I use my Turkish as a supported spindle so, it makes it a lot easier to spin Angora, because it is so slick.
I got my Turkish spindle about a year or two ago and am loving working with it!... I am spinning up some of my Angora from Butter Ball my 75% English 25% Satin buck and am so loving the yarn! I use my Turkish as a supported spindle so, it makes it a lot easier to spin Angora, because it is so slick.
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As the saying goes "learn from your mistakes." Well, in this case we definitely learned from our mistake! It was a few months ago, but I can still remember the vivid site of the lifeless baby rabbit... Wait, let me back up a bit and start from the beginning. We were outside (As always, when the weather is nice) in the back area of our property, close to some fairly dense trees, when I was walking and saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was something that looked like a giant chicken! But it went and perched on a tree? What would look like a giant chicken that flies and perches in trees? Well, I decided to find out... I turned around and had to really look closely because it was so camouflaged! Before I give you the answer let's look at the info we have right now~ We know it flew, perched in trees, and it's wing span was really big. Can anyone guess what it was? I will give you a hint it is the only animal that can turn it's head 270 degrees. If you don't know what animal I am talking about I will just tell you... An Owl! At first it just looked really cool and I would even go as far as to say majestic! We were all really amazed and of course started taking pictures and then our dog Charlie figured out what we where looking at and thought he should scare it off for us and at first we were disappointed thinking that we had seen the end of him... But of course he came back and was actually perching right by our rabbits and yes we all had the thought in the back of our minds " Is he going to try and eat one of the rabbits?" then we would shut it down with " No, he can't possibly think he can pull a baby through the cage grids!" within a day or two of seeing him the first time I began researching for a school project what type of breed he is and this is what I found... He is a Barren owl that has a normal territory of 213-903 acres! Oh, and yeah, they just happen to be invasive and are the main owl that is displacing the spotted owl. They are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 which means there really is not a way to get rid of them. While I was doing my research I also found that most owls aren't even migratory birds and that includes the Barren owl... Anyways, enough with all that, let's get back to my story! So, he was perching right next to the rabbits for about a week until he struck! We were, of course, outside again, but we were doing something in the cabin (which is fairly close to the rabbits) when we heard a scream! We came running out and saw him unclench his talons from one of the cages that had a young litter in it and fly away... When I got to the cage everyone was freaking out and a baby was just laying there dead. It had broken it's neck and thankfully it looked like it didn't suffer. Right after that happened we moved the rabbits up to the front of the property so the owl couldn't harm them. Although the owl is still here we have moved them back because the weather has been a little too warm to have them up front... With all that we have learned from this experience we are taking extra precautions to keep them safe. We still hear the owl hooting in the back but thankfully haven't seen him close to the rabbits and have other things that we can still do to keep him away such as having mesh on their hutches and keeping a motion light on by them to detour him. I wanted to keep the rabbits on greens all throughout the winter months when there aren't any greens in the garden, so I decided to try barley grass fodder...
It is a great way to feed animals but I found that is gets to pretty difficult to find a good place to grow large amounts due to how much room it takes up and the environment it needs to be in. I tried it in the house at first and it was working great (other than the fruit flies) for a while until the weather started to really cold and we had the house warmer than usual... Then came the mold! When you have a ton of fruit flies in your room it tends to get very annoying! So I thought that I would try putting then inside of a hoop house with hot horse manure on the bottom creating what they call a hot house and it seemed to work for a bit until I cut one up for the rabbits that was in there for about 2 weeks and there was a TON of mold! So, although the rabbits really liked it I have finally given up the hopes for greens ALL throughout the year. Thank God things are growing back or I would have some really unhappy bunnies on my hands! :) Yes, that is right, I am doing my very first rabbit show! It will be held on October 14, 2017
At the Evergreen State Fairgrounds Beef Pavilion 14405 179th Ave SE Monroe, Washington. I will have (2) 75% English 25% Satin Does that will be for sale at the show and also I will be taking names and contact info for... 100% Satins that will be ready around December. 75% English 25% Satin crosses that will be ready in December also. Remember to bring a carrier for your new addition! At first I didn't think that I would use a spindle because I could just use my spinning wheel but... I do!! I spun up some of a fiber batt I won in a raffle at the P.F.F.F ( Plateau Farmers' Fiber Festival) and I LOVE it!!! We will be participating in the 2017 Plateau Farmers' Fiber Festival!
It will be held at the Buckley hall on May 13th-14th This is the first year for this fiber event and we are thrilled that it is so close and we can participate! link to Facebook page below! We are planning on participating in the Shepherds Extravaganza this year! Last year we had no time to do any of the events we usually do and we have missed seeing all of our fiber friends! We will have some of our hand dyed fiber batts, hand spun yarns, dyed angora fiber and my brother's hand turned crochet hooks, spindles, pens, yarn bowls and more! So come see us at the spring fair! We will be at the Puyallup fair grounds in the Livestock Barn J on April 20-23rd If you would like to know what we will have at the shepherds extravaganza leave a question/comment below! So our friend Sharon had me do another job for her!
This yarn is a cotton%wool mix It is supposed to mimic a uniform from the Confederate States military forces. It had a very short staple length so that was hard to get use to! But it turned out great! She decided to make me a pair of socks out of and they turned out great also!! I just finished knitting my first pair of socks and I thought I would start another project! So I decided that I am going to spin all of the super wash I dyed a couple weeks ago, and knit a pair of socks with it! I will ply it with some sturdy mohair singles as my mom and I learned mohair is a great natural option to the nylon in most sock yarns.
Just in time for what is supposed to be our first snow tomorrow! I have dyed almost all my fiber except for some super wash. Now all my fiber is so bright and colorful!
I have used all sorts of different types of dyes such as… food coloring, Kool-Aid, Tropical punch (powder) and acid dyes. I love working with Kool-Aid and it works really well on any type of fiber and it gives nice deep color. I have been able to get bright pinks, blues and oranges and deep colors like purples, teals and blues. I don’t like the tropical punch as much as the Kool-Aid but is works well if you want light colors. I LOVE food coloring and gel paste, they are inexpensive and you can get so many different colors and amazing results. The only thing is that they don’t have a mordant (A substance that fixes colorant to the fiber.) so you have to add vinegar or citric acid. (The drink mixes have citric acid in them.) However, the food coloring will separate (or break) so, if you are wanting a solid color then you probably don’t want to use it. Acid dye is not the best because it is TOXIC if you breath it in, I don’t use it unless it is already watered down from when my Mother makes "concentrates". Other than that I don’t use it, it does give vibrant colors but you do have to use a mordant on this too. So that is a little bit about the dyes I use and love! |
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The Happy Happenings of a Hand Spinner, Dyer, Crocheter, Knitter, Baker, Calligrapher Angora Rabbit raising teen! Archives
December 2018
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