Now that I've proved my mettle by knitting an entire pair of leggings, I reckon I'm allowed to make my secret dream come true. My dream started years and years ago, as I conceived of this idea that I'd like to spend a year growing fibres (like cotton, hemp etc), spinning and weaving them into fabric, and sewing them into garments, and then spend another year wearing ONLY clothing I've completely produced myself, from scratch. Why does this appeal? I can't quite say, but it does. I've never done it though - I've been too busy doing other things with my years. However, I've become more and more interested in the idea of keeping rabbits, which can be both for yarn and, err, dinner. Paula and Jesse are both totally against the dinner idea, so that's on hold for the moment. I'm going to start just with a very fluffy angora rabbit that will give me fur to spin into yarn. The nice thing about this is that you don't have to hurt, or kill, the rabbit to get the fur - you can give the bunny's coat a trim, leaving enough to keep her quite warm, or else you can "pluck" it when she moults anyway - no pain for the rabbit. One rabbit can give enough fur, so I'm told, for several balls of wool in a single year, maybe even enough for a jumper. Frankly that sounds like about as much as I could possibly spin and knit in a year anyway, but we'll see.
I've wanted to do this for a long time but a few things have been holding me back. One of them is how often we go away, though I've now got a friend who is happy to be mama to my rabbit while we're on tour. The next is how utterly exhausted and busy I get when my work is full on, and I already find my garden a bit much to maintain when I'm unbearably busy. I've extended my garden this winter so I'll have even more to manage next summer, and now I'll have the rabbit too. The rabbit will need me to sit down and groom it for an hour, every week, as well as daily feeding, cage cleaning and bunny love. The final thing holding me back is decisions - which kind of Angora rabbit should I get? Satin Angora have potential to be good for meat as well as fur (see, I'm thinking down the track), but I couldn't find anyone selling them in Australia. German and Giant Angoras are huge, and have heaps of fur, but you can't pluck it, you HAVE to shear it - does that matter to me? And I couldn't find a seller for either of these, though I think they do exist in Australia. English Angoras seem the most readily available, but mixed reports seem to show they are more maintenance (or less, depending on who you listen to). Add to that is the colour. Now I don't really wear white knitted stuff. If I knitted white stuff I'd have to dye it, probably black, which means investigating a sustainable dye, and another environmental impact. By getting a rabbit of a colour I would wear, I could bypass the dyeing of the yarn.
I used my week at the beach to do a heap of research, and settled on a black smoke (that's grey, for the uninitiated) English Angora, and I've even put a down payment on her. I can't pick her up for several weeks yet, as she's too young to be separated from her mama. But you can see her in the very blurry photo her owner sent me. I'll snap a better one when she moves in.
Click
here to see someone else who keeps Angora rabbits and knits up gorgeous things from their yarn. Such a source of inspiration! I'm going to start with socks, since mine are worn through at the holes, but as you can imagine, I'll be waiting a while before they're ready. First the fur has to grow!
Gosh, am I up for this? I may regret it, next summer, when I'm drowning under garden maintenance and surviving a full on touring schedule. But I've gotta try it.
