Cross Stitch Exhibit at the Community Center at Morgan Hill

 

 

 

A display case at the community center attracts attention.
 

It's a display of cross stitch creations.

 

These items got heart.
 

The stitches with cut out patterns is called "Swalm work".
 

These are towels with embroidery with a special technique called Huckweaving, it'll too pretty to actually put these towel to use.

 

There's a second display case at the community center.
 

Holiday theme stitch work.

 

More holiday them stitch work.

 

While more stitch work are display, the pink flower in the back is interesting.  It's a coffee filter that has been dyed and embellished then glued on a computer disk.





Here is a close up of the flower that's made of a coffee filter.  It's full of imagination that deserves a featured close up with the description.




 

 

How to Spin a Rabbit - Helen von Ammon Remembered

 

 

A children's book about spinning and English Angora was published in 1994 by Helen von Ammon.

 

Recently Polly Holmes was cleaning out her rabbit things and decided to send this book to Betty.  Though Betty has this book in her collection, she has not read it for a while.







It's a story told by Chandon, an English Angora rabbit.
 

 

Helen visits a farm that has English Angora rabbits among other animals.

 

Helen picks up a baby English Angora and said, "My name is Helen and your name is now Chandon".



 

Not too long after Chandon goes home with Helen, Pooff and BunBun join the family.


 

Chandon, Pooff and BunBun each has a "bundominium" that they can see trees, houses and people.


 

Chandon, Pooff and BunBun are good friends and they groom each other to keep clean.  Chandon and BunBun are fawn and Pooff is black.

 

Helen combs Chandon to harvest her wool.

 

Helen spins the wool combed from Chandon, Pooff and BunBun.  Chandon says, "BunBun and I grown enough fur for Helen to knit two sweaters a year.  Pooff is bigger and makes three sweaters a year".

 

People would come to Helen's condominium to buy her beautiful Angora creations.

 

One of Chandon's favorite activities is to chew on Helen's knitting needles and play with her yarn.

 

Chandon sits on Helen's lap in front of a fireplace at night.  


 

Helen wrote this children's book via Chandon.   Chandon came from Bonnie Almond, the first president of NCAG, BunBun came from Sandy Kelly, the second president of NCAG, Pooff came from Betty Chu.   Neither Bonnie nor Sandy is now involved in NCAG or rabbits, but Betty is still active in the wonderful world of Angora. 

 

This is a photo of Chandon.

 



Chandon, Pooff and BunBun had all gone to the bunny heaven long ago; the story was written in the late 80s or early 90s then published in 1994.   Helen later had a Satin Angora called SuGAH that came from Franco and Tracy.     See:

https://ncag.blogspot.com/2005/12/helen-and-sugah.html
 

Helen von Ammon
 August 2, 1922 - January 31, 2014.
See  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?pid=169542436


This book is no longer in print, and there isn't anyone heir to Helen.  However, it's still available in resale at Amazon.



 

Mason Wins Youth Best In Show with Giant Angora Cool Whip

Judge Amy Zittel awards the youth Best In Show to Giant Angora Cool Whip, bred and shown by Mason.

Tammy reports:

"Sharing some great news!  Mason Pearson won BIS with his homegrown Intermediate Giant Angora Doe, "Cool Whip."    Antelope County Fair, August 19, 2017.

I'm very proud of this guy and his parents.  Mason bought his first Giant from me at Portland's convention in 2015, just 2 years ago with his own money.  That following spring his Giant, Carpet received many BOB's at WCC 2016.  This year Mason started showing his new Giant's offspring at WCC 2017.   We had a great turn out with Giants on the show tables, many of the judges commented on how impressed they were with the quality of Giants. 

Mason's mother told me his goal was to get his bunny's picture in the DR for BIS.  Now he has his big win at the Antelope Valley Fair!  Stay tuned in the Nov/Dec issue to see Mason's bun's picture. I have also included Mason's pictures below with his winning doe."

Barn Cleaning 2017

Why are these English Angora rabbits in show carriers?

It must be Betty's annual barn cleaning day.



All the barn occupants are taken out their familiar condos and go into their carriers.
On the upper left corner is a evaporative cooler that keeps the air flowing and temperature cool.

Rabbits can create lots of yucky stuff during the year.

The trays are waiting to be washed.

Part of the trays are cleaned and being dried.

Cages are out on the patio flamed by a blow-torch and power-washed.

The shades are also taken down washed and dried under the sun.

More cages being power-washed.

All Betty's cages have solid dividers to prevent the transmission of potential germs from the shows.
The above task of moving the rabbits, flaming and power-washing the cages and the entire barn takes more than two whole days.  Unfortunately the rabbits have to stay in their carriers during the barn-cleaning process.

On the third day, the barn is dried enough to move the cages in and rabbits are gradually being moved back to their familiar condos.

It's so good to see clean barn and clean cages, it's even better to be able to let the rabbits return to their normal lives.

Another view of the cleaned cages.

Commercial Angora Yarn

 

 

 

Most of the Angora yarn nowadays are done by "cottage industry" that means independent mills that mill Angora blend yarns either by commission or as their own product,  or rabbit raisers who produce 100% Angora yarn by hand spinning.      However there is still a wholesale yarn company that imports 100% Angora mill spun yarn from France.    This box of Angora yarn is dyed jet black, there are 10 balls in the box.

 

Each ball of this commercial Angora yarn is 10 grams (less than 1/2 of an oz, one oz = 28.3495 grams).

  

It is a very old brand, has been around for a long time; recently it was re-registered by a company in the US.


 

This pair of fingerless mitten used about 1-1/2 ball of this commercial Angora yarn.  The yarn is lacey weight, too fine for the mitten, so two strands were put together for the knitting.




 

Pretty White Doe Jania

 

 

Jania is a gorgeous white doe...
 

Jania has a fabulous coat...
 

Jania and littermate sister Jada have both Best of Breed many times, Jada wins a bit more than but Jania still is a beautiful doe.





 

More Practical Prizes from CRCS

 

 

 

A few days ago, we showed the BOB and BOS winners by CRCS at Monterey, see http://ncag.blogspot.com/2017/08/prizes-for-best-of-breed-and-best.html
 We'll feature some of the previous prizes: soft calculator.  It's jelly-like, soft and can be bend into any shape.  Very convenient.


 

The keychain flashlights are cute and useful.

 

The shopping bags come in handy especially now the entire state of California bans single-use plastic bags.

We can always use more pens.