Neps, Short cuts, breaks

One bit of neps from a half hour of spinning

I've been tardy with spinning some Angora (bunny) exercises for homework. I kept putting off finishing the exercises because I wasn't enjoying the experience.  It's not that it's a horrible fibre.  It's actually a lovely fibre and spins to make gorgeous yarn, all soft, fluffy and warm.  However, I seem to have managed to get the mother of all inclusion of neps, short cuts or breakage in the fibre.  I have sorted the fibre before carding it, picked through the batts and rolags after carding and then picked out more short cuts as I was spinning.  It wasn't fun spinning most of the time because it was start and stop.   Still, I was missing lots of neps and was picking some of them out of the finished yarn. 

Angora samples on the bobbin.

Though I'm not happy with my finished yarns, I'm leaving it.  I've spent too much time as it is, trying to get samples to work up nicely.  When I find a good handful of bunny hair, spinning is delightful.   The angora was a welcome gift from our Master Spinner level 5 instructor Donna, and I'm more than appreciative of this since I couldn't find a source for bunny hair locally.  There are lovely handfuls of fibre in the bag, I just didn't realize it until I'd started carding or I'd have been a bit more careful.  Since I was the one who divvied up the lovely bag of fibre, I can't fault anyone but myself.  I sure hope that I'm the only one that got the short cuts though.  

Finished Angora and blended samples.

I have to say that my favourite was the Merino/Angora blend.  It is so soft and except for the constant picking of bits, was fast to spin using a long draw.  I didn't like the angora/silk blend much as it was slippery fibre against slippery fibre.  It was awful to blend and I came out looking I'd been rolling in piles of shedding bunnies and rejected silk.  Next time I might use a mask as I sneezed for two days afterwards.

So what did I do when I was done wet finishing the final skein?   I made hand dipped candles of course!