IAGARB

On November 7, 8, and 9th, a marathon testing for registration was held in Silverton, Oregon. We had a total of 14 rabbits tested over three days. Eight of those passed. To pass, a rabbit must have a score higher than 80 points and a minimum of 325 grams of wool produced over 91 days.

Shown here is Margie’s rabbit, Windsor Farm’s Yurs Fur Ever.

We had a lot of fun. While we sheared and the rabbits were judged, we chatted and exchanged information and shearing tips. Some brought knitted items for show and tell. Margie had some beautiful hand-dyed socks made from the IAGARB sock yarn.

Shown here is Bungalow Farm’s Mogul. He was the top producing rabbit over the three day event with 1684 grams of wool (421 grams for the 91 day shearing period).

Also notable was Windsor Farm’s Voodoo owned by Erin. She is the first Black German to pass registration! She is purebred doe descended from the 2006 black imports brought back from Germany.

And to top it off, IAGARB’s registration database has reached over 100 animals tested! Testing began in North America in 2002. Quite a feat in a few short years. Wool quality and production has steadily increased during those years primarily due to better management, feed, and importing quality animals into our gene pool. In 2008, the first German to produce over 2,000 grams annually was recorded in the IAGARB database. We look forward to many more in the future!

IAGARB’s booth at Rhinebeck was awesome! IAGARB had a great sized space and it was full most of the time with people interested in our beautiful angora rabbits and how to care for them. In fact, we had to keep pushing the tables we used as barriers back because the crowds kept pressing them towards us. A large group of people surrounded Susan Wiley while she judged rabbits.

Tony Amodeo of A&J Clippers set up his booth next to us. Most of the people who visited had never seen Aesculap clippers before. It was a great introduction to their superb equipment.

Susan Wiley, Charlene Schultz and Marlene Gruetter took a moment to pose for the camera.

The weather at Rhinebeck was classic for mid-October – bright and cold! Keeping warm with wool was on every one’s mind. Nancy Reid knitted a sweater for Samson’s Pandora out of our 85/15. Pandora looked very stylish! She was an Angora dressed in angora. How cute is that?

It was a really important part of our shearing demonstrations to show that the rabbits must be protected from chilling.

Pandora in her sweater – front view.

Samson’s Pandora in Angora poses by a new product from Aesculap – a cordless, rechargeable clipper. It was very light and easy to maneuver. The cordless was not quite as fast as our Red Clippers but not as heavy either. The cordless clipper is not yet available in North America. It was introduced in Europe only last year. Tony was very kind to let us be the first to try it out. We will share the details about this product as they become available.

Sharon Costello was very generous to donate a prize worth 40.00 for our Rhinebeck registration to winning member Michaele Bailey. The title of the video awarded to Michaele was Featherweight Felt – Making Scarves with Sharon. The video gives “step-by-step instructions for creating 6 lightweight felt scarves using a variety of fibers and innovative techniques.” For a closer look at Sharon’s video, visit www.blacksheepdesigns.com.

Thanks, Sharon!

Here is a post dinner photo of Susan Wiley, Nancy Reid and Pat Spark looking very satisfied after a great dinner at the Mercato Restaurant in Red Hook, New York – just a few miles from the Duchess County Fairgrounds. The Pumpkin Ravioli and Tiramisu were to die for!

It was a really fun dinner. We all exchanged stories of our travels. Nancy has been all over the world. Pat is a (THE) globe trotting felter and Leslie and Susan had tales to tell of their travels.

German angoras awaiting judging at Rhinebeck.