Spinning Broken Angora Wool

Henrietta is a broken chestnut French doe, her chestnut color is very dark, more gray than orange.  In the old standard, this color would be considered as "Wild Gray".

Rayna is Henrietta's daughter, also a broken chestnut.   Rayna's chestnut has lots of brown and orange, it's considered as the more proper chestnut.

Mom Henrietta on the right, she is 5-1/2 years old and daughter Rayna is very close to 4 years old.  Mom and daughter get along very well, they either live together or next to each other, and they exercise together.   Both produce very nice wool for spinning.

The chestnut wool from Henrietta and Rayna are put together for spinning.   The two skeins have different shades, it's not because Henrietta's wool being darker or Rayna's lighter and more brownish, it's because of the different way of plying. 


   

This is a close up of the skein on the right, it's a 100% two ply.  I spun two strands of the broken wool into single yarn then plied them together.    Broken means there are white and color mixed in the wool.    Each single has white and chestnut, when plied together, white and chestnut to some degree cancel the "dark" and "light" factor.

This is a closeup of the skein on the left.   I spun one ply of the broken wool then ply it with a gray thread.  As you can see that white stays white and chestnut stays chestnut, very distinctive.   There is no mixture of white and chestnut. 

Which way is better?  There is no verdict, it's more of personal taste.   My taste is more in favor of the one ply broken wool with one ply thread method as it shows off the two distinctive colors better. 

Caron and Nate's Partnership Sign

Carol and Nate are a winning team in American Fuzzy Lop.   Between Carol and Nate is Nate's son Parker.    At the huge WCC last year their Fuzzy won the Reserve In Show from judges Michael and Adam.

Nate's three children hold a sign to show the partnership of Carol and Nate.  From left to right are Parker, Mia and Natalee.   Parker and Natalee are twins.

Nate has the same sign, in green,  made for Carol.   Green for Green, make sense.

Waiting for Persimmons

Our Persimmon tree is healthy and green, the branches are heavy with fruits thus require support sticks to prevent breaking or cracking, 

The green Fuyu persimmons on the tree.

We are hoping the squirrels won't take all the fruits away so that we could...

... we could enjoy the matured crunch Fuyu in a few months.  

Graceann Under the Sun

A nice sunny day, Graceann enjoys the breeze.

Pretty Graceann is very elegent.

Graceann is a good photographer's model.

Morning sun and breeze are the best combination for an Angora photo session.

Baby Whisper

Little Baby Whisper, 8 weeks old English Angora.

Casey is the breeder mom.

Baby Whisper is going into a van, what's happening?

Pattee asks baby Whisper, would you like to come home with me?

Baby Whisper seems to be happy with the change....

... Pattee is now the adoptive mom.

What Kind of Veggie is it?

A plant with yellow flowers.

The flowers turn into fruits, first little green ones, when it starts to mature, it's greenish and orangish.

The color combination is very pretty, green and orange stripes.

Here is a close up.

Ready to eat, yummy.   Are you able to guess what these are?   These are Striped Roman tomatoes with a very sexy name: Torch Roma.
Carolyn has been gifted quite a few unusual seeds in the spring, now she has "Angora cucumbers" and "Torch Romas".

Monique Wants to Show Off

As we know Monique's ambition is to be photography model.

She can't help but wanting to show off her beauty ....

... and ability to sit still.