I wasn’t planning to attend another event in April (I had attended two already this month) but when I found out the theme of Unslung was “Rabbit’s Revenge” and the A&S competition was “Rabbit in any medium” I couldn’t very well NOT go. So then the question was what exactly to enter.
I considered doing a research paper but then I don’t have much to show at the actual contest. I didn’t have time to actually spin yarn or make anything finished so I decided instead to prep wool and put it on a distaff for future spinning.
Distaffs in use with drop spindles are depicted frequently in period art spanning hundreds of years and many locations. Here are just a couple photos I found:
I didn’t own hand carders or combs to prepare the wool so I asked my local fiber guild if anyone had a set of either that I could borrow. The first person who responded had carders she was willing to loan me so I ended up hand carding the wool. I learned during my research that in period it was more likely that it was combed for the distaff so that will be my next trial. As it was the carding had been done by the time I discovered that fact.
The plan was to use my angora wool from my own rabbits for this project, therefore bringing in the “rabbit” requirement. However, I’m told angora rabbit can be hard to spin for an inexperienced spinner-and I’m definitely still a novice. So I wanted to blend it with sheep wool. I choose shetland wool as it was readily available in period, easy to work with, and available in several natural colors. The blend is about 50/50.
To create the bat I carded sections of wool, laid them out in a line overlapping the ends and two layers thick. I then rolled the line this way and that to get it to gently stick together.
Then I rolled the bat onto the distaff and secured it by wrapping a hemp braid around the entire thing.
I’m a bit of an overachiever and I couldn’t help but take some rabbits with me to the event! So my display included my documentation (linked below), two rabbits – Thror whose wool I used but who tends to be a bit grumpy and Gloin who loves attention and was happy to allow everyone to pet him! I also had a summary sheet and a bowl of both angora wool and shetland wool.
If you would like to check out the full documentation for this project click here. You can also check out all of my Angora related research and projects here.
I also had the privilege of getting this amazing photo with the wonderful ladies who ran the A&S Competition!
