good farm animals for soft yarn?
April 10, 2010 by
Filed under sheep yarn
i live in the country and have enough room to support 2 or 3 goats or sheep, and like to knit. i want an animal that would provide soft wool to knit with. if you suggest an animal can you leave a picture of one with you’re answer. thanks
angora rabbits have extreamly soft fur and i believe people do use it to knit with
An alpaca… I included a link to a site about them and it even includes info about their fibers.
Alpacas produce one of the world’s finest and most luxurious natural fibers. It is clipped from the animal without causing it injury. Soft as cashmere and warmer, lighter and stronger than wool, it comes in more colors than any other fiber producing animal (approximately 22 basic colors with many variations and blends).This cashmere-like fleece, once reserved for Incan royalty, is now enjoyed by spinners and weavers around the world.
Probably the softest yarm would come from Alpacas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpaca
sheep,
Alpacas have fabulous wool – very warm, very soft!
My vote would be for angora rabbits or alpacas. Advantages of rabbits over alpacas is that the fiber is softer, they’re cheaper, and you don’t need to have a shearer (or learn to do it yourself). You would be cuddling them and brushing them like your favorite lap dog. On the flip side, one shearing of an alpaca would make a sweater. It takes a little longer to collect hair from brushing a rabbit. Also, alpaca fiber can have more stretch than angora.
You can learn more about the care and processing at a fiber festival, like Sheep to Shawl, or perhaps even a county or state fair where owners bring them to show. A local feed store might be able to point you to animal owners who would assist you.
I live on a permaculture farm. I’ve raised varrious fiber animals off and on.
Angora rabbits…need to be kept in an extremely clean cage. Fiber must be hand plucked from angora rabbits. You do not get much fiber from angora rabbits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angora_rabbit
Great Pyrenees (dogs) will produce oodles of very soft fiber for you twice a year. Just brush when they begin to blow their coat. NEVER shave/shear a Pyrenees. (you can actually use the undercoat of any dog that has one)
Angora goats have lovely fiber. They have long curly coats, that can be shorn. I shear mine by hand. Long fiber, up to a foot, but usually more like 7-8 inches. Very nice to work with. Angora goats recieve my highest recomendation. They are easy to work with, and have very nice personalities.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/goats/angora/
Llamas, tons of fiber, quiet corse, but very warm sweaters. Tons of fiber from them. They can be extremly nasty tempered, spit, can gut you with their claw like feet, or just stomp you into the ground. Make sure you get a friendly one. NEVER EVER BOTTLE RAISE A LLAMA, OR BUY A BOTTLE RAISED LLAMA. When the bottle raised ones hit puberty, they become serriously dangerous animals.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/other/
Alpcas, close relative of llamas. All the same problems, just in a smaller package. Alpacas have nicer wool than llamas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpaca
Sheep, you if you desire. I raise sheep, but I don’t really like them. Sheep are dumb as rocks and spend the day wandering about the pasture, looking for ways to kill themselves. Merlino have the softest wool. They are large sheep and difficult to shear.
If you decide on sheep, you might want to concider a heritage breed. You will find many more interesting colors.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/cotswold/index.htm
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/jacob.html
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/karakul.html
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/leicesterlongwool/index.htm
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/navajochurro.html
~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years