Happy Halloween

NCAG wishes everyone Happy Halloween!

RabbitCon

The new feature in the ARBA convention this year is the RabbitCon, an education conference for rabbit breeders, described as "Expand your world of rabbit knowledge through the industry's leading experts".

There are 12 classes each day, a total of 24 classes, for two days on Saturday and Sunday. Participants purchase a special batch to attend any or all classes. Topics of classes range from basic rabbit management to nutrition to culling to health to marketing and more. Betty is very honored to be invited as one of the 15 faculty members in the RabbitCon. She will be teaching two sessions of "Turing Rabbit Wool into a Cottage Industry".

So far there are 300+ participants who have purchased the admission badge to attend classes. This is the first time of having a comprehensive educational program in an ARBA convention. It sets a standard for the future conventions to come.

ARBA Convention At San Diego

Official show catalog; it is completely colored, each page looks like a piece of art work. This is the most beautiful convention catalog ever.

Our beautiful Angora page in the show catalog. If you wish to read it clearly, click to enlarge the photo.

After more than 2 years of hard work, the ARBA convention is finally coming to California. The setup crew is hard at work at the show room right now and it will open to receive animals on Friday.

Here are some information about Angora:

Skein/Garment/Wool contest entries are to be submitted on Sunday at the Angora booth.

Judging starts on Monday morning at 8 am; the open rabbits will go on first in the following order: Satin Angora, English Angora, French Angora and Giant Angora. Youth rabbits will go on after all open rabbits are done in the same breed order. The judging order rotates from year to year of which breed to go on first; this year Satin Angora is the first breed. Since there are very few Satin Angora entered, English Angora will be on the judging table within a very short time.

Pictures of winners will be taken after each breed is judged.

Winners of the classes, BOV, BOSV will receive prize t-shirt made to your size and color preference on Monday. Please see Betty to check on sizes and available colors before you leave the show room.

On Tuesday at 1:15 to 3:00 pm, there will be an award party with Pizza/veggie/soda/treat for all our guests in Room C at the headquarter hotel Hilton. There is no charge but please sign up for it at the Angora booth no later than 10 am on Tuesday so that we know how many pizzas, treats and drinks to purchase for our guests. Prizes for rabbits and the Skein/Garment/Wool contest will be awarded in this party.

Hope to see you there and all have a fun time.

Allen At AZ State Fair - Spinning Contest

In this picture, a contestant spins behind her back. The longest yarn in 5 minutes with no break wins points towards the overall winner.









A local Phoenix spinner dresses in period attire and demonstrates daily on her 250 year old wheel to the fair goers. She also competed but the drop spindle boy beat her!








12 year old boy wins the beginning spinning group on a drop spindle no less! He's totally hooked on the art!

The last part of the contest was a 5 minute creativity skein. The spinners could use any fiber, but had to explain their unique yarn to a judge on why they chose the fiber and for what will they use it for.

Allen says,

"Not sure if this is inspiring or not, but I ran the annual spinning contest at the arizona state fair in phoenix over the weekend. It was my last angora goat show of the year and I stepped in to help the fair and local guild out. It started 5 years ago with the Cotswold Sheep National Show there at fair. I won champion spinner! Now in AZ where spinning is growing, the annual contest offers a constant/stable event to support the local wool and fiber arts.

Christie Sconsa started it."

Allen At AZ State Fair - Showing Giant Sheep

Allen says,

"I stepped in the ring to help my good friend Tor Sorenson show his nationally recognized Natural Colored Sheep at the AZ State Fair. This "breed" is very open-ended leaving many breeds of sheep eligable for the class. He's developed his line over 28 years with breeds like the Columbia. Tor is a recognized sheep judge and top breeder. He won Supreme Ewe in Show at Louisville 4 years ago. This is equal to ARBA BIS. He has a ewe now (behind me) that he says is better than that ewe and the best sheep he's ever raised. I showed her twin sister (here), who was actually smaller than her awesome twin! Tor went on to take Supreme Ewe with his favorite ewe this weekend in Phoenix. He's anxious for the annual Louisville show in November!"

More Of Carol G's Gloves And Mittens

This morning I decided to start something a little different. The cuffs are handspun yarn that is mostly black with flecks of bright colors and sparklies. Which color of angora/Fuzzy Lop yarn should I use now?

Well, I made my deicision: it's the glittery black yarn with tort Angora. I like it.

I originally started out to make gloves and I am half way done with a pair. These are richly cabled and made from a wool tweed commercial yarn.

Here is another pattern, made from commercial wool but trimmed in angora yarn.

My cat, Oscar, thought he should be included in the photo session. These mittens are made from handspun (3 ply) wool, trimmed with angora.

Sometimes I try out a new pattern. This pair is made from commercial alpaca yarn at the cuffs and handspun Fuzzy Lop/Merino wool for the body of the glove.

Another Over-Dyed Yarn

Here is another creation of using the over-dye method. The base color is peach by mixing pink and orange and set in the microwave oven. After the color is set, blue drops were placed on many different spots without disturbing the yarn. Then the yarn in the hot water is put back to the microwave oven to set the dye. Those very bright spots are the original blue color. The purplish color is the result of the blue soaking into the peach color.

The length of the skein is a little over 100 yards, the weight is a little over 5-1/2 oz. The most suitable use is for hats.