Beads and Buns……..Jan. 3,2004

I am always in awe at the amount of knitting and spinning people like Wendy get done in a day and then in a week.  How DO they do it?  However, over the last few days, home alone, I got a teeny glimpse of what one can do, when the demands of a large family is not there.  I enjoyed my time alone and managed to get alot accomplished in that time, but I am glad that my family is back home safe and sound.

Now……….Stephanie has my complete admiration.  She gets soooooo much knitting finished AND she has the demands of a family.  Truly amazing!

Here are some of the things that I did with my time alone……

Beads

When I first saw the pattern for the 4th sock in the Six Sock KAL, I groaned.  Beads??  Beads and knitting together??  Can I with my lame eyesight even attempt this??  Do I even want to attempt this??  Hmmmm……..

You can see, that I decided to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do.  The chart was easy to follow along and I only had a few beads that did not want to knit correctly.  For anyone who is not quite sure that they want to try beaded knits…….give it a try…..you might be surprised!   The Koigu worked nicely for this pattern, but next time, I think I may use smaller beads.

Buns

Getting out to shear the bunnies in the winter can be a chore.  I usually do my shearing out in the "unheated" barn, so I really have to convince myself to get out there…bbrrr.  All of the bunnies are getting ready for their quarterly haircuts and a few of them are overdue, so it is high on my list of things to do this week.  I started the weekend off with shearing this girl, Savvy. (short for Savigon Blanc).  She will be the beginning of my "Wine" line…LOL. 

She is from Woolybuns and is bred down mostly from the newly imported lines.  I am so impressed with what these new Germans are giving up for fiber.  The picture on the right is what came off of her in just one shearing.  Now, she was a little overdue for a shearing, but I took 15 oz of fiber off of her and only 1.9 oz of that was waste.  Amazing!! I am excited to incorporate her into my lines here.  She will be bred to one of my bucks later this Winter for Spring babies.

Savvy was a very cooperative girl. I really do think that the rabbits realize somehow that we are doing them a favor by taking their coats off.  Here is Savvy sporting her tutu…

See how relaxed she gets during her shearing.  It has to feel good to get all of that fur off and move around again comfortably. 

One of the concerns, however, in the winter, is the cold.  In the past, I would put shearings off when it got too cold up here, as I was afraid that they would freeze to death.  Consequently, I would often lose that coat to mats, which was frustrating. 

Now I make little jackets for the naked buns.  Made from the sleeves of old sweatshirts, the bunnies stay toasty in them for a week to ten days until there is enough fur grown to insulate the bunny from the cold.   This year’s stack came from our local charity store.  The buns will be warm this year..LOL.

Savvy is glad to be back in her cage and is hopping around like a young baby bunny.  They truly are happy when that fur coat comes off and I think that they even understand a little that the sweat coat is for their protection as they seem to wear them willingly.

And there you have it………..life with angoras in the winter~