Oscar Wabbit, Spinning for Socks and a Cowl.

I've been grooming Oscar every 2-3 days to keep his coat nice, but I noticed over the last week his fibre is starting to shed when I comb him and he has been feeling the heat, so obviously it's time to pluck him. This doesn't hurt the rabbit, you are just removing the old coat and leaving the new short coat behind. It was rather time consuming as I went slowly, not wanting to frighten him with it being the first time either of us had gone through this process, but he was happy enough and enjoyed the cuddles and attention.

Here he is before plucking:

And after, notice how dark his new short coat looks compared to his old one:

Here's the box of treasure, it weighs just 28g.

The good thing about plucking as opposed to cutting the fibre is that you get the full staple length, whereas in cutting I would not dare cut near to his skin and would be lucky to get a 2" staple length.

I didn't cut the fibre from his ears or cheeks, but I did clip his legs and paws and trimmed his claws which were as sharp as needles before. 

Hopefully he will feel much cooler and will be easier to groom. Now I'm going to spin some of the fibre ~ another bonus being that it's already clean and not full of v.m...... unlike the alpaca's!

I started spinning some Corriedale sock blend fibre that I dyed a while back, more Autumnal colours:

Then I cast on for a cowl, and learnt a new method of doing a provisional cast on in the process:

The pattern is Callicarpa

The yarn is Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino Dk in Purple Plum.

Here's a link to the winding on provisional cast on tutorial.

And that's all for now folks!