Angora Yarn Ahoy!

It's been almost two months, but boy have those two months been busy!!!

We have all been frantically spinning! I have been going through as much angora as I can on my drop spindle, as you can see here:

But the more impressive showing is my mother's progress with her Louet spinning wheel!!! She has been spinning for 2+ hours a night almost every night, working with Lincoln wool, alpaca, and of course our own angora! Here is what she has cranked out, modeled by me with varying degrees of success:

We have also been having fun with the drum carder, and I have plans to blend some tort angora with some chocolate brown alpaca my mother purchased from a farm in Missouri in the near future! If only life would get out of my way for a few minutes. :-)


As always, we have angora fiber for sale!!! Please contact us with any questions at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com or comment on this post!

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool!

We had a fantastic weekend at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI! Check out some pictures:

So much shopping.

My mother checks out kits for felted bird yurts.

I admire some roving with coffee in hand.

I love the roving SO MUCH!!!

One building full of vendors, including such products as roving, weaving supplies, yarns, books, etc.

The other building full of vendors. One vendor even had angora rabbits for sale, and they were all sold out by Saturday morning!

Seedorff Family Farms business partner and best friend Xa took a class about weaving diamonds using a diamond loom. Here she is exercising what she learned:

Look at those cute little diamonds!

We wanted to be sure to get a picture in front of the sign, but we didn't get around to it until Saturday evening, so I apologize for the quality of the picture. My mother and I are joined by our dogs.

For the angora spinning class that my mother and I took we needed to have a skein of wool to use for plying, so I spent all Saturday night finishing up a skein of Corriedale that I started back in June. Isn't it beautiful?

Sunday morning we headed over to our class in the "Wonders of Wool" Building 1. We got there a little early and took the opportunity to get some pictures:

Mom and me

Bill and Nancy Barnett. Nancy taught our class "Spin Some Bunny".

Nancy shows off one of her rabbits.

Once the class started there were photo ops constantly! There are many more pictures than I can possibly put on here, but I went through and picked out the best ones, plus a video!

Mom feels some 100% Angora yarn that Nancy spun.

Nancy shows us how to get German Angora spun on her drop spindle.

Here I go! German Angora fiber to yarn, woo!

And spinning, and spinning....

Most of the class had wheels, but I wasn't at a disadvantage at all.

Nancy shows us how to harvest fleece from a French Angora. She gave this little guy away at her afternoon class. We couldn't stay for it. :-(

Nancy uses my mother's wheel to spin right off the rabbit.

Nancy spins off the rabbit, using my mother's Louet wheel.

Now my mother gives it a try.

We learned SO much!! The class was a great experience, and I would recommend Nancy Barnett's classes to anyone! She was very helpful and was willing to change up her plans to help us with what we wanted to know. My mother and I walked away from the building feeling like we were on top of the world. Why, oh why, didn't we bring any of our own Angora with us so we could spin more RIGHT NOW??!! :-) 

On the way back to the camper I snapped a couple photos:

The sign in front of our class building.

The grounds. So many buildings full of fun things!

And once we got back to the camper:

My yarn!! This is all yarn that I created at my class. The lighter skein is Angora plied with Corriedale, and the Angora is progressive, starting with white German, gray French, buff English, and brown Satin. The darker skein is French Angora carded with Shetland, then spun and Andean plied. Both yarns were made using my Purple Heart drop spindle I purchased at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival!

It was a fantastic weekend and I'm so glad that we went! The class was so worth the travel time and expense. I also purchased many beautiful things while I was there! I will have to include those in a later post when I have time to lay everything out and get some nice pictures. 

So, angora yarn, anyone? I'm going to start cranking it out!! Please contact us if you are interested! Comment on this post or email seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com for more information. We also have black, tort, and broken tort angora fiber for sale!

Angora Spinning Soon!!

Things have been quiet over the summer, but we're about to get back into some excitement. We will be attending the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in a couple weeks and my mother and I are both taking an Angora spinning class!! I'm hoping that with a little instruction we can be cranking out beautiful handspun Angora in a couple months! Yay for yarn!!

Don't forget, we have fiber for sale! Tort (brown/peach), Broken Tort (mostly white), and Black (grayish) for $6/oz.

Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival

The weekend of June 11th and 12th my mother and I went to the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival!! We spent some time networking, but even more importantly, we both took beginning spinning classes so we can get to work on that angora yarn we want to spin!! We had a fantastic time, minus the horrible car trouble we had on Saturday, but everything worked out okay. Here we are in the car waiting for the pizza we ordered for dinner Friday night after we had already gotten to the area:

The next morning my mother went to her spinning class while I dealt with car problems. She spent time learning to prepare the fiber, including carding, as well as drop spindling and working on a spinning wheel. She had taken her own wheel, which we both have dabbled with, but she finally had someone to show her how to work the wheel properly and she is turning out some lovely yarn! When I was home this past weekend I saw a skein of brown alpaca she is working on, and I can't wait to use it! (No pictures of that though, sorry!)

When I got to the fairgrounds later in the day we spent some time watching the sheepdog trials, which are always amazing to watch. One of the dogs that was working that afternoon had gotten 12th place at Nationals the previous year, and it was a joy to watch him work the sheep. They also had demonstrations late that afternoon where they taught people about sheepdog training while having the dogs work ducks, which was adorable to watch!

On the way back to the hotel Saturday evening we snapped a quick pic of me next to the Festival sign.

Here is the roving that my mother snapped up on Saturday afternoon. Isn't it beautiful?!

 Here lies the toils of my mother's class: some purple and white singles plied together on the wheel, and some purple singles on the drop spindle.

 Here is what I snapped up on Sunday. My drop spindling class was from 8:30-12:30, where I learned how to use a top whorl spindle. I had only tried a bottom whorl before, and I now completely understand why some people say it's easier to learn on a top whorl. The plastic zip-top bag at the top has an assortment of roving that my teacher gave us at our class, and then going clockwise we have: the Purple Heart wood top whorl spindle that I bought, two mini-skeins of two-ply yarn that I spun and plied during class, deep violet and bright yellow Merino top, "balsam" hand-painted BFL roving, "Cherokee" hand-painted Merino/Silk roving, and in the middle there is a skein of sock yarn that I couldn't resist.

 Here is a close-up of my new top whorl spindle, with some Corriedale roving that I started spinning two days ago.

 Here is one of the mini-skeins that I spun during my class. It's two-ply Corriedale, with S-twist singles.

My skein is a little thick-n-thin, but it's not too irregular. Here is a better picture with an American quarter to gauge the size.


During my class I spoke to someone who had purchased some angora at the fair. They said that they had paid a fortune for some clipped fiber and they had found a lot of vegetable matter in it, including droppings. I "subtly" hinted that she should buy some angora from me and started talking about my rabbits, but she didn't bite. :-) However, I did feel good about the fact that I know that I offer a superior product. Remember, we have angora fiber for sale!!! Please don't hesitate to email us with questions about any of our fiber.

It was a very informative weekend. My mother and I are already looking forward to the next fair we're hoping to attend. Hopefully all the details will work out and we will be attending that festival as well as taking a class that we know they are offering that is all about spinning angora fiber! We will keep you posted.

Also: my mother and I are planning on playing with her drum carder to create some wool/angora batts. I'll be sure to post pictures if this comes to fruition. If you would have any interest in this, don't hesitate to let us know!

More Fiber For Sale!!

I bagged up some more fiber yesterday! We now have the following inventory:

1 oz. black angora, $6/oz.
2 oz. tort angora, $6/oz.
2 oz. broken tort angora, $6/oz.
2 oz. mixed colors, $4/oz.

Each of them are so soft and light you can hardly tell you're holding anything when you touch them! Spinners, take heed! Get your angora now!

Please contact us at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com

The Rabbit Show

So, I completely forgot to bring a camera to the show. Due to some unforseen unpleasantness in our friend circle the weekend was pretty crazy, but here's the blow-by-blow:

Friday night we drove from our place to the to the place where the show was being held (about an hour and a half away). After a very chilly night of camping (It snowed!! In April!!) we got up and went to check out the shows the next morning. We entered the building and found ourselves surrounded by rabbit cages, six show tables, equipment vendors, and excited showpeople running about. We wandered through and looked at the rabbits in cages for awhile, and then settled in to watch some shows. We tried to make our way around the whole room and check out various shows. We happened to run into the people we bought our rabbits from AND the people that owned the rabbitry that we visited back in November.

On Sunday we went back and spent a great deal of time watching angora shows. I watched English angoras for about 45 minutes and then watched the first 30 minutes of the French angora show before we decided to head out.

All-in-all it was a great weekend. I learned a lot from listening to the judge as he gave comments on each rabbit, and I got to watch other breeders work with their rabbits. I also saw some beautiful skeins of yarn and garments made of 100% angora. It was definitely worth the trip!!

Our next big plan is to go our state's Sheep & Wool Festival in June. We're planning on taking spinning classes there, so we can hone our skills and get some 100% yarn on the market!

One other piece of news: we have had someone ask about purchasing angora rabbits from us. We are definitely interested in breeding our rabbits, but we need to know that we will be able to sell them first. If you would be interested in an English Angora rabbit (or in any of our fleece, of course!!) please email us at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com!

I'll leave you with one lovely picture- a cute little "angora" bunny that I made for my mother for Easter!

If you would be interested in one, let me know!

Angora Show!

It's official, we're going to a National Angora Breeders show this weekend!

We are going to be traveling a couple hours this weekend to attend a multi-day rabbit show that includes the National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club Specialty Show. I'm most looking forward to meeting other angora breeders in the area and watching the fiber show, as I really want to see what other people's harvested fiber looks like compared to ours. I'm hoping to get our name out there more, and I'm planning on taking some fiber with me in case anyone is interested in seeing it. Exciting!

By the way, we have mixed color fiber, premium black fiber, and premium broken tort fiber available NOW!! If you're interested, please email us at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com

Networking!

Yesterday was a suddenly bunny-rific day! An upcoming show was discovered, some angora clubs were researched, and a new contact was found.

I discovered that there is a NARBC show coming up in April that is nearby where I live! I'm hoping we can make the trek to the show and learn as much as possible, especially about the fiber show, where we could submit fiber entries to be judged. We don't really have interest in showing the rabbits, so a fiber show would be a great outlet for us to get our names out in the rabbiting world. This year we intend to just check it out and see what we can learn from the exhibitors and booths. What a great opportunity to network!

Also, I researched the clubs that are sponsoring the NARBC show. I've known for awhile that we should really be joining professional rabbit associations if we want to get our names out there, and ARBA, NARBC, MAAC, and UMAC are associations on my list of clubs to check out. Unfortunately, after doing a little research yesterday I discovered that some of the websites are very outdated and don't have much useful information. They must still be in existence since they are involved in the show coming up, but there is no updated information on how to become and member and what events they are hosting. One more reminder to myself that I need to keep this blog up to date so you all know what is going on at SFF!

Finally, we got an interesting call last night. A co-worker discovered that we are raising angora rabbits and shared that she, too, raises angoras! A long chat ensued about what breed we raise (she raises Giants, while we have English), how we harvest the fleece (she shears, we pluck), what we feed, where we house them, and all sorts of other things. It was a really interesting conversation, and I hope that we can get together and build a closer relationship in the coming months. It would be great to have an experienced rabbitry so close to us that is willing to help us out with any questions we come across.

Yay for networking! I really hope that we can continue to be in touch with the co-worker, and hopefully the next time I write in here I will have more details about the show coming up. I'm thinking a road trip is in order!

Fiber for Sale and Bun Pics!

Pictures pictures pictures!! Check out our wares first:

  

Bags of fiber, including tort, broken tort, and black

Close up picture of the tort and broken tort angora

Close up of the black angora and the "felting fiber"

It's been awhile since you've seen the buns, so here is a picture of the broken tort doe:

A picture of the tort doe:

And finally a picture of the black buck:

 

We currently have broken tort (peachy brown mixed with white) and black (more of a dark grey) angora for sale for $6 an ounce, all hand-plucked from the back of the animal. We also have mixed color "felting fiber", or hand-plucked fiber from the belly, legs, and head, available for $4 an ounce. Please contact us at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com for more information!

Waiting List Again

We've made our first sale, plus we have a waiting list again!

Last week I was able to deliver the first batch of tort fiber to a local spinner, and she sent me a lovely note along with the payment about how excited she was to spin it and that she knew she wanted more already. How wonderful!!

Once again, we are taking orders for tort (peach/brown), broken tort (tort color with white), and black (more of a dark grey) colored angora fiber. We sell the fiber in one ounce packages for $6 an ounce. We also have "felting fiber" (taken from the belly, face, and legs) that we have available for $4 an ounce. All fleece is hand-plucked from our rabbits. Feel free to comment on this post or to email me at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com to get your name on the waiting list.

Things are going really great with the rabbits. I'm still maintaining the schedule of brushing twice a week, cleaning cages twice a week, and shredding newspaper once or twice a week. I've really gotten used to the routine, and I think the rabbits have as well. They have really changed in appearance since the first pictures I posted on here! The buck's fleece has filled out beautifully, the broken tort doe's fleece has gotten fuller, and the tort doe's fleece is nearly spent for this harvesting, meaning that her fleece has thinned out and gotten shorter. She'll be building back up before long, and she should be back in full swing in a couple months. I will try to take pictures of them this next week and get them up in the next update.

Does anyone out there have experience dyeing angora fiber? I have no experience dyeing, but I have an interest in trying it some time, so I'm curious how angora will react to dye. If you have any experience, please comment to this posting.

Check it Out!

The first of many:

Believe it or not, we already have much more angora on its way! This first bag is already spoken for, and will be sold for $6 to a local spinner, but there is so much more! We have currently available:

0.9 oz. tort
0.8 oz. broken tort (tort mixed with white)
0.2 oz. black
0.7 oz. felting fiber (from the face and belly, rather than the back, mixed colors)

The hand-plucked, premium spinning fiber is $6 per ounce, and the felting fiber is $4 per ounce. Please email seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com to place your order.


This past week I got to visit two new yarn shops up near my parents' house, and I noticed something very exciting. One of the shops had yarn for sale from a local alpaca farm- the shop sells local fibers!! I am hoping that after we get some of the angora spun we could sell it at that shop, as well as some other shops closer to where I live.

On the bunny front, the black buck is adorable as ever, loving to have his ears scratched and to be held. The tort doe, who used to be rather skittish, has started coming over to have her nose rubbed when I feed her, which is exciting for me. I can tell that they are getting used to me. The broken tort doe, who has been really skittish in the past and has even tried to bite me, seems to be calming down a bit. She is still wary of my hands in her cage, but she has been letting me put the food in her dish without jumping at me, and when I got her out of her cage to brush her on Sunday she came fairly quietly, although I still had to catch her off-guard to get her without a fight. I'm sure as our routine continues that we will get used to each other.

I also went to the local farm store to buy another bag of rabbit feed and some barn lime yesterday. It is the first time that I have bought food for them since the day we got them, so you know they don't eat too much.

Anyway, my real life job is getting really busy in these next few weeks, so please don't stop checking back for updates if I don't update regularly! We're still here, and we still want your business!! If you ever have any questions about anything involving the business or our fibers, please email me at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com any time.

Tip of the Week: When the litter pans seem to get messiest in the same places week after week, try using some barn lime to help dry out the heavily soiled spots. It will be less nasty to clean up and it will cut down on the smell.

Our First Official Sale!

It's official, we have enough fiber to sell! Yesterday my mother and I bagged the first ounce of tort fleece that I will be selling to someone on our waiting list. We have a few things to do first, however.

This weekend my mother came to visit, bringing six bags of shredded newspapers, plus more shreddable paper! Our other business partner came to visit as well, bringing armloads of old newspapers, as she works for a newspaper about 3.5 hours away. I will not have a bedding shortage again for some time!

Yesterday my mother and I got some rabbit chores done. We shredded some of the newspapers our other business partner brought, we cleaned the cages, and we brushed and plucked the rabbits. The black buck is getting to the point where he has harvestable fiber, so we are starting to collect his fleece. The broken tort doe is coming along, with a fleece that is nearing the high point of harvesting. The tort doe, which was so full fleeced when we got her, is coming down from her high point now. We have harvested nearly all the fiber from her back, and one plucking session brings us two or three handfuls of fiber. Her sides and hips still have a good amount of fleece on them, so we will still be getting fiber off her for a while yet.

The most exciting part of the week was that we weighed the fiber yesterday and we had 1.5 ounces of tort fiber! That means that I can sell to the woman that is on our waiting list! I bagged one ounce and labeled it, now we just need to get ourselves in gear when it comes to business cards and colorway labels so I can send cards out with the product. As for the other counts, we now have .5 ounces of broken tort and .1 ounces of black. Don't forget, we're taking orders!!! Please feel free to email us or leave a comment on the blog if you're interested in our angora fiber!

Tip of the Week: We've continued working with our broken tort doe to work on her aggression issue. She's only aggressive when I try to take her out of her cage, so I've been opening her cage door all the way and putting food just inside the door. I remain standing by the door, and eventually she comes forward to eat and I try to pet her gently while she's eating. She's still jumpy, but it seems to be helping a bit. However, gloves are still a must, as she latched on to my mother's finger yesterday when we were trying to get her out to brush her. Thankfully the leather work gloves my mother were wearing prevented her from feeling a thing. I'm sure that if I keep working with the broken tort slowly but surely I can get her to the point where I can take her out of her cage freely.

Busy, busy!

Real life is catching up with me this week. Not much has been done besides feeding the rabbits each day, brushing them twice a week, and cleaning their cages twice a week, so this entry will be a bit short. Perhaps when my life calms down a bit next week I will have more to tell.

Things to do this week: Go to local farm and home store and pick up more rabbit food and some barn lime. The lime is to sprinkle in the bottom of the litter pans to help dry up the spots the rabbits like the most. As for the rabbit food, we're down to a quarter of a bag, which is pretty impressive since I haven't purchased feed since we got them! They sure do not eat much.

A minor problem: I've run out of newspapers and junk mail to shred. I've been trying to stretch what I have out as long as possible, but I finally broke down last weekend and purchased a block of wood shavings. Hopefully this is a temporary situation and I will be acquiring more paper from family and friends soon.

Don't forget we have fiber for sale!! Now accepting orders, see previous posts for contact information and details.

Tip of the week: In a pinch, I've been stretching my bedding further by saving the mostly unsoiled bedding in the pan and refluffing it over the areas that get the heaviest use, so I'm only changing the bedding in about half a pan at a time. It's not ideal for the long run, but until I get more paper it will work.

"No!" she says.

Our broken tort does NOT like to be brushed, but the good news is that we have about a half an ounce of her fleece, so we're building up our inventory.

This week the broken tort decided she didn't want to be taken out of her cage to be brushed, and the way she told me this was by lunging at my hand when I tried to touch her. I'm not positive she was trying to bite me, but she sprang at my hand and swiped at me with her paws. I've taken to feeding her right before I take her out to brush her so she's distracted when I go to grab her. I've also started wearing a glove when I pull her out, just in case. Despite this difficulty, yesterday she laid quietly when I flipped her on to her back to brush her belly and didn't put up a fight at all. So, success in the face of failure!!

I am pleased to announce that we have waiting lists for the following fibers:

Hand-plucked premium fiber (from the back of the rabbit)

• Tort, $6/oz. (first oz. spoken for already, but more coming soon!)
• Broken tort, $6/oz. (have about half an ounce currently)
• Black, $6/oz. (probably won't be ready for another month or two)

Hand-plucked felting fleece (from the face and belly of the rabbit)

• Mixed colors, $4/oz. (have about half an ounce currently)

If you are interested in any fiber, please contact us at seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com

For those who need a color guide, please see the pictures of our rabbits and read the descriptions below:

• Tort- light peach color
• Broken tort- mostly white with a little light peach
• Black- dark grey color

Tip of the Week: Talk to your rabbits while you brush them. I find that it calms them a little, and I hope that it gets them used to my presence faster.

The Waiting List

The waiting list has been started!! Let the excitement ensue.

After emailing a contact late last week about our fleece I heard back that she is definitely interested! I've put her name on the list, and we officially have our first customer! Remember, we are taking orders NOW!!

Besides getting our first contact we had a pretty slow week. However, today while I was cleaning the cages we had something a little funny happen. Just before I was ready to put the buck's litter pan back under his cage he suddenly turned tail to the corner and SPRAYED. As in, even if the litter pan had been there it wouldn't have done us much good. We've never had a problem with this before, and the urine guards helped, but not enough. I have no idea what caused him to do it. It was pretty funny at the time, but it won't be if he continues. Thankfully I have the cages on a plastic tablecloth so messes will be easy to clean, so it wasn't a big deal. 

Also, if your rabbit's water bottle is leaking, fix it!! After our broken tort's water bottle leaked its full contents into her litter pan three times in three days, I had quite a nasty mess to clean. The problem has been resolved, but it was like scooping out a swamp.

So, those were pretty gross, but hopefully funny for you, stories. I'm still loving raising angora rabbits! Especially now that I see some money being made in the future!

Tip of the Week: I've started swapping out the litter pans when I'm cleaning, and it's been much more effective. After our tort doe "soiled" the floor under her cage three times while I was cleaning her litter pan last Sunday I decided things had to change. I cleaned the top cage litter pan first, put it back under the bottom cage, and then cleaned the bottom litter pan and put it under the top cage. That way none of the cages have a direct line to the floor for more than a few seconds, and it has kept me from cleaning up more messes.

Harvesting and Chores

This week was all about setting up a routine and continuing on the same path as before. I also have heard of a couple people who are interested in our first fleece!!

I have set up a schedule for the angora farm that I am trying to adhere to, although some daily changes have already been made. The theoretical schedule keeps me from having to do more than one "major" bunny chore in one day.

Sunday: Clean cages
Monday: Brush/harvest fleece
Tuesday: Shred newspapers for bedding
Wednesday: Clean cages
Thursday: Brush/harvest fleece
Friday: Shred newspapers for bedding
Saturday: Day off!

However, I already know that I will be busy tomorrow, so I took the time to clean the cages and brush the bunnies today. I'm also busy on Tuesday, but I'm hoping that if I do a little shredding tomorrow night and a little more Tuesday that I'll have enough to be ready to clean the cages when I get home from work on Wednesday. I have to admit, the rabbits are a lot of work, but I'm finding a way to make it work into my schedule without having to spend an exorbitant amount of time on anything in one day.

Speaking of chores, I trimmed the rabbits' nails last Thursday. Wow, that is a job to be taken on with help, if you ever try to do it yourself. I trimmed them all by myself, and it was NOT fun. However, the nails are trimmed, I'm getting less scratches, and it's one more chore done. I did get a good tip from an online friend about trimming nails (after I had already done it, of course) that you should check out down in the "Tip of the Week" section.

This week I also heard from one person who would be interested in buying yarn once we get spinning. While I'm super-excited about that, I'm even more excited about the fact that while I was at work one day a girl told me that her mom was a spinner, and asked if I sold my rabbits' fleece to spinners. After a few conversations, I have a phone number and email address and a name officially on the waiting list!!

I have now harvested .6 oz from our tort doe and about half that from our broken tort. Remember, we are accepting orders!! All names will be put on a waiting list in a first come, first served order. 

I leave you today with a few more pictures of the rabbits and fleeces:

 This is the black buck getting ready to be groomed.

 Now he's showing off his nicely trimmed nails.

 The buns do NOT like to lay on their backs to have their feet and bellies brushed, but alas, it must be done.

Looky! Three labeled bins for fleece, some already getting very full!

This is what .6 oz of angora looks like. It's a large handful.

Tip of the Week: According to my friend, when trimming their nails you should wrap them in a stretchy blanket, like a fleece blanket, and wrap them up into a "bunny burrito". Then you can get to their claws and they can't throw too much of a fit. I will have to try it next time!