The Woolen Rabbit

Celebration........June 26, 2005

Cultivation

Imagine a sculpture
You work on every day.
If you stop, the beauty
goes away.
.

Deng Ming~Dao

In the midst of this heat~wave, some lovely things are popping up in the garden :-)

Celebrations

Today has been a day of celebration in our house, for various reasons.   I finished planting my garden, in spite of the nasty hazy, hot and humid weather.  We celebrated my middle daughter's 20th birthday and today is the first anniversary of my blog!

In honor of this anniversary, I ordered a little something.  If you click on the "celebrate" picture, you might be able to guess........what is it??  Why, I have broken down to celebrate my "birchiness"  Normally I don't like to do what everyone else is doing, but once I caught a glimpse of birch done in this colorway on Jackie's site.......there was no turning back.

It has been a wonderful year blogging.  I have met new friends, broadened my horizons and have pushed myself to be a more consistent fiber person...........Thank~you all for being a part of my year!

Lazy Hazy Summer Nights
Summer is here with a bang.  The temps have been in the 90's for the last few days and no end is in sight. 

Living in New England can be a challenge, but the best part is if you wait a few days, the weather will change. Keeps life interesting :-)

One of the things that I love to do on hot summer evenings is to sit out in the back yard and watch the dogs romp, with a glass of wine, a book or some knitting...........and of course, part of living in New England are the PIA black flies and big fat mosquitoes.......so a bottle of botanical OFF, is always on my table.

I am working away on my smoke ring on the evenings that I get to sit out in the yard.  I had hoped that I would be finished, but I still have a few more inches to go. 

I really love this pattern!  It is an easy pattern to memorize, which makes it fun and easy to carry along.

Isn't the pattern pretty?

I will leave you with this picture.  Tonight as we celebrated Ashley's departure from her teen years, my grandson discovered chips.  My dad, his great grandfather, plopped him up on the island between 3 different bowls of chips.........you have to click on this picture to appreciate his expression.

MINE..........they're all MINE!!! Mwaa ha ha!!

God help his mother.........haha!!

Have a great Monday!!   Stay cool~

Dog Days.......June 21, 2005

What a fun weekend Bliss and I had!  We traveled down to Danbury, CT for CNE's 30th Anniversary show.  It was a 3 day show, with puppy sweeps on Friday evening and a show  both Sat. and Sun.  Our little Bliss won her class both days and we came home with this lovely trophy.

I had to laugh.........this is the 3rd time, this particular trophy has come home with us.  In 2000 Windham Kerry at Ballymena won it and then again in 2001, Milkeyn Felicity at Ballymena brought it home again, so it had a little extra meaning this time when we won it with Bliss.

Friday evening puppy sweeps judge, was Ann Moffat of Milkeyn Cavaliers , who is a dear friend of mine from the UK.  She was a co-breeder of my Download Shelley1.jpg.  It was fun to socialize with she and her companions, after the show on Saturday evening and catch up on each other's lives.  Such fun people!

After the show Saturday, was our AGM and I was elected Vice President of CNE.  I am looking forward to doing my part in this organization :-)

With all of the excitement of the weekend, Little Miss Bliss was exhausted.  The hotel was a very nice one with soft, comfy duvets...........do you think she approved?

Fibery Stuff
Last week, I worked on spinning up a little bit of the Opalessence roving that I have.  Although it is hard to tell in the picture, the yarn has a lot of shine from the silk.

I started Flared Smoke ring.  I figured it was small enough to bring with me and I found the lacework, very easy to memorize.  It will be nice to have this to wear during the fall fairs here in New England, when it gets cold.  There is a great picture of what a smoke ring looks like when it is finished on Melinda's blog

In the rush to get ready for the Fiber Frolic, I just plain ran out of time, getting fibers processed.  I took half of this batch with me that weekend and didn't get a chance to card up the rest until today.
This is another angora, silk, merino blend, similar to the Opalessence above.  This colorway is Blue Lagoon......and I have tucked some of it away for myself...yum!

A Gift

When I came home, from our travels this weekend, a little present was in the mail.  Jackie sent these pretty markers and some lovely stationary.  What a nice surprise.......thanks Jackie!!

I had sent Jackie a little bit of dandelion roving to try, after she mentioned that she would like to give angora blends a try. 

I don't know if you remember, a while back I left the ROAK ring, as I was struggling with randomly sending gifts to people that I had virtually no connection with. I felt that I would rather focus acts of kindess to people that had touched my life somehow.  Over the last year of blogging, I have learned so much from the kindness of others.  I have been introduced to Tao and have been gifted with the friendship of so many.  These random acts of kindness have meant so much to me!

~Enjoy the Sunshine in your corner of the world~

Summer is Here!...June 14, 2005

Do you know
Where you are
On your journey?

If you are confronted with a pivotal decision and cannot think of any other way to act, write down all the good things and all the bad things about a given situation.  Also include how much more you want to do.  See if staying your course will give you what you want.  If not, change, no matter how deeply that will disrupt your routines.  Some people never know where they are in life, and that is one of the biggest reasons that they are unhappy.
Deng Ming~Dao

The above quote is meaningful to me this week as I am at a pivotal point in my life, in regards to continuing forward with breeding dogs.  We are facing some difficult challenges with some new health issues in the breed.  I will do exactly what is suggested and spend some time contemplating before making any decisions.

Fiber Frolic

Oh boy.......do I ever feel like a bad blogger!  I had my camera and my empty disk loaded and did I take any pictures at the Fiber Frolic?? 

Nope.......I was soooooo bad!  I did take this one picture of Mr. (or is it Miss) Llama that visited our building a few time.  He was an entertaining fellow and a good sport in the dreadful heat.

It was HOT, HOT, hot!  Who would ever imagine that it would be 90 plus degrees and 90% humidity in Maine??  However, in-spite of the heat, many NETA members and bloggers made the trek to Maine.  You can see some great pictures at Julia's, Liz and Kristen's blogs.  It is always fun, no matter what the weather to meet with fellow fiber enthusiasts.  As always, it was wonderful to chat with my good friends Robin and Gil Gonsalves of Robin wheels.  Gil has just finished the protocol for his new traveling wheel and is taking orders......what a sweet little traveling wheel!  Now it is time for him to start working on that Production wheel that we have been chatting about.  I have already put my order in for the first one.....in a nice curly maple...<VBG>

I was amazingly well behaved this weekend.  My only purchase was 4 oz of the luscious dark grey cria alpaca in the picture above and some all natural herbal spinning wheel wax from Bristol Springs.  It was nice to meet Angela of Bristol Springs.......another angora rabbit breeder.  I do like to support fellow fiber people when it comes to purchasing products. 

Bunny Genetics 101 cont.
Last week I spoke about Agouti Angora Rabbits and some of the things that defines an agouti.  This week I thought that I would write in layman terms (the only ones I know..LOL) about Self colored angora rabbits.

Self colored angora means that the color goes right to the skin.  Where as the agouti's had those very definite bands of color, a self colored angora should not have distinct bands, although, in a baby coat, you will usually see some.

Above is a picture of a black angora and the reddish torte baby from my current litter.  If you look at the closeup of their wool that has been parted, you see that the obvious banding of last week's rabbits is not there.  There is a faint shading of color in the smaller rabbit, but after a few clippings, it will be much the same as the black rabbit's coat, except it will be a nice apricot color.

I have also included a picture of an adult torte, so that you could see the distinct face mask that distinguishes a torte from a solid colored rabbit.  Although, both rabbits are self colored, the torte rabbit has an additional color pattern over the original color.  You will see that pattern as a face mask, deeper colored ears and feet, as well as markings on the hunches and sometimes on the belly.  This adult torte is considered a chocolate torte. Her name is Belinda, daughter of Glinda.  Glinda was bred here and then went to Claudia of Countrywool.  Belinda came back here when she was a wee one.

The black girl is Spinning Bunny Sambucca.  Even though her body color is grey, she is considered a black rabbit (with excellent body type) and one with very nice complete color.  She will be bred later this summer.

Fibery stuff

Not much knitting has been happening here as it has been just too darn hot to have a lapful of wool.  I did however get a little spinning accomplished. 

I like to spin up some of the roving that I am selling, so that I can make sure that I am giving correct information to people as to the ease or difficulty of spinning.  This blend is call opalessence and I will definitely be doing up more of this fiber blend in different colors.  The silk gives nice strength and shine with extra softness from the angora.  I'm thinking that this may become my first Smoke Ring

And finally.....

Emperors uphold censorship,
But extreme repression leads to extreme reaction.
Individualists believe in freedom.
But extreme expression leads to extreme reaction.
Deng Ming~ Dao

Those in power should be careful: Push the people too far and they will rebel.  Those who create must also be careful:  Challenge the people too much and they will rebel.
also Deng Ming~Dao

I placed this down at the bottom of my post as I do not like controversy.  However, there have been some goings on in an organization that I have recently resigned from, that have caused me some angst and I couldn't stay completely silent.  I feel very very strongly about censorship, so when I read today in my little devotional book the above excerpt, it just jumped out at me.  Life is a balance.........if you swing too wildly in either direction, there will be problems.  Censorship is wrong.  I strongly believe in giving people ALL of the information, so that they can make informed decisions, and that is all that I will say...........

~Keep Smiling and Enjoy Your Week~

Bunnies and Balls.....June 8, 2005

It appears that we have skipped Spring this year.  Last week we were moaning about our cold, rainy days and this week we are all dripping in sweat.  The day before yesterday, it reached 97 degrees.....ouch! 

My days have been filled with stirring the dye pot and sitting behind the carder.  Although I really enjoy this part of fibering......I enjoy it a bit more when I am not so pressed for time.

The Fiber Frolic is this weekend and it promises to be another fun year.  Lots of fun classes for both children and adults.  You can see some of the fabulous workshops being offered here.

Out of the dyepot and carder comes this Opalessence blend of purples, apricot, greens and blues.  It is a blend of angora, silk and merino and has lots of luster.  My youngest daughter, Hannah, has informed me that I need to make her a shawl with some of this.  At 10 years old, she already loves fiber.  It is nice to see young people interested in fibery things!

Bunny Genetics 101

I have been breeding animals for a good number of years now and whilst I find color genetics in the dogs, very straight forward and easy to understand, the bunny colors are a challenge.

Now that these bunnies are older, you can definitely see the difference in their colors. Even though they are both buff colored, they are different.  The little one on the left is a dilute of chocolate, Lynx and the bunny on the right is Fawn

It appears that both bunnies are what is called Agouti's, which in general terms means that their fur is banded.  As you can see in this picture, both bunnies show a distinct separation of color.  The Lynx's band is white now, but when his second coat comes in, that white will be replaced with an almost mauve color and the tips will remain darker.

The Fawn's band is an apricot color and will probably be the same when his adult coat comes in.

One of the things that identifies an Agouti rabbit, are the circles of white around their eyes and typically inside of their ears, it will be white as well.

The other places you will see white is on the belly and under the tail.  It is pretty obvious with this rabbit, that he is indeed an agouti and because of his orange color, the term for him would be Fawn.

I had a wee bit more trouble identifying this little guy, the Lynx.  As you can see, the coloring around his eye is not quite as distinct as his brother's is.  He is also sporting a light chocolate nose and some grey on his feet.

Lilac and Torte are referred to as Self colors, in other words, they will not show the banding of color.  The color is the same all the way thru.  Tortes have a pattern on top of the color, and they have a dark mask on their face and their bellies are much darker.  In a previous litter of this same breeding, there was a Lilac Torte. In her baby coat she showed this same banding, which caused me some confusion in identifying this boy.  Her adult coat, however is solid and she sports a milky chocolate mask on her face.  She is one of my favorites here and had this little guy been a doe, he would have stayed as I really love this almondy color.  Next week, I will show you some examples of torte and self's.

All of the bunnies will be heading to their new homes over the next 2 weeks.  I will miss their cute little faces.  My next litter of bunnies will be a pure German litter and while I am excited about the breeding, I will miss seeing these colors.  Pure Germans, are always red eyed white rabbits.  The challenge with them, is trying to remember who is who....LOL.  I use colored magic markers to put different colored dots on the bottoms of their feet.

If any of you are at the fiber frolic this weekend, please do stop by and say hello!

Color Me Green.......June 4, 2005

Sleek sky of cobalt blue;
Water like nectar satisfies deeply.
Air sweeter than the best perfume;
Sunlight warms a grateful cat.
Deng Ming~Dao

The sun is finally shining in New Hampshire!!  Thank Goodness!!  I can honestly say, that I can't ever remember such a rainy spring, but the last few days have been delightfully warm and sunny.  It is nice to see people smiling again~

I have been out straight busy, getting ready for the Fiber Frolic next weekend.  Given that I lost what I was going to bring with me, I have frantically fired up the dye pots.  Because I am a bit thin on angora right now, I am making 20% angora/ 80% merino balls, instead of my usual 40% angora blends..

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this Patrick Green Carder?  It does such a wonderful job processing this wool.  For anyone out there that is contemplating this machine and is not sure.....go for it!

Because I sell my wool by the ounce, I carefully weigh the wool and then the angora to the proper blend per ounce and then feed it into the carder.  I set the speed at a very slow speed and by doing that, I am only having to pass it thru once with this blend.  With the higher angora amounts, it really does require 2 passes to blend it properly.

This is one of the things that I love most about this carder.  The roving attachment........which is just a glorified diz..LOL.  At first I thought...geez......this will be so much work, pulling it off of the drum with a diz.  However, the big drum is a free moving drum, which makes it extremely easy to diz off of it. 

With just a little effort and a few minutes, I am able to pull off these nicely prepared rovings

Although, there are some amongst us that are not fans of green........next to paprika, it is my favorite here.......so being green this time is a good thing for me :-))

This is what I finished last night, while desperately trying to get caught up on my blog reading and emails.

I also want to say, just how wonderful I think you all are!  The other day when I was feeling so bummed out about what happened to all of my fiber, your notes really made me smile........and I was astonished at just how quickly those pilled up rovings sold.
Thank~you!!!

After I pulled out the wool from the dye pots, I tossed in a few skeins of merino silk yarn to see how it would dye and I was very pleased with how it came out.  Dyeing yarn, has never been a strong suit for me......somehow I usually botch it up, because I don't leave it alone.  This time I resisted the temptation to poke at it and I am happy with how it looks.  Maybe I will try to get some more finished for the fair

We will see ........there is soap still to be made and more dyeing and carding to be done.

Life is busy right now..........but it is such a wonderful kind of busy!

Oh Dear!!! ... June 1...2005

As you can well imagine, I was very excited to pick up my bags of angora roving for the spring festivals.  I had kept 1/2 of it out to process here myself on the Patrick Green carder and this other half, I sent off to my usual processor.

With anticipation, I pulled out my scale and set about winding the rovings into one ounce balls........OH DEAR!!!

What I found when I dug into 3 of the four bags were rovings that were full of pills...aacckkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am devastated!  I spoke with the processor and she didn't notice that the fiber was different than usual.  I am not one to complain or whine.......and I didn't........but I just don't know how she could have missed this??   I am just sick about it.

This was to be what I would have for sale this spring at the fiber festivals, but I can't in all honesty, sell anything, full price, that I would not want to buy myself.

Thankfully, I kept 1/2 of it out to process myself, and what I have finished has come out nice

Sooooooo.........to anyone who is interested in giving angora a try or would love some for felting, this angora will be selling for 2.00 an ounce instead of the usual 6.00  I can vouch for what wonderful fiber this is to make felted mittens.  It looks like I will be making a lot of felted mittens for the fall fairs.

Ugghh......Even though the sun came out today.........it feels like that black cloud is following me...aacckkk......<grin>

Hopefully, I will smile a bit more tomorrow :(