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Sqweeeeee!

My most wonderful, awesome, supersweet, superfantabulous husband made the trek into Russelville Thursday to pick up my Fidelis Spinning Wheel from Enchanted Yarn & Fiber.  It was a used wheel and I got it for a steal so SQWEE!

You can find the specs for the Wheel here. (Mine is the 2nd wheel – with only 1 pedal). Since it’s unfinished (naked) I’m considering Steampunk-ing it out… hmmm… now I’m going to be doodling ideas for that for the rest of the day.

I haven’t gotten to play with it yet, but that’s what the weekend is for! Muhwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

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So I made an ill fated attempt to purchase a spinning wheel this weekend. After an hour to get to the right town, and then another hour trying to find the place (valiantly dodging the pedestrians and blockaded streets thanks to the local Fall Festival and cursing at my GPS) – my wheel was unavailable when I finally stumbled through the shop door… if only I had called ahead.

My bad.  Lesson learned.  Didn’t keep me from sniveling all the way home about it though; God love my husband for being suitably sympathetic to my plight… and offering to go pick it up for me when it is available (forget Brownie points – my man has earned triple chocolate cheesecake points!).

So while I wait for my star crossed spinning wheel I started looking around for a complete list of yarn making tools… and have yet to find one! I understand that there are lots of different ways to make yarn, but come on. Every other project has a materials list… except, apparently, for this one.

I have now begun my noble quest to make a list and collect my tools! (The Monty Python & The Holy Grail questing music is now playing loudly in the background – do you hear it my Readers?!)

# 1 – Fiber!

I plan on doing a more indepth post about Fiber types in the future but here’s a basic list of the different types; the point being if you’re going to make yarn, you have to have something to make it with, thus – Fiber!

Vegetable/Plant Fibers: Flax, Hemp, Ingeo (Corn Silk), Ramie (China Grass), Bamboo, Soy Silk, Milk.

Animal/Protein Fibers: Camel/Camelids, Buffalo/Bison, Yak, Water Buffalo, Quivet, Llama, Alpaca, Rabbit (Angora), Goat (Mohair, Cashmere), Sheep (Wool), Silk (Worm or Spider).

# 2 – A Carder.

Carding is the process by which fibers are worked so that they line up parallel to each other.  It is used to break up any clumps and tangles.  It is also the way you blend different fiber types or colors together (I bought yarn this weekend that was an Alpaca, Wool, and Silk blend – luscious!).  There are hand carders (that look like giant dog brushes), manual drum carders and electric drum carders.  All have their pros and cons, (electric drum carders are not recommended for Angora fiber – Mrs Maria nearly gave me a heart attack when I watched her put some Angora in a manual drum carder, I though for sure it was going to clog and eat the carder but apparently manual is fine… electric baaadd).

# 3 – A Spinning Device.

This can be a piece of coat hanger with a hook on the end (no kidding), a spindle, or a Spinning Wheel. These need not be pretty or expensive (although they can be). A book I bought shows how to make a spindle from a dowel rod and a CD. There is a video on Youtube that shows you a homemade electric wheel about the size of a shoebox (there’s a link to the website with directions for the DIY’er or you can purchase the finished machine). My wheel (or future wheel) is called a Fidelis and it uses a bicycle wheel rim as the wheel!

# 4 – Bobbins

They look like big spools.  They are used to hold your spun yarn – either while your still spinning on the wheel or afterwards when drop spindling.

Bobbins are also necessary to use our next tool…

# 5 – A Lazy Kate

A Lazy Kate is a holder for Bobbins/Spools of yarns that allows the Bobbins to spin.  This is used to spin multiple yarns together into one thicker yarn (called ‘plying’). You can get fancy ones (with fancy prices) or you can make one with a shoe box and a couple of knitting needles.

# 6 – Niddy Noddy, Yarn Swift and Ball Winder.

A Niddy noddy is a simple tool to wind all your beautiful yarn into a skein – it looks like a wooden or pvc pipe ‘I’ that’s been twisted in the middle so that the top and bottom are a right angles to each other. This winds up the skein but does not make a ball out if. To do that you’ll need a Yarn Swift and a ball winder.

So I think the process is to use the Knitty Knoddy to get the yarn off the bobbin/spindle – then put the skein on the yarn swift to wind into a ball with ball winder.

There are other miscellaneous items in the process but I think I’ll find those by trial and error – I’ll need a lingerie bag for washing the fiber (if I buy ‘in the grease’ – or fiber that’s straight from a critter). I”ll post them as I figure them out and if anyone’s got any suggestions then drop me a line!

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Hillybilly.drp over at the Self Sufficient homestead asked me about a cost analysis on raising Angora Rabbits and what started out as a quick reply turned into an epic post! Hope Johnny Max and Queen didn’t mind! 

I decided to go ahead and post my reply here as well since I was planning on posting this information sooner or later anyway so, here we go!

You can find the forum here:

We haven’t done a full cost analysis of the venture yet – there just wasn’t enough information on the web that I could find. We may be losing our shirts on this deal but if the worst happens, at least we’ll be warm.

36” Cage for a Doe runs about $30.

30” Cage for a Buck runs about $26.  (Rural King)

My husband built a rack for the cages out of 2×4’s with a sheet of plywood and leftover shingles for the roof (actually one of them has a roof made out of slats from an old pallet covered in shingles).

I love my handy hubby.

During the Summer a 40 lb/ $7 bag of Rabbit Pellets lasts 4 weeks with 7 adult rabbits – that’s roughly ¾ a cup a day (some days they’ll eat more, some day’s they’ll eat less). With the addition of 2 juvenile rabbits I’ve seen that figure drop to 3 weeks and with cooler weather moving in it’s pulled back further to 2-2 ½ weeks.  Hopefully it will go back to at least 3 weeks once they’re done putting on their winter weight. This is with no Hay as a supplement.

Hay helps extend your pellets a lot.  I’ve seen some websites that are totally anti-hay because it gets in the fur and decreases the value of your harvest.  I haven’t seen that with my rabbits.  I only give them a handful at a time so it’s not like they’re rolling around it (which they will if they get bored enough!) And as long as you have a decent size cage they’re not going to wind up laying in it for lack of space.  Also brushing regularly (which is a must anyway) keeps this from being a problem also.

I am fully pro-hay.  The biggest health issue with Angora rabbits is Wool block – and the easiest way to prevent that is by feeding Hay.  Wool block is when the fur the rabbit ingests while grooming itself gets trapped in the stomach – this makes the rabbit think it’s not hungry and it slowly starves to death.  I read somewhere that the animal’s stomach can actually rot out with severe wool block.  Rabbits cannot regurgitate like dogs or cats.  Some sites recommend papaya tablets or pineapple juice in their water but I’ve read just as much stuff against those methods as for them – so I’ll stick to hay, it keeps everything ‘movin’ on through’ if you know what I mean.

I use ceramic crocks for water. I read about one lady who said water bottles were too much work for an animal that size when you take into consideration how much they have to drink while carrying that hot, heavy coat.  I liked what she had to say and it seems to work very well for my guys. Also the bowls keep them amused when they get bored – they push them around the cages with their heads.

I also use the crocks for feeders – you have to use the big 3” deep crocks otherwise they’ll tip them when their annoyed or bored.  The high sides also seem to cut down on them urinating in their bowls – something they’ll do when bored or annoyed – which equals wasted food and you have to wash them.

Washing the crocks is so much easier than a water bottle as well – a bucket of hot bleach water and a rag and you’re set!

The crocks were $1 a piece from the Dollar Tree (gotta love the Dollar Tree!).

Salt/Mineral blocks are $0.30 each (Rural King – $1.00 each at Petsmart!).

I have a slicker brush and a mat comb (for dogs – roughly $8 a piece).

I shear instead of pluck – plucking takes forever and the rabbits start giving me the evil eye after awhile; for that I use Fiskars Children’s safety scissors (with the rounded tips) – they only cost $1-$2 a piece. I may have to replace them after a full harvest but we’ll see.

I also bought plastic storage boxes to keep the fur in – and Ziploc freezer bags to put the stuff unsuitable for spinning in (keep it for felting!).  The boxes were $3.50 each (next size up from a shoebox).

As for the animals themselves- I’ve seen prices on line all over the place, from $35 to $200.  I bought my pedigreed animals for $25 each.  The Amish auction bunnies sold for $7.50 each – a white animal at the same auction went for almost $60; although the auction route is iffier.  You can’t tell the health of the animal (you couldn’t get your hands into the cages to check their build under all the fur) – you have no idea of the age of the animal or why the owner got rid of it (behavioral/genetic flaw/etc.). You can read about my trials with my Doe Gertie on my blog.

Market wise – you’re aiming mostly at Hand-Knitters and Fiber Artists in general. You probably will never be able to compete commercially with the Asian Market. (Of course there is always the Eco/American Made market…).  Angora is 8x’s warmer than wool and is often utilized in the sports industry for hunting clothes and arctic wear.  Cabela’s (sp?) sells 3 or 4 yard pieces of yarn for fly tying.  Hubby wants some Angora knee warmers for hunting season.

For undyed/unspun fiber, prices seem to range between $4 & $8 per oz – although I’ve heard of prices up to $16 an oz. I don’t have numbers yet for the average weight of fur per rabbit yet – hopefully after our harvest in October I’ll be able to provide those numbers.

Handspun yarn seems to go between $16 and $30 a skein (I’ve not done any comparisons between dyed/undyed, yardage or gauge yet). I know a commercial spun 30 yard dyed skein (which is nothing – you could knit a single baby bootie out it maybe) was $16 – on clearance for $10 I think.

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My husband made a mistake… and now the livingroom is paying for it! MWAHAHAHAHA! (That’s the universal evil laugh, for those of you not in the know). It started simply enough – “Hey Judy, we need to find some bins or baskets or something to keep your yarn in, in the livingroom.” “What a good idea sweety – then the dogs won’t be able to steal my projects anymore”.  This conversation combined with his, “I want to move that other bookcase in the livingroom – it’s not really doing anything in the dining room…”

Led to all the yarn and collected fiber being in the livingroom! MWAHAHAHAHA! Extending my crafty reign of terror from the attic into the heart of the house! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Seriously – I love these boxes from Wal-Mart – I bought 12 more last night to use in the studio upstairs. The 2 shorter boxes on the 2nd shelf are full of tools – needles & hooks and things.  The bottom 2 shelves are fiber from the rabbits and that loose ziplock bag is felting fiber from the buns also.

Hubby’s reaction was shock & awe, and “Well I didn’t mean ALL your yarn…”. Little does he know… more lurks in the depths of the studio! MWAHAHAHAHA!

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I met a local Raveler this past Monday (the 13th) – Mariaknittedit, and had an impromptu spinning lesson.  Ms. Maria is in the process of setting up a private fiber studio called Black Dog Studio. I went to her to critique the fiber I collected off 2 of my buns (most of it is woefully too short but when the mercury hits 100 – them’s the breaks) but in the process I was sent to the wheel myself!

Here’s the fiber we worked with from Moto, a lovely rain cloud gray:

And this is what Mariaknittedit spun out:

Then we carded some together with some white Merino wool and I spun this:

As you can see there are lots of little spirals in it where I totally overspun it (big feet move faster than my hands apparently) but still! If we had to have yarn I could make it! It would be ugly and weird – but we’d be warm! (at least till it all came apart because, you know, not a skill I’ve got down yet…)

And Ms. Maria is fabulous – hopefully I didn’t scar her too badly between my awful spinning and just plain weirdness.