Angora spinning fiber supply

I have decided to part with some of my angora stash, it keeps growing, funny that – with app. 12 breeding rabbits what can you expect!

The fiber can be purchased at £3 pr 50 g, contact me for details.

Today I managed to get some good pictures of my angora rabbit fiber, showing the colours I have in my stash.

top: red and white, bottom: brown and black

My own rabbits are black and white, but sometimes I can get good fibers in other colours from other breeders, so always ask, and I will be happy to send you pictures of what is available.

Remember that colours vary on individual animals, so there will be lighter and darker versions of what you see here.

Here are some close-ups:

red and brown angora

These are both the traditional Danish (German) angora type, called type 1 from now on.

Type 1 angora

This is also the type 1 angora, white and black.

type 2 angora

This is the new type 2 angora, that I am going to concentrate on in the future.

The grey is a pure type 2, the white is type1/type2 crossbred.

Compare this with the picture above, and notice the lack of guard hairs!

And what is all this about type 1 and type 2???

Well, when angora rabbits got their first boom in Denmark around WWII, the fashion demanded a quite fluffy look to the angora garments, and the standards for judging the rabbits was set after the demands of the yarn producers, of course.

There has been several ups and downs in angora breeding since then, but the original standards remain the same. A lot of serious work has been done by breeders who has done a lifetime worth of improving the breed, so today the rabbits yield lots more.

The angora fur has two different types of hairs, the thin, soft undercoat, and the long straight guard hairs. It is the guard hairs that makes angora products look fluffy, and the undercoat that is responsible for the felting ability.

According to the standards angoras should have 5-10% guard hairs, the more the better. This is to prevent felting in the finished yarn, however, it makes you look like a candyfloss when wearing an angora garment.

All registered breeding animals has to be judged by these rules, and this is the official Danish angora that I name Type1.

Now, Nette, a friend of mine has for a number of years run a breeding program of her own, to produce angoras without guard hairs (or as little as possible), and she has come a long way with that project. This has only been possible because she has bred the angoras for herself and her spinning and knitting, and have never had the rabbits judged by authorized judges.

The result is that garments made of her angora does not look like candyfloss – it is warm and soft like all angora, but much more to my personal liking.

So I have got my new breeding animals from her, and plan to continue her brilliant work, by crossing her angoras with my selected Danish and Danish/satin crossbreds. First generation is looking very promising!

This is the Type 2 angora, and what I will be producing in the future, if all goes well, in black and white.

You can see some of Nette’s angora knitwear here:

http://lapinette.dk/Angora.htm

I will try to find more pictures of Type 1 versus Type 2 fiber, yarn and garment, to show the difference.

Hmm…perhaps I should do some controlled experiments, making for instance one mitten of type 1, and one of type 2, use them together and see how they differ? Or find some volunteers to do it?

However, I still have type 1 animals, and some type 1 wool in my stash, and that is the wool I may be able to get from other breeders.

Woolcombs – Uldkamme

A long time ago I promised to put out the instructions for my own woolcombs. Here is a drawing with measurements and some detail photos. Please contact me if anything is unclear…

For længe siden lovede jeg at fremlægge instruktionerne for mine egne uldkamme. Her er en tegning med mål og nogle detalje billeder. Kontakt mig hvis noget er uklart…

the materials I used are stainless steel, ordered through the lokal smithy, and oak – other types of hardwood will do fine.

I used 100 tines, each 15 cm long, made of 4 mm stainless steel

Materialerne jeg har brugt er rustfrit stål, bestilt hjem gennem den lokale smed, og egetræ – andre hårde træsorter er lige så gode.

Jeg brugte 100 tænder, hver 15 cm lang, af 4 mm rustfri stål.

 

One thing I am going to change, and that is the tip of the tines, they should be tapered over a longer bit, like 2 – 3 cm. This should make the combs easier to use with finer fibers.Also, I am not sure the rounding of the tines are nescessary – so now I am going to take my combs apart, straighten the tines and redo the tips. It will be a while, but i will get back to you when done!

Én ting vil jeg ændre, og det er spidsen på tænderne – de skulle have haft en længere spids, 2 – 3 cm. Dette skulle gøre det nemmere at bruge kammene til fine fibre. Jeg er heller ikke sikker på at rundingen af tænderne er nødvendig, så jeg vil skille kammene ad, rette tænderne ud og slibe nye spidser. Det bliver engang – men jeg skal nok lade høre når det er gjort.

 

The ultimate electric spinner v.1.0 – Den ultimative elrok version 1.0

I wanted a spinning wheel that can go really FAST – as I am working fast with my hands, and kept having problems with low twist in my yarns. Changing my working speed felt awkword and annoying.

So really I needed an electric spinner, and my first model was simply the mother of all from an Ashford single drive wheel mounted on a plate, connected to a sewing machine motor, like this one:

Jeg ønskede en rok der kunne køre virkelig hurtigt – da jeg arbejder hurtigt med hænderne og altid havde problemer med undersnoet garn. At ændre min spinderytme var akavet og møjirriterende.

så løsningen måtte være en elektrisk rok, og jeg lagde ud med at montere hele tenstolen fra en Ashford enkeltsnors rok på en plade, og forbinde med en symaskine motor, som den her:

And it sort of worked – is a bit difficult to adjust precisely, but the worst problem is the noise….

So I spent some time checking out what is on the market, and what rewievs the different models have had, and came up with the result that this one was the best:

Og den virkede sådan set ok, er lidt svær at justere præcist, men den larmer ad h til…

Så brugte jeg noget tid på at checke hvad der er på markedet, og hvilke anmeldelser de forskellige modeller har fået, og nåede frem til at denne her er den bedste:

But alas, it is no longer produced – is was always costly, and the secondhand ones are expensive and hard to find. One was found, and Bente bought it – I helped her sorting out deal in return for it being sendt to me for checking out first. It is all metal, ball bearings and precision – and works a wonderful, HOWEVER, there is still room for improvement.

Men desværre, den produceres ikke mere – den har altid været dyr, og som brugt er den både svær at finde og kostbar. Jeg fandt en som Bente købte, jeg hjalp med det praktiske ved handelen til gengæld for at den blev sendt til mig først til nærmere studium. Den er lavet helt i metal, med kuglelejer og høj præcision  – virker skønt, men der er stadig plads til forbedringer.

So I made my first prototype based on the spintech design, for testing som improvements:

så jeg lavede min første prototype baseret på spintech designet, for at teste nogle tekniske forbedringer:

          

This one I have used for a couple of years now, and the final adjustments have been made, so I am ready to move on to version 2.0, except for the motor – I can’t find a suitable motor at an affordable price! Apart from being about the size of a sewing machine motor, it has to be possible to change direction by a switch. So If anyone has an idea of a massproduced household item/power tool etc., that would have such a motor, where it might be worth it to buy said item and take it apart just for the motor, then please let me know!

Denne har jeg nu brugt i et par år, og de sidste justeringer er foretaget – nu er jeg klar til at gå videre til version 2.0, lige bortset fra at jeg ikke kan finde en passende motor til en passende pris! Bortset fra at være omtrent på størrelse med en symaskine motor skal den kunne skifte omdrejningsretning med en knap . Så hvis nogen har en ide om et eller andet masseproduceret stykke el-værktøj/husholdningsmaskine eller andet, hvor det ville være værd at købe maskinen og tage den i stykker blot for motorens skyld, så hører jeg meget gerne om det!

 

Wool combing

Lately I  have seen some interesting stuff on wool combing – Ingrid in Sweden has some on it on her blog, and later that day I was told of some wonderful instruction videos on YouTube.com, made by Amanda Hannaford.

So I thought I’d better show my own wool combs, that I made a few years ago:

I made them like this, to have a combination between a traditional comb and a hackle. One is always handheld, the other is always stationary. Tines are made from 4 mm stainless steel, tapered, polished, sharped and slightly curved. They are glued into the predrilled holes in the wood, the back is covered with other pieces of wood.

In the cup is my combing oil, that I brush onto the tines for every top I make, half baby oil, half water.

I haven’t tried heating the tines up when working them, will do next time.

I’ll have to make more pictures of how I use them, so keep an eye on this channel!

I GOT MOTORIZED!!!

TODAY was a big day – I got motorized in more ways than one!

First came my new wheels, courtesy of the local health care center…

Nøvs and I went for a long tour in the lovely autumn sunshine!
It is a completely new feeling to be independant – it’s so good I can’t describe it!

But there was more – when we came back the courier was there delivering a parcel from UK – it is the motor for my knitting machines, that I have searched for so long, that finally arrived, safe and sound too! Well done Fed-ex, for delivering within 24 hours across the channel!

We have now unpacked the beast, but will have to wait mounting it – I need to replace the machines in the workshop to make room for it. I’ll report on that later!

I have this thing about motorizing my equipment – sometimes because I don’t have the physics to use them as they are, sometimes it is just to make it more effiecient.
May I present the first prototype of the ultimate electric spinner:

Version 1.01 is on the make, destined for future production – and no, I don’t take pre-orders!

It will be presented here, when ready, I expect it will take another year, at least.

The point of this spinner is, that it has to be convenient for all sorts of fibers/ thicknesses of yarn – so you can spin superfine angora as well as relatively chunky wool, and NOT experience the trouble of the spinner yanking the fiber from your hands…
The system is complete, now we need to find/make the parts seen from an economic/production point of wiew….

Next on the list is my drum carder, by the way…

News from the rabbits: so far we have had no sign of the rabbit plague that is spreading in DK at the moment – my garden is completely isolated, no visitors allowed in any circomstances!

The other day I was shearing Frankie (he got blue eyes), my fine Satin angora male – and for the first time I succeded getting the sheen of the fibers on the photo:

He is big and strong, so I look forward to next years breeding.

The end result of this years litters of satin/angora crossbreds are three white ones, one very good femal and to quite good males – they all have the properties I aimed for, satin fur but angora size and yield, or at least getting there.
I have decided to keep to the whites, as the sheen shows better here.
So if anyone out there has a white satin angora mail and/or female, I will need fresh blood one day…

The rest of the litters? well, for the crossbreds, they just died – so I believe the survivors has the needed vitality to carry on…..

The Danish angoras went well, I sold quite a few, and the rest is in the freezer or at least waiting to go – I have 5 black males that I took aside for production, but I have had to realize that we have too many to care for during winter, carrying water etc., so have to give up some.
If any of you would like one, please do say! They are easy to tame and very friendly…

And yes, we do eat our bunnies! our animals are here for production, we like to eat meat from animals that has had a good life. Rabbit meat is lean and low on kolesterol, taste like turkey but has a much finer fiber strukture.
The trick to this is not giving them names – only the ones we will keep are named!