Playing with Angora

Finally, after all the work of shearing our Angora rabbits, I get a reward! The photo above is a basketful of their wonderfully soft fiber; 1.9 ounces to be exact. Our best producer this quarter was Jamie. She gave us 5 ounces of Angora.

Last night while we were watching the new James Bond movie, Quantam of Solace, I had the opportunity to play with some of it. I spun a 2-ply 100% Angora yarn and knit a small swatch (photo below). That swatch was made from 0.2 ounces of fiber.

Angora is very lightweight, amazingly soft, 7 times warmer than wool, and it has a halo (which is a fancy way of saying that it is fuzzy or fluffy).

I will probably combine most of our Angora fiber with a very soft wool like Merino or Corriedale to reduce the halo and give the yarn memory. Memory is an important characteristic in yarn because it keeps garments from losing their shape. Wool has memory, Angora does not. But what it lacks in memory it makes up for in luxuriousness.