Rabbit Kit Cowl for Lydia

I think for most fiber animals, the wool from babies is more desirable than wool from adults.  However, this is not true for angora rabbits.  The fiber from the back and sides of adult rabbits is far superior to anything obtained from junior rabbits and kits.  Junior fiber is generally too soft (if such a thing were possible--not in my world!) and it can mat very easily.  Out of the ten kits in this litter, only Velvet, the self-black, needed next to no grooming and had only two or three tiny tangles.  Shirley was gone as soon as he was ten weeks old, so there were eight rabbits left to comb.

The eight kits produced over 1.4 ounces of fiber in four different colors: white, sable agouti (a light gray), chestnut (a darker gray), and fawn (cream).

I decided that Lydia should have something knit from these kits to remember this remarkable litter (she'll gross over $850 from them, and net about $720).  Because there were so many little tangles, I needed a project where that wouldn't be a problem.  And I needed something that would be quick to knit, as I wanted to enter it in the Nevada State Fair, in the Nevada Home Grown hand spun and hand knit competition.  I really should have started thinking about that a lot sooner.

Anyway, I wanted to use all the different colors, so I spun each color for about twenty minutes before changing colors.  I then Navajo plied the yarn to keep the colors separate from one another.

Lydia didn't like the resulting colors of the yarn.  Truth be told, neither did I.  I think I would have liked it better knitted up, but we'll never know for sure.

So I asked Lydia if she wanted me to dye the yarn.  She wanted a light blue.  I used sapphire blue from Dharma Dye.  I tried to make it light.  I failed.  But Lydia liked the color anyway.

I forgot to take a picture of the dyed skein before knitting.  Oops.  

I had selected this pattern to use for the cowl.  http://purlavenue.com/2013/09/simple-lace-mohair-scarf.html.  I think it's beautiful and thought it would work really well with the yarn. 

But I was in a hurry.  I had only six days left to finish it before it needed to be entered in the fair.  After knitting about an inch, I decided it just wasn't going to work.  So I had to look for another pattern.









This is the one I settled on, the Cashmere Cowl by Purlbee.   http://www.purlbee.com/2006/11/16/cashmere-cowl/


I decided to use size 9 needles instead of size 8.  I think that was a mistake.  And because I was making it for Lydia, I made it slightly smaller.

Here's how it turned out.

Now, off to the fair. 

Buck or Doe?

Sarah, one of the buyers that contacted us last week, asked our thoughts on whether it was better to get a buck or a doe.  No one had ever asked this question of us before, so we were a little surprised.  It has been our experience that does are in much greater demand than bucks.  There are two reasons for this.  One, I think, is that most people think that does are nicer in general than bucks.  The second reason, of course, is that if you want to have kits, you need a doe, and if you are planning to become a breeder, you need only one buck, but you probably want two or three does. 

However, if I were to have only one French angora rabbit, all other factors being equal, I would choose a buck. 

Why?

Well, because in general bucks are nicer than does.  Most does eventually want to have kits.  If they don't get bred, they may get rather cranky about it and start nipping.  Nobody likes that.  On the other hand, bucks are very lovey-dovey.  At least the ones we have here are.

Now of course bucks aren't perfect.  They have a downside, too.  They sometimes spray.  Some people put spray guards around the bottom edges of the cage.  Others hang shower curtains.  We keep all the bucks on one side of the barn and hang a tarp to protect the wall. 

Sarah had originally planned to get a doe, but changed her mind after getting our opinion on bucks and does.  She'll be taking Arven home next week.  She should probably call him Lover Boy instead.  We had all the remaining kits inside for some playtime last week, and this sweetie pie refused to go play.  He kept jumping up on the couch and wanting to be held.  Just thinking about it now makes me feel so guilty for continuing to put him back down on the floor.  I could almost run out to the bunny barn right now and scoop him up.  But it's almost midnight.  Maybe tomorrow.

Bunny Bonanza

We don't do Facebook, which according to our 4-H president is the way to advertise rabbits.  We usually sell one at every ARBA show we go to.  But most of our rabbits are sold through Craigslist.  I listed Lydia's litter of ten on June 29 both here in Reno and in Modesto, CA, where my dad and stepmother live.  (We visit them often and so we can deliver rabbits along the way.)

And we heard nothing.  Not a single inquiry for four days. 

Then boom.  It seems like all I did on July 3 was respond to inquiries from five different people.  And what was amazing was that they were all interested in different rabbits.  Two people were local and three were in California. 

Sarah wanted to come by almost immediately to meet her choice, Arven, a buck with a superior body but unfortunately, an unshowable color.  She's getting into spinning and dyeing.  And she wants to learn everything possible and be completely prepared to take him home.  We love that!  So we spent about an hour with her on Saturday.  

As we were going to be heading down to Turlock to visit Grandpa on Monday, we were able to offer to meet the Californians along the way.  Julie was our first stop in Elk Grove.  She needed another REW (one of Charlotte's rabbits, as Lydia didn't have any REWs in this litter) to enter in the state fair.  He lacked a bit in body, but he made up for it with fabulous density in his coat.  We are anxious to hear how he did at the fair.  Jordyn was our next buyer.  We met her in Lodi and delivered her new chestnut doe. 

Grace came to Grandpa's house the next day with her mom and four or five sisters (we love large families!) to pick up Velvet, a self-black doe that we all considered the pick of the litter.  With so many girls in the family, we know that Velvet will be very well spoiled.  All French angoras should be so lucky.  We really look forward to seeing Grace and Velvet at some of the shows. 

Genevieve couldn't see us before we left for Turlock, so we made tentative plans for meeting on Friday after we returned.  She chose Ella, another perfect bunny were it not for being an ermine, which is an unshowable color.  As I groomed her a bit before Genevieve's arrival, I kept wondering whether we were foolish to sell her.  She has really fabulous wool.  I thought about getting a certificate of development for ermines.  But I decided that might be more work than I am ready for at this time.  I raise girls to become young women.  My girls raise rabbits.  Raising quality girls takes a lot of time, so raising quality rabbits (for me) will have to wait for now. 

Anyway, we spent about an hour Friday afternoon with Genevieve, and then she took Ella home.

And I know a blog is supposed to have pictures.  I can't believe I forgot to take pictures every single time we sold a rabbit this week.  Better luck next time.

TMRC Show Report

(Lydia dictated this to me two weeks ago.  I totally forgot about it and didn't see it until after I posted my report of the show.  Lydia had some good information in here that I failed to include, so I decided to post it as well.) 

Fortunately for us we have two active rabbit clubs in the area that each host an ARBA show each year.  The Truckee Meadows Rabbit Club hosted this year's show at Cold Springs Middle School in north Reno last Saturday.  Even though it was a double open show and not particularly well-attended, we still managed to be stuck there until 6:30.  That's what happens when two of the three judges devote their maximum attention to each and every rabbit.  Fortunately, we were advised in advance that we had some super slow judges so we had no illusions about going home early.

We considered not even attending the show because none of our rabbits had a great coat.  Well, Becky's junior black buck looked fine, but he was Becky's rabbit, and Becky wasn't going to be attending the show.  The other rabbits had all shed their coats within the past month, so they weren't looking like winners.  But Mom thought it would be a good idea to get as many rabbits as possible registered, and so that is what we did.

Muddy Buddy finally made weight, just barely.  ARBA rules state that a rabbit must weigh in within a certain range to be registered.  At nine pounds, Sage was perfect.  Her sister, Phantom, however, is a total porker and was almost sent home to go on a diet.

Another reason we went to the show was to have all of Snowball's kits assessed.  Charlotte evaluated them first so as to be sure that she wouldn't be influenced by Seth's and Julie's opinions.  She was so happy to have Seth and Julie agree with her completely in selecting the best two rabbits, and really, all the rabbits.  Julie also spent a whole lot of time with Charlotte and Lydia in helping them understand what to look for and what to watch out for in rabbit bodies.  It was a tremendous help. 

Best of Breed

 I'm a few weeks late in reporting about the Truckee Meadows show in Reno.  Vacations will do that.

Anyway, the girls weren't particularly excited about going to this one.  They didn't have any rabbits that they felt could do well on the table in the open class (youth class is for youth only; open class is for everybody).  They knew Julie would be there, and Julie has nice rabbits.  But I persuaded them that it would be a very convenient time to get rabbits registered.  And they also needed to have Lydia's litter of ten kits evaluated for show or wool quality.

Charlotte clerked for show A.

                                    
 Charlotte was asked to clerk for show A.  She'd never seen paperwork in this style, and no one told her what had to be marked where, so she and the judge had to re-do some stuff at the end.

So we went.  Despite the fact that it was only 30 minutes from our house.  We knew it would be a very long day.  Two of the three judges have a reputation for being on the slow side.

Julie did have some very nice rabbits, but a new person, Jill, had a doe we knew would be doing the winning.  She was gorgeous. 

I think Jill's chocolate tort doe is in the bottom center of this picture.

 And indeed, she did win.  We were all happy for her.

The show was progressing slowly, so we worked on getting rabbits registered.  We were thrilled to have gotten Muddy Buddy up to weight and to have been able to maintain his weight to get registered.  He really doesn't like going to shows and will go off feed while he's there.  And he is a picky eater, so it is hard to get him to gain weight.  He weighed in at 7.10, so he was good to go.

Fudge is on the smaller side, like her dad (Muddy Buddy), but she also made weight.  The same weight as her dad.

Charlotte was really anxious to get Sage registered, as she already has five legs.  We're hoping she'll be in good condition for the Placerville show in August.  Sage needs to win a leg as a senior in order to become a grand champion.  Sage weighed in at 9.0 lbs.

And finally, there was Phantom.  Charlotte did not want to get her registered and refused to bring her to the show because she was sure she was overweight.  But I called my husband and asked him to bring her for us.  Charlotte plopped her on the scale.  Because Phantom is a bit of a porker and quite wiggly, the needle on the scale bounced around a lot.  The registrar decided the needle was hovering right at 10.8 lbs.  Happy day!  Phantom got registered!  Charlotte had to admit that I was right again.

Phantom

We spent a great deal of time at lunch and after having Seth, our 4-H president, and Julie evaluate Lydia's kits.  Charlotte evaluated them beforehand to see how well her assessments lined up with the others'.  She was very happy to see that she was in perfect agreement with them.

It was probably around 5:00 or 5:30 before the French angoras were called up for show B.  We had an amazing 16 rabbits being shown that day, more competition than the girls have ever had before.  The judge was really nice and a bit faster than the show A judge.  He quickly moved through the senior does (and picked Jill's chocolate tort again--no surprise), senior bucks, junior does, and junior bucks.  Coal was the last rabbit he looked at.  And he just gushed over him.  And gushed.  Julie had told us earlier in the day that while most judges are going to select a senior doe as best of breed, every once in a while there is someone who will favor a junior buck.  And we got evidence of that.

Out of a field of sixteen rabbits, Coal won Best in Breed!

Coal

School's Out!

Charlotte and Lydia maintain the blog as part of their school work.  But now that school is out, they have this crazy idea that they no longer need to post on the blog. 

Which means I will have to do it over the summer. 

And that could be difficult, because summer is for gardening and spinning and knitting and vacations.

But I'll try.

Kits For Sale!

Please see the new blog page with all the pictures--"Kits For Sale--Litter of Snowball and PB."

They're awfully cute!