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Post by carole aka craftywoman on Mar 28, 2014 10:58:21 GMT
Has anyone used rabbit fur in felting? I just received a packet with some sheep fleece which I am washing (never done this before) but I've been reading the threads, in the packet was a packet of white rabbit fur, it's so soft and fly away (yes it's all over me and up my nose!!!) and I wondered what I could do with it. Now I want to keep angora rabbits for their fur - does anyone do this?
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Post by carole aka craftywoman on Mar 28, 2014 11:54:57 GMT
another question, are locks different to fleece?
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 28, 2014 13:39:39 GMT
The short answer is yes. rabbit will felt easily but as you see it is hard to layout. Most people seem to blend it weather spinning or felting. I know its part of the blend used for some cowboy hats. After that I know nothing. I have never used it.
they talk about the lock structure of a fleece. A fleece being the whole coat of wool from a sheep. A lock is a small section of wool that is sort of stuck together like a little triangle. what we usually see sold as locks are from the long wool breeds of sheep like wensleydale, blue faced leister, massum or teeswater . They are long a curly.
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Mar 28, 2014 14:03:20 GMT
Carole, I also received a small amount of rabbit fur with other animals fibers, and I made a sample using a coarse sheep wool with the rabbit fur, and another sample with merino wool and rabbit fur. Both felted easily, but I probably will not use rabbit again because I could not control the "fly away" effect. It stuck to my fingers and just about everything else. Beautiful effect though.
P.S. I would show you the photo but it's on Flickr and they no longer have BB code access! If you are interested, you can go on Flickr (I will label it for you in the meantime, assuming Flickr still allows that!!)
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Post by MTRuth on Mar 28, 2014 15:24:06 GMT
I have felted just rabbit fur and as you know, it is hard to handle. It is really soft but the layout and wet down is a real mess. Blending/carding with another fiber is your best bet.
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Mar 28, 2014 20:29:04 GMT
Good idea, Ruth, to blend it. Haven't tried that yet but its sounds doable. Alpaca and rabbit might be a nice combo.
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Post by carole aka craftywoman on Mar 29, 2014 6:15:28 GMT
Yes please luvswool, if it's at all possible I would really like to get an idea of what it looks like felted.
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Post by carole aka craftywoman on Mar 29, 2014 8:10:02 GMT
thank you for your helpful answers, I will try to mix rabbit and coarser fibres, here is my very first attempt at washing fleece, I was shocked at how white it came out :-) I think there are locks in it, not soft silky ones but locks non the less, then I thought I would dye some of it today and use it as accents in other projects - what do you think?  |
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 29, 2014 13:26:20 GMT
It really is amazing how much wool changes in the wash. go ahead and dye it. have fun. do you have a drum carder or hand carders?
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Post by Pandagirl on Mar 29, 2014 16:00:06 GMT
Have fun Carole! I'm sure you'll have no problem finding many uses for those lovely locks. I bought some Texas mohair that was supposed to be scoured. It wasn't so now I have to figure out how to get all that vegetable matter out of pound of it!
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Mar 29, 2014 16:54:46 GMT
>:(Carole, My FLICKR account is under CatWycliff, and the rabbit fur experiment is last photo added, or go under Sets and it's number #5 labeled rabbit fur with gold merino. Sorry I couldn't just post the photo for you, but sadly, they eliminated the bb code option. GRRRRR
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 29, 2014 20:35:55 GMT
Marilyn if it's clean but has veggy matter you can try popping it in the dryer and tumble it on fluff foe 10 or 15 min. it takes out a lot of the small stuff that is hard to pick out.
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Post by Pandagirl on Mar 29, 2014 21:04:50 GMT
Thanks Ann I'll try that. It sounds a lot easier than trying to pick it out.
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Post by carole aka craftywoman on Mar 30, 2014 6:17:32 GMT
Thanks again, I only have my dog grooming carders they are small but I may try to get the locks out of it and use them for something, I did manage to dye some too. I also dyed the rabbit fur - that was interesting. I'm off to see if I can see your flicker photo too. I've looked under CatWycliff and Cat Wycliff but the search came up negative. I made a trial vase and added strips of modelling wire mesh to give it more stability, but all that happened was it moved around, I had sharp bits coming out of the back. So I cut the piece to make it flat, I have loads more to do to it, but here is stage one - with dyed carrier rods and dyed bunny fur - it's been an interesting project.  |
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 30, 2014 13:19:30 GMT
Very cool texture. Did you remove the wire or leave it in?
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