Garden Girl TV: How to Shear a Rabbit for spinning and knitting angora yarn

Patti the Garden Girl shears one of her angora rabbits, in preparation for making a baby hat.

Read the companion article here: http://www.gardengirltv.com/shear-angora-rabbit.html

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FULL TEXT:

How to Shear a Rabbit
(Music Playing)

Today, I am going to show you how I go from rabbit to baby hat. And, I am going to start off by shearing one of my giant German angora rabbits.

Now, this guy right here, he is a buck and he was born here. He is about 10 months old and I have sheared him before but he is a little bit nervous right now and a little bit skittish so, I am going to spent a little time petting him and I am also going to start brushing him a little bit too.

I am just going to take some time here right now to just get rid of all the matts that I can. And, this is basically clipping all of the matted hair that really is not going to be useable at all, and I am just going to start there.

Now, I love knitting and I love spinning and I love doing it when I have a specific person in mind.

So today, I am going to take all of the angora from my buck here and I am going to spin it into some yarn that I am going to make into a small baby hat. And, it is going to be for Paulo who is my neighbor, my new neighbor. He is 6 months old yesterday.

And, since winter was coming near, I am going to make him a hat that is going to keep him super extra warm this winter.

Okay, so I am just brushing my buck angora out right now. And, I am going to pick a place to start shearing him.

Now, the angora wool is actually 7 times warmer than sheeps wool. So, it is a super, super ultra warm fiber. And actually, a lot of mountain climbers used it that are going to climb in extreme conditions. They have thermal underwear that is made out of angora. So, it is really super warm.

It does really well when you blend it with different types of fibers so, a little bit of angora actually does go along way.

The scissors that I am using here, these are Fiskars Scissors. They are the best kind of scissors actually to use for this process. They are fabric shears.

These are the kinds that you want to use in. You also want to make sure that when you get these scissors that you get a sharpener with it.

Got that Fiskars sharpener,

So, you want to make sure that your scissors are sharp as they can be. So, you definitely when you get the scissors, you got to get that too.

This is absolutely useable and check this out. Check out how awesome is this.

I can just take it from here,

(Demo)

And I can just - something in here.

(Music Playing)

And then, I am doing that new shape.

It is just working perfectly!

(Mumbling words)

There you go.

There you go, I am pretty much done with this rabbit and, I just have a little bit more there I am going to do. I am just going to clean it up a little bit and cut his toe nails and just make him look a little bit prettier.

But, after I do that, I am going to show you how to take the angora wool, card it and spin it into usable yarn and then, I am going to make a little baby hat for my neighbor, Powell.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• fiber
• art
• angora
• rabbit
• shearing
• permaculture
• urban
• sustainable
• living
• spinning
• and
• knitting

[cfg0024]

You are an amazing woman! Thank you for keeping the old arts alive, and available to us via new technology. I didn't even know you could BUY spinning wheels. (other vids of yours) It's on my christmas list now.

Your rabbit looks well cared for. That hat is made with love from the very start!

Mad props to you lady. Keep the knowledge alive!

[MossMaskface]

That thing is huge! Thats not a rabbit, thats a sheepdog! D=

[sundogforlove]

Gardengirl. If god would just bring me a woman like you life would be so much more interesting. Do you raise the rabbits for consumption? What about the chickens? If you had to pick on or the other, which one would it be?

[iamkiarawr]

:( picking them up by the neck is painful, and bruises their delicate tissues.

[lucasthedogman]

about how long does it take to o a rabbit this way? and this way of shearing is is better then using clippers someone said is this true?

[JohannaCoursey]

wow. thanks for sharing how to do this. I am going to get a english angora bunny as a family pet in a couple of months and i want to learn to do this. I never even knew you could do this til I was doing research on them. this stuff is so neat and so cool!!!! thanks so much!!!!

[BohemianThings]

I love this video....wish I had my own rabbit to sheer for yarn. 

[vickyle1616]

r u tring to kill that bunny!

[michelesfibers]

@Labuser247 She has more than one rabbit, you can see that in the video. How much money is enough? Angora sells for at least $6 per oz. Most of them get sheared twice a year. Maybe 3 times. That is what these animals are for, their fiber. Just like sheep, alpaca, angora goats, etc. I'm sure she has a way of housing the rabbits in the winter time sheared or not.

[Labuser247]

@michelesfibers well she must do it all year. if she didnt she wiyld make enough money

[SkunkyPink]

This is what I want to do with my life ! :)