments or for just the right edging!
One of last year's new babies! Beautiful 'Pointed White' girl! This is a Red-Eyed White bunny with a black nose and a bit of black wool on the ears, feet and tail.
Eight weeks old in this picture, she is just beginning to grow her baby coat. Angora rabbits are born without fur like any baby rabbit and slowly increase the length of the wool until 3-4 months old when the first coat is mature. Since this coat is very fine it is unusable for spinning. This coat is clipped off and discarded. It is not until about 6-7 months of age that they have produced their first spinnable coat.
This red skein is completely handspun and hand dyed, and is 50 yards of 2 ply, 100% Angora.
Any of my yarn can be custom hand-dyed to suit your needs!
It is interesting to see the different shades obtainable by dyeing the various colors of natural Angora. Sometimes the richest colors are gotten from dyeing Black, Chestnut or Chocolate Angora. White angora dyed tends to give you a nice, true color of the original dye.
Hand crocheted from handspun and handpainted 100% Angora, this lovely, 'air-light' scarf was purposely made short with no fringe so it could wrap around the neck and tuck into the top of a coat! I alternated the handpainted yarn with Natural Black and used a large hook for an open weave.
All handpainting is done right here in my own kitchen! This is a time consuming process that involves mixing concentrated dye, applying it by hand to each skein and then heating it in the oven until the right hues have set! For the handpainted yarn in this scarf I started with Natural Black Angora and used Black and Teal dye, leaving some of the natural color undyed. It spent quite a bit of time in the oven but turned out beautiful!
(No, Kids, I am NOT cooking dinner!)
Just the handpainting of this yarn took an entire day!
To the right is a skein of Natural Black angora, completely handspun.
Although called, 'Black', the fiber is actually gray in color. The 'Black' designation is determined by the color of the rabbit's nose! The nose will be black but the rest of her is gray! Often the belly wool will be white so when it is spun there will be variations in the color of the natural strand.
Handspun and hand dyed angora in a Bluish Gray, 50 yards, 2 ply.
Angora is typically more difficult to dye than other fibers. It takes more dye and longer in the dye pot to get the richer colors. Black is the most difficult color to obtain! Angora will usually pull the browns out of the black dye and that is that! Unless I am persistant and keep at it, that is!
Many times I will content myself with mostly black, with flecks of brown, as this makes the yarn different and interesting!
I especially love dyeing 'purple' as the yarn often pulls out the pinks and blues, giving a truly unique coloration!
I enjoying working with Merino and Angora because of how nicely they go together! Merino makes a very soft, spongy type of yarn that has great memory! Put with Angora you now have the memory along with the ultra-softness and the classic halo! Perfect!
This yarn has a marvelous two-tone effect due to the Angora picking up the blues in the dye and the Merino picking up the Violet! Most yarns that are Merino/Angora plys will have this two-toned look because the two fibers take up the dye differently. Angora will take longer to attain a richer color than the Merino. You will notice this when you look at the Angora/Merino yarns on the Shop page.
Interesting, bulky weight, novelty yarn! This was an experiment in handspinning from an uncarded, hand-dyed sheep fleece. Carding the fleece gives you a nice, even flow of wool to spin, whereas spinning from uncarded allows for all sorts of different effects! It takes a little longer to spin and is more challenging, but is worth it!
One ply is yellow, the other a colorful strand of green, orange and purple!
This yarn is thick and thin, lumpy and bumpy!
I have yarn like this in 'Purple, Lavender, Chartreuse & Orange!
This hat was made from a tri-colored, uncarded, Jacob wool, giving the dark portions a rustic, natural look. The white and tan are 100% Angora to give it a soft contrast. A little Angora on the edge of any project will give it a nice elegance!
I have some finished skeins of the uncarded Jacob yarn that will soon be on the Sheep-Shop page.
I have recently finished a scarf that matches this hat. Look for it on the Hats & Scarves page.
