Fiber Femme Focus

Chris Morgan of Woolybuns

Cheshire, CT

http://www.woolybuns.typepad.com/woolybuns

Article by Leslie Shelor

 

Luxurious quantities of soft, soft Angora wool, gorgeous hand felted angora and fine wool scarves and mittens, sharp wit and sweet bunny faces all come to mind with the thought of Chris Morgan, breeder of fine German Angora rabbits and felting workshop instructor.  Her small rabbitry in Connecticut produces beautiful pure German Angoras that yield large amounts of wonderful soft white Angora for spinning, dyeing and felting, and the German crosses she has bred can be counted on for a wonderful depth of color to their fleece. 

 

Chris fell in love with German Angoras at the Common Ground Fair in Maine while she was helping her mother with a booth.  Despite her mother's fiber business, Chris had not been involved with fiber arts.  But the sight of Gail Smith's beautiful Windsor Farms German Angoras kindled an amazing attraction to the rabbits, and Chris spent the next three years convincing her husband that German Angoras belonged in her back yard.  "Just think," she commented, "I could have my own Angora sweater."  To fulfill this prediction she named one of her first Angoras "Sweater"!

 

Spinning, then knitting, quickly became part of her life, and through many changes and the tumultuous days of raising teenagers, the Angora rabbits and their care were a constant priority with Chris.  At one point health issues had threatened to curtail fiber activities, but a good chiropractor improved her condition, and Chris has been branching out into felting and has begun to teach workshops in the processes.

 

Many new spinners are taught that Angora fiber is hard to spin.  Chris proclaims, "Not so!" and goes on to say that people should be told that the fiber is only a little slippery.  Angora combs and cards beautifully, or can be spun as is from the fold of the lock or just right from the rabbit, with only a little fluffing of the fiber. 

 

Chris has been a stay-at-home mom for several years and spends much of her time with the rabbits.  Although German Angoras are not difficult to care for, keeping a rabbitry clean and healthy does require time.  Chris says she goes out at least twice a day to feed and water, checking how much the rabbits eat and drink and checking the droppings beneath the cages.  The condition of the rabbit's "poop" is a prime indicator of the health of the animal: small droppings or none can mean that a rabbit is heading for wool block, a serious condition that can be fatal.  Heat is an issue in the area where Chris raises her rabbits, and she must be vigilant for signs of distress in these animals that produce incredibly dense coats.  Summer months mean operation of fans in the rabbitry and sometimes moving distressed rabbits inside into air conditioning to prevent suffering from the heat.  The rabbits can be sheared when hot weather arrives, creating more work at times if several animals need coats removed.  Young bunnies, such as these above with their mother, Missy, require extra care when they are in the nest box. Checking for problems and making sure the litters stay healthy are also part of the routine of the rabbitry.

 

There's a lot of fun along with the work, though, and even the fun takes time.  While German Angoras are not demanding rabbits, they do like attention and the rabbits in the Woolybuns rabbitry like to be petted at mealtimes.  The rabbits get toys to play with and throw around, simple things like fruit tree limbs, paper towel and toilet paper rolls.  An outside pen provides mental stimulation as well as exercise and fresh greens, as the rabbits are let out for supervised play.  Young litters need some handling as well.  The young fawn bunny on the right is typical of the easy-going gentleness of the German and German Cross rabbits that Chris produces at Woolybuns.

 

Chris says she doesn't name the babies that will get new homes and tries not to become too attached to them.  She wrote on her blog recently, "I try very hard to get  a sense of who will be good for the bunnies and gently discourage those I suspect are acting on whim without the necessary devotion to follow through.  Most of the placements have been successful but on occasion they haven't been." 

 

Even more time is spent in harvesting the luxurious wool of the rabbits.  Each rabbit needs to be sheared every ninety days, and Chris estimates that she shears about ten rabbits a month.  Working with the rabbits draped across the lap, with a pair of short-bladed scissors, great quantities of Angora can be clipped from each rabbit every quarter.  The rabbits Chris raises can each easily produce that Angora sweater each time they are sheared!  German Angoras are bred to be sheared and most often remain very quiet for the shearing process.  The careful removal of the coat also involves grading the wool.

 

Chris also spends a lot of time studying color genetics of rabbits and applying the knowledge that she has gained to the breeding of her herd.  When she first became interested in color genetics she found it difficult to memorize the rules and combinations, but in working with her rabbits and applying the principles she was learning to her herd, she made sense of the genetics and has become quite knowledgeable about the many aspects and complications of the science.  Chris is an able instructor of applied genetics, imparting the knowledge that the breeder needs to make good decisions on the proper colors to breed in the German crosses and hybrids to produce quality colors and predictable results.  At a rabbit gathering in North Carolina a couple of years ago she was able to impart a great deal of knowledge about color genetics to an audience deeply interested in the subject.  And thoroughly entertained by her wit!

 

In addition to learning the color genetics, Chris studied the wool production of her rabbits and the individual lines in her rabbitry.  Because the German Angora is a relatively new breed in America, the genetics are tight and choices can be limited.  According to Chris, hard decisions often had to be made, because of cage space issues.  Each rabbit in her rabbitry must produce wool and also be a good breeder.  To broaden the genetics base, Chris obtained breeding stock from the newest lines imported from Germany.  Working intensely with the lines in her rabbitry, Chris has increased the wool production of the individuals of her herd every year until she produces some of the best German Angoras in the country. 

 

Even if Chris didn't produce great rabbits, the names she give the bunnies that she keeps are hilarious.  There's been a Prince Hairy, A Harley Davidbuns, Merry Hoppins, Puff Daddy and Energizer Max.  She has been accused of breeding bunnies just so she can use the creative names she comes up with.  Her writing talent and wit in describing the bunnies and her life on her Woolybuns blog keep her readers entertained and longing for those little furry bundles!

 

Felting has become a favorite activity for Chris, and she enjoys it thoroughly.  There is a sensual appeal and it's also fun and sloppy!  Felting is very creative and a more immediate and active craft than knitting.  A felted object can be produced in a day or less.  Chris enjoys nuno felting, wet felting and a little bit of needle felting. 

 

Nuno felting is also known as integrated felting.  A woven fabric serves as a foundation for felting fiber and the resulting piece is extremely light weight and strong.  The felt can be cut and sewn to create vests, scarves and more.  Chris also makes felted mittens; someone once asked why she wasted Angora on mittens and Chris simply asked the inquirer to stick a hand in the mitten.  No more doubts there!

 

Angora felts beautifully and Chris often uses her Angora with fine wools in her creations.  Angora will felt faster than most wools and the resulting product is wonderfully warm and amazingly soft. 

 

The reluctant model in the photo with the Celtic Knot scarf is BB, a very special bunny.  Chris comments, "Celtic knots fascinate me.  So my new nuno exploration is teaching myself to design Celtic knot patterns for scarves.  My first effort showed me it's possible but that one ended up - quite unintentionally - as a snack for a dog.  This is my second attempt.  I've got a long way to go but I learned a lot with this one."

 

Dyeing is a new venture for Chris, and she has been taking dye workshops lately to improve her skills.  The instruction she has been seeking out has been broad and she has been trying to take workshops that are complementary.  She has recently studied immersion dyeing, variegated techniques and resist dyeing.  Her approach has been serendipitous until recently; now she is studying how to obtain results that can be reproduced.  She is also working on unique colorways for her expanding fiber business.

 

Chris travels frequently, delivering bunnies, attending fiber festivals and teaching workshops on felting.  Her husbandoften takes care of the rabbits while she is away.  Their children are all out of school and becoming independent, so Chris concentrates more on the fiber business. 

 

Chris sells her rabbits from her blog, but word of mouth is a frequent source of customers, due to the wonderful quality of her rabbits.  She generally has a booth at New Hampshire Sheep and Wool, her main show of the year, and does a few smaller shows in New England occasionally.  She often has her Angora blended with wool or silk and then has it mill spun for a luxurious yarn.  She produced felting batts from her Angora and a wonderful new Angora blend roving for the spinner is Angora/Polwarth.  Yet another blend adds silk to the wonderful softness of Angora and Polwarth.  Chris is available for workshops on nuno felting and for felted mitten workshops.  She can be reached at woolybuns@german-angoras.com and more pictures of her work are available on her blog.

 

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Leslie Shelor of Greenberry House, a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia, grew up surrounded with artistic and musical people around her.  An interest in fiber arts developed early, and she learned to spin in Maine with the shed coat of her Samoyed dogs.  Returning home in the 1990s, she was given her great-grandmother's spinning wheel and became interested in learning much more about fiber and fiber arts.  Eventually she became a breeder of German Angora rabbits and produces quantities of luxury Angora fiber, spinning and creating unique designer yarns and apparel. She blogs At the Top of Squirrel Spur and is co-editor of Fiber Femmes.