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!