Adventures with YarnInformation about everything to do with yarn, knitting, fiber arts, sheep…

It’s been about 3 months since Riker, my angora buck, came to live with me. This is what he looked like back then. And this is what he looked like a few days ago:

It was time for a haircut!

The tools I used included snacks to distract the bunny, my sheep shears, a pair of smaller hand scissors, and paper towels for putting the clipped fiber onto. I find with shearing all animals it is easy to start around the back of the neck and work one’s way down a side, so that is what I did. Giving him a treat every few minutes made him stay in one spot. Once I was done shearing one side, Riker spent his time grooming and nibbling that side, which made shearing the other side super easy.

Here is a great shot showing the exact length of Riker’s fiber. He looks huge, but it’s all show! You can also see my various tools used for the shearing. I found that the small scissors were too blunt to cut through large bundles of the fiber, but my shears were certainly up for the job. Next time I will try using an electric clipper, as Angora fiber doesn’t have any grease or dirt to gum up the blade. However I fear the fiber is too fine for the clippers to do a good job on…

Here is just over half of the fiber we collected – at the end there was another layer and I have yet to shear his bum or undersides so there’s even more! I will weigh it and measure its length once I’m all done shearing. I believe I will combine this with Lady Baba fiber and spin it into a fine lace. I was very surprised by the amount of fiber he produced in 3 months time. One could easily raise a troupe of Angora rabbits and produce a substantial amount of fiber yearly. Purchase a few fine sheep fleeces to blend with the Angora and you have yourself a luxury wool that will make a most treasured heirloom.

Everyone, meet Riker! Riker is my first official fiber animal joining the farm (hence his name, as he’s Number One, and so is William T. Riker). He’s an English angora buck who’s been described as a lilac cream tort. His fibers will pair wonderfully with my Shetland sheep fleece to produce a wonderful Angora-Shetland blend of yarn… but not for at least 3 months as he was just sheared.

He is currently living in a “Rabbit starter cage” bought from Petsmart, he seems to be happy and relaxed and has a healthy appetite and poop production. I’m looking into the best diet for him and our future farm lifestyle. I’ve seen two different approaches so far, one which advocates mostly pellets with a bit of hay and veggies, the other which advocates mostly hay with a quarter the amount of pellets and much more fresh food. Right now I’m feeding him the same diet he had in his older home, pellets with a bit of hay and veggies. Once we get into growing season I might play around with the veggie/hay/pellet ratios, gradually of course!

I bought a wire comb meant for little dogs to comb his fiber with, and it worked wonderfully. He just sat right down with us on the couch while we combed him and pet him. No poop or pee mishaps with us so far. He’s such a champion! We are very happy to have him on the farm, and I’m now thinking much more seriously about raising Angoras sooner rather than later.