Most people now days don’t ACTUALLY spin yarn. Let alone grow Fancy English Angora bunnies for their fur or worse yet, pluck the fiber. Yes, one plucks the fiber from a fancy bunny, one does not shear the bunny. That would make blunt ends that are not pleasing for the spinning.Alas, this yarn spinner in the literary sense, has taken up yarn spinning in the textile sense. Let’s just say we are not yet at the pleasing part of spinning. Spinning yarn is very difficult. So far there has been swearing and tears. The only thing saving this enterprise right now is the knitting group at the library. In desperation one day I went to Knitting Club, which happens, by the way, on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and clearly, they take anyone. It must have been the forlorn look on my face, but the most patient woman, Jessica, has taken pity on me and with her help, I did make yarn happen. Mostly she did, but there are clumps in there that are mine. So, I’ve been practicing at home. Which is quite a disaster. I also watch a lot of You-Tube videos on spinning yarn and this weekend will be practicing again. This whole enterprise actually started three years ago at the Soroptimist Home and Garden show. Which is coming up in April!!! April 23 and 24 at the Fallon Convention Center. It seemed like a good idea to have a booth at the event in our first year of existence to promote the new newspaper. We got all the bling and subscription forms and sat in our little booth meeting people and kissing hands and shaking babies. And that’s when I met the nicest, fun little lady from Tonopah in the booth next to me, named Eve. Her booth was full of hand-knitted hats and gloves and socks and all sorts of things. She was chatty and kept coming over to visit and pretty soon here she came holding a fuzzy, hairy creature like I had never seen and put it in my lap. My very first experience with an English Angora Rabbit. Then she dragged over a spinning wheel and went to town spinning the fur of the rabbit right out of a plastic bag straight into yarn. I had never seen anything so spectacular. For the next couple years, I watched and gathered all sorts of information about Angora bunnies. And then in May of last year I got my first, a girl named Delilah. It felt like probably a good idea to just try one at first to see how that would go. She is amazing. These bunnies have hilarious personalities, and they are very friendly. They’re more like pets than livestock – they snuggle, and they flirt and if you have them in the house to play, they are potty trained in a box. If you ignore them, they will hop over to you and sneak up and touch your leg with their nose and then spin and jump and fling themselves across the room, daring you to chase them. I now have five of them. They live in the barn. I have not let anyone commingle intentionally. Yet. I want to, but it’s slightly worrisome. Some of these bunny people end up with 12 in one batch. But I’m getting them all plucked and clipped and groomed so there can be some “dating” situations and in 31 days – look out – baby yarn makers. I have three mommas so conceivably, no pun intended, we could end up with 36 little yarn factories. While I contemplate the wisdom of creating more fiber while I still am really horrible at spinning yarn, I’ll be right here......keeping you Posted.Rach
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