THE SHEEP FLOCK

Baby Nightshade below and to the right is what he looks like as of yesterday and he is almost 10 months old here.

This is our new ram. Meet NIGHT SHADE.

He is a tiny fellow. He is 3/4 Shetland and 1/4 Romney. Black as coal and it doesn't appear to have luster. Very long staples, and appears to be a single coat, but that remains to be seen for sure. He came from the flock of LaVonne Stuckey in Belgrade, Montana. We got him as soon as he was weaned and he started out with these tiny little spike horns you can see in the photo above. I expect him to have a long staples wool in the lower medium grade range. It has a good handle. I would love it if he would develop some luster. We think he bred the ewes this fall as there was a lot of commotion but some of the ewes laughed at his efforts

Next is IRISH FROST. She is a beauty and is a daughter of Priscilla by Donegal and so that makes her roughly 70% BFL and the rest Shetland. She is 10 months old now, and is shown standing behind her mother who is eating on the photo to the right. The small black one you see the behind all is a lamb.

Irish is another black English blue pattern like Priscilla but she is a suntipped black which means her black wool bleaches to a brown shade whereas her mother remained a charcoal black. She is long stapled with a semi luster, and is too young for a micron count, but her wool has a softer handle than her mother.
Below is a head profile of Irish Frost; she was born on a snowy St. Patrick's day

THIS IS FLEUR. She is a daughter of Cinnamon by Donegal, who was a BFL/shetland cross ram that we had for one season. She has the Shetland size but is larger than her mother and she is 2 years old. She has a bit of luster to her wool and appears to be completely single coated. Her wool is short and thick, and has a medium crimpiness, and good handle. Her micron count if 30. Her first baby was last year and she was a good mother. Her pretty face, and long back and luster came from her father. Her wool went into the BUNNIES OF JOY skeins I had spun up in 07 at 13 Mile Mill here in Montana.

This is a sheep called PRISCILLA.

She is from Judy Colvin's flock and she is 50/50 cross of Bluefaced Leicester/Shetland. She is about 5 years old, and makes maybe 2 and a half Cinnamons. She loves to eat. She is the "boss" ewe. She is friendly as well, but not as affectionate as Cin. Her wool I consider to be luster long wool. It is about 6-7" staple with a semi-luster and it is single coat with a loose crimp. Her micron count is 34. Her last years fleece is made into a charcoal gray roving. She does not "roo." She is a good mother and raises a bigger lamb

2008 photo of CINNAMON.

She was named for her reddish moorit color. She is a purebred Shetland from a dear friend and mentor who is now deceased. She is about nine years old this year. Her wool is very soft, and fine and there isn't a lot of it. On a good year she will give me 2 lbs as sheared, and after skiring and picking it might weight 1 1/2 lb. Her Micron count is 23. I consider her a single coat Shetland, but she has whisps of hair that stick above the rest so I guess those are the remnants of a double coat. She's fairy tiny around 55lbs as a fullgrown ewe. She is also a sweetheart and likes to be petted. She would love to be the "boss" sheep, but she is too small so no one pays attention to her. She used to single for several years, but in the past three years she has twinned. this past year, she again had twins but one was so big, that she could not deliver it unassisted, and by the time we got it out it was dead; the 2nd twin came fine and was a normal small one and is now bigger than she is.

This is our flock with the exception of the two lambs we are raising for meat after they get shorn. This is about all I can manage with our resources any more...but it is enough. If I had my druthers I would keep them all...but that is not practical.

THE END

ANGORA AND DYEING

I am hoping that I can get this to do what I want so I will just start out and see what happens.

First, after shearing, there is the fiber. This summer I entered some of it in a an wool compeition at the Eureka Fiber Festival in Eureka Montana, and this was the result. There were no guide lines issued as instructions so what I did was I took all the prime wool for a years duration from one rabbit, and put it in a clear plastic bag for display, and labeled it as required. I figured that by doing that the judge, or anyone else, could see how much prime wool was produced by one rabbit in one year, and could see and feel the texture, and color and crimp. This is the result in the picture above. It was fun....I wish that more fiber festivals has a competiton for angora fibers as well as their wool compeition.

This past year, I took 5 lbs of prime angora wool and took 10 lbs of unwashed white fleeces from my Bluefaced Leicester/shetland cross sheep and sent them off to 13 Mile Mill here in Montana for processing and spinning into 1 ply yarn of 1600 YPP. Since the wool needed washing, picking, and cardiing prior to blending it was reducded in volumne so that the blend came out about 60% wool and 40% angora. It is not as lacey looking as merino blend, but has more substance, but the hand is marvelous, and it is a great knitting yarn. It is also perfectly white.

I plied it it through my spinning wheel into a 2 play yarn... for the most majority. However, I also plied 1 skein of bombyx silk 5/1 with 1 ply of the angora-wool blend as far as that would go, and another skein of 8/1 bombyx with some more of the blend. I wanted the picture inserted here, but I see it went to the top. Fortunately the photos have text added so it can be identified.

The next picture is a close up of the 5/1 silk plied with the wool blend ply...it's just that the luster did not show up on the silk much but it is there.

Then there is a photo of complete skein of the blend and the 5/1 silk yarn. I took all of this and dyed it in rainbow fashion in bright colors and call this batch "SANTE FE" because of the colors remind me of the SW country. There are four color coodinated skeins but each one is different.

Next I did more single skeins of the blend in rainbow fashion in the microwave, and these two singles are the result. They are the blend 2 ply only without the silk ply.

ANGORA: grooming and shearing

The wool on an angora rabbit needs to be harvested about every 3-4 months. The recognized breeds of Angora rabbits in the US are the English, the French, the Satin and the Giant/and or German. The first three breeds are considered to be "molting" breeds, and the Giant/German is not. The molting breeds are supposed to an undercoat, and guard hairs. The Giants have 3 types of hairs. I will discuss my own rabbits, which are mostly German and German crosses. My rabbits do molt a bit, and this is noticable as trailing wool strands and wisps of wool sticking above the rest. It is easily removable...as no longer anchored into the skin. This is a sign that they are ready to be harvested. You want to get this wool when it is prime, and before webbing occurs. Webbing is where some of the loose hairs appear to be lying across the vertical hairs deeper down...it's very easy to spot when the animal is being blown. Webbing can be combed out. If webbing is allowed to accumulate, then matting will eventually happen. Best to get to the job prior to webbing.The tools I used are as follows:The Air Force blower. A canister type similar to a vacuum cleaner, with a long hose and several nozzle attachments. This blows air instead of sucking like a vacuum does. It has two speeds...high and low. A grey hound comb. This is a metal comb about 7-8" wide, with narrow teeth at one end and wide set teeth at the other. Used for general combing, and to remove webbing. A slicker brush. a smaller sized one for the rabbits. This brush has numerous small fine wired bent teeth set in a flat base. It is a major grooming tool. You can groom the surface wool and by layering cam brush the depth of the wool all over the body.A stripping knife. This is a dog grooming tool that was designed for using to strip the coat of terriers. I use it to get small mats out of the wool. When I used to have English Angora I used it to pluck with. Nail clippers for trimming toenails. Scissors: I use a pointed barber style scissors, but this is a very individual preference sort of thing.Clippers: used for cutting the hair. Some folks use their scissors. I used my scissors for getting the matted areas under the front legs, around the neck, and cutting the odd areas...clippers do the rest. I will discuss clippers more later. If you use a blower as the mainstay of your grooming, you will not have to brush an animal very much....at least my breed. I generally use the blower at least once between harvest sessions, but I try to do it monthly. Often about midway through a 3 month stretch, I will shear down the butt area, down the back of thighs, and around the genitals to prevent the area from getting into the condition I call "dirty butt." Incidently, my animals are not show rabbits, and the grooming and harvesting of those animals is probably different from my method. I clip toenails during these sessions if they need it. THE PROCEDURE: First place the rabbit on the grooming table, and give them a few minutes to relax while I check them over, and pet them a bit. Then I will begin by blowing them. If the bunny involved is a baby or is a nervous sort, I will start out on low speed. If they used to it we start with high speed. I blow them all over top and underparts as well. I turn the bunny over for the underparts, while cradling them by my left arm with their back resting on the table with the hind feet pointed away from me. Once that is complete the rabbit is placed back on his own feet on the table. Reblow the back, and then start cutting the prime area which is the back and down the sides. I have a catch bag placed conveniently close. I only save the prime wool and the 2nds...the rest is tossed. Some folks save that for various uses and for weighing but I don't. I weigh the rabbit before harvest and after so I know how much wool he/she had. I cut a small area where I want to start either by the base of the neck of near the rear on the back. Once I have that cut made I can take my clippers, and shear a straight line down the center of the back. The this first strip is the only one that is has no second cuts, and it is placed in the Prime bag. Following that I do one side and then the other, one strip at a time. I gather a hand full of wool and blow with my mouth to rid it of any second cuts and put it in prime bag. This stopping to blow is time consuming, but I would rather do it now than go through all the prime cleaning it out later. Seconds are the wool that is closer to the tail that is shorter, or on the belly or lower abdomen; sometimes on the brisket. Seconds are generally shorter, or a mix of long and short, might have a little VM (vegetable matter); a few more second cuts, maybe a small mat or two, and possibly some staining..but it is useable wool and good for blending, dyeing, and felting...just require a tad bit more work than the prime. Once the majority of the top work is done it is time to do the underparts. This varies for me depending upon the animal and how they are responding to this procedure. If they are limp and calm, I will generally sit down in a chair, and cradle them upside down on my lap and proceed that way. If they are large, or unruly or nervous, I will put their forequarters, and head between my knees and restrain them , while I work on the hind end. Again, for the same reason, above, I will reverse this by putting their hind quarters between my knees, and work on the front end. Once the harvesting and grooming is complete I fuss over them a bit to relax them. Rubbing the abdomen is very relaxing and almost has a hypnotizing effect on them. I then put the animal back in his cage, and clean up the area, and the tools. It takes my quite a while to do this. For one relaxed rabbit in good condition it will take me an hour just to do the grooming and clipping. For a bad conditioned animal or a nervous animal I have spent as much as three hours on them. In the beginning when I was learning it might tale me three hours to do just one relaxed rabbit. I'm sure there are folks out there who are more accompolished about this and are much faster...but I'm not there yet. Now to discuss clippers. When I started out about 2 1/2 years ago clipping angoras, I had an Oster Golden A5 clippers that I used to clip my dogs. This tool worked fine on the dogs. However, I soon found it would hardly budge through the fine wool of the angora rabbit. It was constantly jamming. So at that point upon a recommendation I purchased a mini Lazor clippers made by the Laube company. It buzzes through a prime coat like a hot knife through butter. It cost me around $200 plus or minus. Since that time I have heard of the German clippers used by many of larger breeders, and the literature on it reads well. I know there are numerous brands of clippers out there and so if you have opportunity to try them you are lucky. However, I am going to list some that I have either used or heard about and you will can then start your own research about them.

OSTER: I was unable to find a website from the company so therefore not a lot of information. This was the clipper I first had and it did not do the job for me. They can be found at http://www.householdappliance.com/

PREMIER: a great company, with lots of supplies related to sheep and goats, such as tags, fencing, shearing supplies. I have a friend who had one of their smaller clippers and she had a fair amount of trouble with it; I believe but am not sure that they have discontinued this model. they can be found at http://www.premier.com/

LAUBE: this is the company that I bought my current clippers at. It is a USA product and they will communicate with you. http://www.kimlaubeco.com/

GERMAN CLIPPERS: http://www.germanredclipper.com/

TRYING AGAIN

The photo to the right with the fawn color is made from handspun yarn. The white yarn is a wool angora blend yarn and the fawn yarn is made from Belgiun Terveren...or Cheingora....dog wool. this yarn was spun without carding or washing, but just by polucking from a bag, and teasing it as I spun in a loose semi worsted method; then two plied it. It is knit in all garter stitch




Below is another version of the earwarmer. The white wool is the wool/angora blend yarn and the top yarn is more textured and is made from nautural colored sheep wool. It was done using my version of tailspinning. I took a class in that but never did quite get the hang of it...nevertheless it made a textured interesting yarn.

The wool used was a Wensleydale cross. As you can see I made this one longer to cover more of the head. It's very warm.

The photo to the left is another version. The white wool is from my yarn that was made from Bluefaced leicester x Shetland sheep and blended with my white angora bunny wool. It's about a 70/30 blend. Very soft and lovely and warm. It is knit in garter stitch from a pattern in the Interweave book called Handspun, Handknit. On the color side the yarn used is scraps of my left over stash. The blue is blend of wool and silk noils, and the black is wool and mohair. Court has modeled all of them for me.

I made these as Christmas presents, and made about 8 of them