In the past few months, I have been blending my collected angora fibre with a variety of other fibres. After changing out the cloth on my old drum carder to one that has a higher tpi (tooth per inch), which is better for finer fibres such as angora, I started with alpaca roving, which is very soft and also white, the same as my angora. It carded and spun up beautifully! I moved on to using a heavier merino wool that was hand painted in shades of light blue and purple, which became more diffused when I added the angora, but which held a lovely softness. I also tried out some long staple llama locks in auburn, which produced a heavier weighted blend. Lastly, I have blended the angora with a black merino wool, which gave a very tweed-ish grey, and was still very soft. Here are some photos of replacing the carding cloth on my drum carder. I took the whole thing apart, and pried off the old cloth. The new cloth was cut to the correct length and stapled back onto the large drum, as well as the small one. It was important to notice the tooth direction when putting the cloth on! (Teeth at the top of the drum need to bend away from the loading tray). Everything got a good cleaning before putting it all back together.
Making a blend on the drum carder- I didn’t do any specific ratio measurements, as I am still getting a feel for how much angora I need to include at a minimum to still have a predominant angora feel. I have been estimating a half and half ratio to start.
Generally, I loaded the tray and carded it through, doing about three loads before I pulled the batt off the large drum. Then I carded the whole batt through once again very slowly, letting it spread out while it was pulled in to get a smooth, overall mix of the two fibres. I didn’t take any photos while I was spinning it! Here are some scarves I wove with the yarn from that combination, and a skein of angora/alpaca in which I spun little coloured bits.
I am very excited about exploring more options with the angora I am getting from my rabbits. The neutral colours of the angora are flexible with colour combinations, and the added softness and warmth are simply divine! These and other creations are for sale on my etsy store~ Silver Circle Weaving. I also look forward to having all my weaving for sale at the Christmas Craft Fair at the community hall on Pender Island this weekend!
Inspirational Village 
Nov 18, 2016 @ 14:41:35
Could you dye the angora before spinning or would it become a felted mess?
Nov 20, 2016 @ 00:46:01
Hello~ It is my guess that it would become a felted mess. I haven’t done any dying before, but just gently washing the spun angora can get it slightly entangled in some places if I move it around too much in the water!