# bag full of wool, now what? I'm clueless.



## farmer kate (Jan 21, 2007)

I've just brushed the winter coats or three angoras rabbits and I have a plastic grocery sack full of relatively clean wool.

What's next?

I assume it shouldn't stay in plastic. How should I store it until I do whatever the next step is, what IS the next step (desired end result = yarn)? 

Do I need to mix this with another animal's fiber for best results?

If I want to make, say, a scarf, I know how much yarn I'd need. Can I weigh the wool I've collected and assume there's a correlation? Does a pound of raw wool equal a pound of finished yarn, assuming it's all angora? 

Is there some kind of cleaning step? The rabbits were not, uh, perfectly clean.

I can knit, I've just never started with animal in hand. I know I'm asking a lot of questions - just steer me in the right direction with a link or something.

thanks,
kate


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Congratulations! Angora does not need to be washed before spinning, you are actually better off not washing it first. Spin it up and knit whatever you want out of it. You can blend it with wool if you want to but you don't have to blend it. Are you new to angora rabbits? If so it sounds like they are ready to be plucked if you are getting that much wool off of them. If this is baby bunny wool it will tend to be shorter than adult stuff. Spinning can be tricky, it is a VERY slippery fiber but a dream to spin. I liked to spin mine on the thicker side and I would just spin it from a clump, it produced a rustic looking yarn with a lot of halo. Wash it when you are finished spinning it and that will bring the halo out too.

Storing it in plastic bags isn't going to hurt anything but it will increase the static and that will drive you nuts. Make sure you have lotion on your hands when you spin not only will it help with the static problem but it will also soften your hands and keep the fiber from sticking to any rough bits. I store mine in zip lock bags or paper bags.

Have fun!


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## farmer kate (Jan 21, 2007)

Not new to rabbits, but relatively new to angoras - and this was an accumulation of a whole winter's brushing, I think my first post wasn't clear, it sounded like I got it all today. Today, though, they must be starting to drop their winter woolies because I was just getting gobs of fur. I think the shirt I wore today, which I took off and just hung in the barn afterwards, will be the rabbit-grooming shirt from now on.

I just watched some YouTube videos on carding, should I do that before spinning? I have a friend who will walk me through all of this next time we get together but suddenly I have this uncontrollable urge to start learning about it. That wool just felt like I thought a cloud felt, when I was a little kid.

kate


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

BTW, Kate welcome to the Fold!

You can card the wool if you want to but you shouldn't have to. It is slick enough that the fibers will slide past each other. If you have matted bits you might as well toss those. Chances of getting the tangles out is almost impossible. If you want to blend it with other fibers gently mix it with your hands then card it. But because angora is so fine and slick it tends to stick in the bottom of the carder teeth and not blend very well. It can be done but you may need to play with it a bit.

If your rabbits are beginning to blow coat you should probably get them plucked. You don't want them grooming themselves and getting wool block.


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## farmer kate (Jan 21, 2007)

You're all being so helpful - thanks.

I'm going to do another grooming session with them today - really, what I did was half combing and half plucking, I just didn't think of it that way. I'm not the most experienced rabbit groomer and I thought we should break this up into a few sessions.

"Blowing their coats' is exactly the right phrase for what's happening - my son's Lab does this - it's more intense than regular shedding. 

There are a few impossible mats near their tails. I was able to snip a few of them out. (The bunnies were not traumatized by this, but I was - I came in and had a glass of wine afterwards.) But today I think I can approach it with a little more confidence and tackle the remaining mats.

You know, I didn't want to get caught up in this. I didn't want to get excited about it. But that seems to be happening anyway!

kate


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Ha,ha Kate it's too late now, you are an addict :banana02: Welcome to not only the fold but the fiber addiction. We are all here to enable you as we are able.

Those matts near the tail are a pain in the butt (no pun intended). Just make sure you don't snip the tail. I had a friend, a very experienced angora person, actually snip off the tail on a rabbit. She was grooming and snipping matts and before she knew it the tail was in her hand  amazingly enough the rabbit didn't even flinch and went on to live a very long and happy life.

I always found my rabbits really liked our plucking sessions. If they started getting irritated and frigidity I would give them a break, put them in the bathroom with a bowl of water for a little while.

Have fun!


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Can I jump in here with a couple of questions, Angora Guru?

1. spinning from sheared angora - my German guy is sheared not plucked and I'm finding it very difficult to transition from sheep to bunny. What are the secrets to spinning this fiber. Ranger, the Satin that Meg gave me is combed out and is less dense so seems slightly, just slightly easier to spin.

2. Angora by itself is just going to be too warm here, I had thought to buy a finer, triple drum carder for blending angora/wool batts. I have handcarded the wool and angora together putting the it on top of the wool - will that work on a drum carder? 

3. I'd like to spin up skeins for selling tams or beret kits for knitters - how much angora as a % do you think I will need to get a nice halo but not too much warmth. I'm looking for something with a "mohair" quality to the yarn.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

:rotfl: Angora guru, Liese you are funny. All my experience with Angora is purely from my own mistakes and from my friends who roped me into raising them.

Ill try to answer your questions if I can.

1) My Germans were plucked so I'm not sure shearing them makes too huge a difference. Like I told Kate I used to spin from a clump of wool that I held in my hand. My yarn was fairly thick and lumpy on purpose as I wanted a very fuzzy and dense yarn. Transitioning from wool to angora can be difficult but doesn't need to be. One of the reasons I used to spin from the clump was so I could keep a death grip on the fibers  But like wool if you know the length of your fibers you can spin it the same as wool. You will need a lot more twist for Angora than you do for wool. Maybe even more than Alpaca or Llama. I would say go ahead and over twist it a little. If you are plying it a lot of that over twist will come out then.

2) What I do when I blend wool and Angora on the drum carder is to make a sandwich. Put a layer of Angora between two layers of wool and send that through the carder. Then split the batt and sandwich those and send them through. If you want to send it through again fine but I would think two passes should be enough.

3) This one you may have to experiment with. I would guess maybe 25% Angora would give you a bit of halo and lots of warmth. Try carding a batt and then spin and knit up a swatch and see what you think. You may even be able to tell by the looks of the yarn pre-knitting. Knitting will bring out more of the halo but washing the yarn will bring out a bit too.

Not too sure that helps. Maybe someone else with Angora experience will chime in here.


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Oh Great Angora Guru thank you for those pearls of wisdom, :bow:

I will overtwist the single knowing I will ply

i will make a wool sandwich with angora as my filling

I will sample

:bow:

It's been a long day warping the loom and a couple glasses of cheap Aldi wine, can you tell? LOL


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

You are welcome Grasshopper  I have no wine  so drink a glas or two for me please.

BTW, how do you drink and warp? I think if I did that I would have to do it all over again the next day.

Glad I could help?!


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## farmer kate (Jan 21, 2007)

Heh. I like you people. Glad I stumbled in here.

kate


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Hi Kate,

If you don't like parts that are not exactly clean, you can set those aside and experiment on dying them later.

You can card the angora wool if you want. We have spun without carding for years. Then I tried carding with a couple of slicker brushes for dogs. Smaller than hand cards but much cheaper. I can sit with bag of wool and card while watching movies or tv. Then I drop the tiny nano-batts into another bag. They spin easier for me than raw angora.

I did the same thing with some free sheep wool, carded lots of little teeny bats after I washed it. I opened up the sheep wool with a couple of dog grooming rakes before carding.

I also blended some angora with wool on the dog brushes and that was good too. We splurged and bought a Schacht Petite carding drum, mostly so my lovely wife can blend the colors from the different angora rabbits. She really likes spinning from the batts. The fiber flows better for her and her spinning is more even and smaller now with the batts.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Marchwind said:


> 3) This one you may have to experiment with. I would guess maybe 25% Angora would give you a bit of halo and lots of warmth.


I've been meaning to ask, do people figure 25% by weight or relative volume or what kind of measure should I use when blending fiber?

Have a good day!
Franco Rios


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Well Franco, I use my calibrated eyeballs to measure fibers  No, really I'm not very precise but there are plenty of people who are and I believe they weigh the fibers prior to blending.


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

I was thinking weight was about the onliest way to blend with any precision.

Thanks!
Have a good day!
Franco Rios


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