Northern California Angora Guild

Black English Angora and Black Yarn

Yesterday these black English Angora handspun yarns were featured.

Here is a close up of the these art yarns. If you wonder whether the saved black wool was smooth enough to spin lace weight yarns, yes, the wool was prime wool. I could have spin fine but my taste is closer to art yarns for hat making.

Isn't Betty known for having torts and REWs? Where did these black English Angora wool come from? The black wool has be in my storage for quite a while. Since I have made the decision of focusing on torts and REW, I thought I'd never have black wool again so I treausred them. Recently I thought it's not making any sense to store bags and bags of the pretty wool but not use them so I sat down and spun them all.

I have had black as well as most colors in my English Angora herd for at least 25 years before I made the decision to streamline to torts and REW. This photo was taken in 2004. Her name is Chu's LaNelle, the BOV colored at the 2004 ARBA convention at Providence, RI. This photo is quite often-used in various places including but not limited to the WCC catalog from the early years to the current. This photo also attracted attention from a game show called "I've Got a Secret" in 2006 and as a result I was invited to be a contestant at that show. See: English Angora On TV The video of the entire segment is at the end of the post. However, the video does not show up if you are using a mobile device. You need a regular computer to watch the program.

This is Chu's Malania. She was the BOV colored at the 2005 Angora National. Malania was the "Model" of the Dust Bunny Araminta for the Ghost Hunter book series Silver Master. See:
English Angora as Dust Bunnies: 2008

This is Chu's Tamyra. She has one of the darkest black among the English Angora blacks.

These three are just samples of my previous black English Angoras. I have had many more than these three. From the photos, you can see the different shades of black. All wool animals tend to have different shades of color even with the same color genetics due to modifiers. Also the longer the wool, the less the color near the skin of the rabbit. As a result the yarns spun from their wool are not a consistent black or gray. The yarns tend to look varigated even though the wool could be from the same rabbit.

Do I miss the black English Angoras? Yes and no. They are very pretty. However, I found it harder to keep as their texture tends to be softer than the torts and REW that I specialized in. Due to the lighter color under the tips, any little chewing shows up like a light bulb, thus harder to maintain a finish look. Though I do a good amount of fiber work, I consider myself mainly a show person. I find it's more efficient to focus on the type, density, texture and non-molting easy care characteristics than having many different colors in my herd.

Black English Angora and the Handspun Yarns

Even though it has been during a heat wave, I have been productive in getting my English Angora wool spun up. How many ounces and yardages in this pile of art yarns?

The pile makes 5 skeins of yarn. Weight wise, a bit less than 2 pounds. Length wise, around 450-500 yards. These yarns are intended for making several hats.

Casey’s Cute Satin Angora Babies

Casey has a litter of shiny bunnies.

These are the Satin Angora bunnies.

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One Ruby Eye White baby.

Another Ruby Eye White bunny.

And a chocolate agouti bunny.

Casey is going to have a great show season coming up soon.

Bao Bao and Bei Bei Have an Indoor Life

Bao Bao and Bei Bei were born in a feral cat colony at the Merced County Fairgrounds.

They got caught by the fairgound grounds keepers at 4 weeks old and we adopted them from then fair CEO Teresa in May 2022.

They weighed at 15-16 ounces when they join our family in May 2022, now weight 19 pounds and 16 pounds in September 2026.

They traded feral cat life for a strictly indoor life. Do they miss the outside world?

They do look out of the windows regularly, but if the door is open, they don't really want to go outside. Indoor life is far better than the feral cat life.

Micro Girl 8 Months Old

Micro Girl makes to 8 months old. She was born premature with a size smaller than my pinkie finger. It was touch and go in the first few months. It’s a miracle that she not only survived but thriving. At 8 months old, she is over 6 pounds, a normal weight for a young senior.

Raecelia is Growing Up

Raecelia is the only girl in a group of boys, boys, and boys.

Though they are the same age, somehow Raecelia looks smaller and younger than the boys.

She just made senior, but still looks a bit junior-ish.

Slow growing could be a blessing: slow to mature usually means slow to go out of coat.

Raecelis hopes to follow her mother Raelynne, her older sisters Raeberta and Raeanna's footsteps to be a multi Best In Show winner. Just need more growing, .....

Melissa and Lena Have Fun at Petaluma

When we see Melissa at shows, she's usually judging and awarding Best In Show or Reserve In Show to the top winners that she picked. At the CRCS show at Petaluma, she was an exhibitor! And her Himalayan receives the Reserve In Show honor.

A very happy group: Judge Ray Stacy, Best In Show Fremch Angora shown by Carol Green, and Reserve In Show Himalayan shown by Melissa and Lena Magee.

Indiana State Fair is one of the largest fairs in the Midwest and the country. Carol was invited to judge at the 2025 Indiana State Fair last year and Melissa judged the 2026 Indiana State Fair. There is an interesting coincidence or maybe not a coincidence: they used the same judging table. Carol and Melissa are about the same size, much shorter than most of the male judges and even some of the woman judges. The judging table for both needs to be somewhat lower than the regular height. When Melissa arrived at the Indiana State Fair, she was told that the particular table was reserved for "the short California judges". Here we have the two "short California judges"!!!

This post concludes the photos and reports of the CRCS all breed shows at Petaluma on August 22, 2026.