The Dark Side of Angora

It seems that there is more to the question of what to do with angora than I had first realized. You'll recall, my friend Denise suggested I spin "straight bunny" - so, no blending in of alpaca or wool. In terms of things that make you go "ummmmm", spinning just bunny is the way to go. Just imagine spending hours on end feeling that luxurious fiber.

However, sadly, bunny has no crimp.

In a crimpless world, my friend Denise explained to me just yesterday, if the knitted angora item gets wet, it becomes limp. Inevitably, your angora item will become rather limp over time. So to compensate, you must either blend the angora in with some other crimpy fiber, or accept the limposity (my very newest word... some day I'll tell you about fartalicious, another new word). If you accept the limposity, then you just need to knit something that lends itself to limposity.

A shawl. A scarf. My friend Denise says that somebody from the Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild made a hat that was actually an angora hat then a wool hat, with the angora hat becoming the lining and brim of the wool hat. Using circular needles.

I own circular needles, but I'm not going to go getting all circular on you now, because I honestly have no idea how to use them. But my Mom likes to knit hats, so consider this my request to my friend Denise to the lady at guild or whomever else might have it to please let me have the pattern for the angora lined hat. I will then hand the task over to my Mom, who likes to knit hats and knows how to use a circular needle.

Now, just in case nobody comes back with a pattern, I have been googling, and I see another approach at:

http://www.butternutwoolens.com/snowshoe-hare-hat-kits/hat-kits-click-here-for-more-photos-scroll-down-to-buy/

This lady felts bunny into a strip and tacks that into the interior of her hat. I'll have to think about that. You can imagine that for me, if you're going to use bunny, it's bunny all the way.

Of course, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm starting to wonder if all of the hats that my Mom has knit along the way couldn't be refurbished to include an angora lining. Wouldn't that be decadent?