Sunday, August 2, 2009

Bunny Solutions

I spun the above skein of kid mohair yesterday. Spinning mohair requires a light touch. Kid mohair needs to be spun without a lot of twist, if you want to keep it as a single and have it be soft enough to wear next to the skin. There is always the temptation to put extra twist in, but it
then can feel like rope - unless you ply it. I no longer ply kid mohair, because I charge by the weight of the fiber and it becomes heavy, more expensive, and you get half the yardage. The advantage of the plied yarn evens out the twist for a beginning spinner, but otherwise is not worth the extra work. I bought Lindt a new cage today, so she can stay in the studio until it cools down or she has had her babies. I brought the rest of the bunnies into the studio this afternoon and will probably keep them in for a few weeks. It will mean more cleaning, but I found one of the rabbits looking overly stressed this morning and decided that I really did not want to lose another due to the heat.
I tried the iced bottles - but they don't stay cool more than an hour. They actually got hotter than the water in their bowls. I finally remembered this afternoon that we were letting the rabbits run on the ground last year, which is why they did not get so hot. They were digging tunnels and just going deeper to get cooler. I had to put them in cages after I discovered that they had dug a tunnel over 15 feet long under the entire pen and that they had come out outside the fenced area. They had just escaped when I discovered them out last year, so I did not lose them, but it was a close call.
I decided to start spinning some of my angora stockpile. I have a lot in the studio refrigerator and really need to sell some of it, so the rabbits can pay their way. The yarns below are angora rabbit and the beginning of my collection. The grays and whites are natural colored. Now is a good time to stop in and see the bunnies (unless you have allergies) and maybe buy some angora?
I have been spinning blues the last few days. I currently have slate blue kid mohair on my wheel. The blues below were spun yesterday. I plan to do a freeform yarn in autumn shades next. I have already pulled the fibers. I need to find a few more novelties to go in it.





1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love the slate blue! GORGEOUS!