Dust Ruffle Bunny

Butterscotch is almost 4 months old! I can hardly believe it! It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming of bringing my adorable baby bunny home. Being that she's almost 4 months old, it is high time for a hare cut. See what I did there?

German angoras do not molt, so they need to have their wool sheared every three to four months in order to prevent wool block. Since this is Butters' first shearing, she was understandably uncooperative and skittish. I used regular long bladed craft scissors(since I had them on hand and cannot afford shears yet) and started by clipping the wool off her back in small tufts, being careful to avoid second cuts(bits of fluff that get caught up in the tuft being sheared, resulting in shorter staple lengths). Over two sessions I was able to get all her prime fiber and some of her secondary fiber, but I won't be able to get her sides, chest, or belly, until Mr. Bear can help me keep her still.

She has a decorative dust ruffle, currently.

After putting up with two shearing sessions, she earned herself a good long play session without any fuss from me.

Apparently nibbling my skirt seemed appropriate payback for making her bald.

I gave her a nice pile of towels to burrow in and play with.

Oh no! The scissors!

I got more fiber off her than I would have thought for a young bunny. She's going to be much larger when she's full grown, so I forsee a lot of shearing in the future.

A large bowl of primary angora.

A start on the Secondary Angora.

The angora is so soft that when you press your hand into the bowl full of it, you can barely feel it against your skin. I'm planning on spinning her primary fiber(blended with some wool for memory) between now and the wedding and knitting them up into a pair of wedding wristers. Specifically these. So pretty.

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Coraline, or How I learned to Spin

We had some time to kill before the movie, and while we were browsing in Nordstrom's, I saw this dress, which reminded me of the Atlas fabric I became so fond of in Urumqi:

It's not exactly Atlas, but it's so close!

I really enjoyed Coraline, even with the addition of new characters and a slightly altered ending. Visually, it was absolutely stunning, and now I'm even more interested in making one of those Coraline Boxes I've been seeing everywhere. I love buttons.

Before the movie Desi and I had lunch where we exchanged birthday gifts. She seemed to like the Guan Yin figure(it's much heavier than it looks), but she totally wins the gift-giving round this time. She got me two drop spindles(one large, one small), a niddy noddy, a nostepinne, and some gorgeous red wool roving. After the movie we went to the Chocolate Apothecary, ordered some drinking chocolate(I had the Chocolate Mocha, and I highly recommend it) and settled into the overstuffed chairs in front of the fireplace so she could teach me to spin.

Her yarn is so even and thin. I must practice until I get that good.

And my sorry excuse for yarn. Super-lumpy.

I'm still proud of it, though. It didn't end up a giant tangled ball.

We got free biscotti. People love spinners.

The hardest part for me so far is drafting(where you pull the fibers apart so they're thin enough to spin, but not so thin that you split the roving). This roving had a fairly long staple length, which helped.

That's a niddy noddy she's winding her yarn around. The yarn looks red in the photo, but it's actually orange and purple.

You know, the Chocolate Apothecary should really consider paying me for my endorsement.