Scary Bunny

During the airing of the stash a few weeks back I found a small baggie of angora bunny fur that my neighbor Kris gave me ages ago. The fur belonged to Martha the classroom bunny. I knew at the time she gave me the little baggie of fluff, that there was no way my spinning skills were up to the challenge.

It was a happy coincidence that around the same time I found my little bag I noticed that a few other spinners in the Ravelry beginning-spinners group were going to jump in and tackle some angora,and so I decided to pull up my big girl panties and get to work.

I decided right off the bat that I was going to blend the bunny with some very fine first fleece Shetland.

I also decided to mix up some fresh dye and revisit microwave dying. I spent a few days squirting dyes and nucking fluff and ended up with this…

I wasn’t 100% crazy about the color of the bunny but after five or six passes through the carder I was ok with it. (trying to quiet the critic and embrace beginner mind here)

I decided on a roughly 75% Shetland, 25% bunny blend . The whole bunch weighed  1.3 ounces.

I then divided it into three clumps for spinning- shooting to distribute what I had as equally as possible onto three bobbins. My goal - a fingering weight 3 ply. I ended up with about 65 yards of 3 ply.

The Shetland really helped hold things together and even with just 25% bunny- the yarn has a wonderful softness and halo. The color of the yarn a misty lavender. You can see a few of the reddish neps of bunny fur… I’ve decided I actually like that.

Now I’m knitting it up along with some Lorna’s laces Shepard Sock into a Baktus shawl/scarf that I’ll be giving to Kris - in remembrance of Martha. She was a nice bunny even though she made(makes) me sneeze.

PS- the rather scary looking pink bunny in the photo is actually a vintage cotton ball dispenser. I’m sparing you a photo of the back where the hole is because I have no cotton balls at the moment.