Friday, April 24, 2009



Angora Embroidery


Here is the improved angora design from D'Lynn & Zip-Stitch. This bunny is done in a wooly thread that is almost yarn (one step removed). It is wool/acryllic for a very fluffy effect, perfect for animals. Here is a picture (actual stitchout) of an order I did for Julie of Julie's handspun yarns, and Spoiled Rotten Rabbits (French and Satin angoras). The above was an actual stitchout, not a representation, but since my flash went off, the rabbit looks a bit yellow from the color of the flashbulb. (Much whiter in person). The design is available from Zip-Stitch, bunnies4wool@yahoo.com. It is available in 2 sizes, 5 X 5½ or 4.5 X 5. Or it can be stitched via customer order as above, your embroidery blanks or I can provide them too. Hope you enjoy!

Friday, April 03, 2009

At Long Last!
My website is back up again. It was a long 3 weeks, in which I lost some of my SEO standings, but I'm sure it will come back up again soon. I also don't have to try to post from the laptop. The keyboard was weird and I made all kinds of typos, and the screensize was small enough that I couldn't tell! Anyway, give me some feedback. If you can reach http://www.germanangora.net/, let me hear from you!

Factoid: Almost all breeders shear their rabbits now instead of pluck.
  • 1. It is easier
  • 2. It is more kind to the animal
  • 3. The length tends to become more even, fewer shorts just coming in again from the plucking
  • 4. It makes more halo to the yarn!
  • 5. Plucking reduces the density over time. The guard hair becomes stiffer, and the down diminishes, so the ratio of guard to down gets larger, but overall less fiber

Cheers, Donna

Tuesday, March 31, 2009


I just HAVE to sing Betty Chu's praises. Her English are second to none. I just trimmed Chu's Honeysuckle, my doe from her, down yesterday and she gave me the astonishing wool shearing number of 9.3 ounches! That is just astonishing for a pure English angora rabbit. While my Germans have given me a pound or more on that interval (3 mo), Honeysuckle's pile of fiber is every bit as big. I am going to find the same sized sack of pure German and spin both of them to the same girth as nearly as I can. I'm betting the English goes just as far as German that might weigh much more than it. It is because each strand of German is heavy. So 2 identical volumes of fiber, Eng & Ger, the German will weigh more. But is it *really* any more fiber? I don't think so, and I'm going to attempt to offer some evidence of it. Even if it doesn't, there is just no comparison between the 2 fibers. The English is so much softer and luxurious! Who would want anything else? (And did I mention that she eats just half what Germans do?)
Edit: 4/10/09 I've decided the better (and more controlled way) to test English against German would be to take exactly 1 ounce of each and spin them as nearly identically as possible, and see if the english doesn't give you more length. Hard to judge volumes due to compacting fiber, etc.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Just a quick note to let everyone know that my website is temporarily down. I have to reconfigure the whole network due to AT&T's crazy way of connecting you. It is a huge pain in the (you-know). Honeysuckle, my doe from Betty Chu will be bred this week, and babies will be due at the end of April (with luck!). The sire is Chu's Clover, whose littermates went BIS and BOS in California recently!!! The litter is already spoken for, I have a waiting list. But if you are insterested, you could email me at bunnies4wool@yahoo.com, to see if any might become available. Honeysuckle is fawn and Clover is tort, so we'll have all tort and fawn in this litter. I was completely done with Germans, but I've had so many requests - mostly from former purchasers, that I will be breeding a litter of 84% German babies. Both individuals have softer coat than what the German club and ARBA require (of Giants, ARBA doesn't recognize Germans). So if you want to show, or register your rabbit, you probably will lose points on texture. BUT, if you like softness, an easy keeper, and very little guard hair to deal with, you might contact me for one of these babies. I'm selling them as woolers, so they won't be as expensive as pure Germans. BUT, the English litter is at Grand Champion level and they will be full price. As I say, email me for details, on either litter. bunnies4wool@yahoo.com
Cheers!
Donna

Monday, January 05, 2009


Finally got this picture of little Clover uploaded! Clover is soon to be a papa rabbit, if we are lucky. He is a great little bunny, a gentle soul and very easy to take care of. His fiber does not matt, but if I let it go a little, it forms these great little balls, about the side of a pea, out on the very tips. These are GREAT for adding soft squishy slubs to your yarn. Soft, soft, soft.
Clover's girlfried will be none other than Chu's Honeysuckle, daughter of Chu's Fawntasia. Fawntasia and her brother did a lot of winning out on the west coast in ARBA sanctioned shows. So did Clover's dam & sire, Chu's Makisam & Chu's Emelyn. Both are little sweeties, with beautiful English type, and wonderfully soft, easy care coats. Non-matting, non-molting. Their coats were 5 inches when I brought them home. Clovers went on to get around 7 inches and he kept a clean bottom and no tangles. (I did lightly brush the ends once a week). These 2 are easy keepers, in addition to coming from Grand Champion level English angora. I'm so grateful to Betty for them! Clover's littermates have been doing some real winning out in California. Here are their pictures from the No. Cal Angora Breeder's Guild blog: http://ncag.blogspot.com/search?q=Sibling+rivalry

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Happy 2009! I usually cannot sign on to my account here on Blogger using my regular browser, Opera. But since I am here now, I will tell you about my other blog, which I CAN access. It is at http://my.opera.com/Ladybyte/blog.

I've created many new patterns from beautiful fluffy yarns since I've been able to post here, and I will try to get pictures of them soon. (I need a good model!). Meantime, enjoy this picture of my beautiful new little buck from Betty Chu. He is a sweetheart. I also have a new doe from Betty too, but I don't have a picture of her yet.

Oh dear, Bummer. I cannot upload the picture, either. My computer keeps trying to connect to something called "national.net" and my virus scanner blocks it. Oh well, I can upload picture to the other blog. Check it out!