INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION GERMAN ANGORA RABBIT BREEDERS

FELTING CONTEST 2022

CALLING ALL FELTERS

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IAGARB has a challenge for you!

What is the most beautiful and technically well-felted accessory you can make with 125 grams of fiber?

Angora Rabbit Wool makes luscious felt.  It is soft, dense, warm and has beautiful drape.  

We want more people to try this humanely shorn wool with unique felting qualities.  To encourage more felters to include angora wool in their work, we invite you to join our contest.  

Properties of Angora Rabbit Wool

  1. Wool sourced from IAGARB members has been gently and humanely shorn.  
  2. Angora wool is eager to felt.  It will make a dense felt very quickly.
  3. Angora blends well with other fibers, especially fine sheep wools.
  4. The average diameter of the Underwool component of the coat runs between 8 and 12 microns.  This results in a tight felt with a delicate feel.  
  5. The finished pieces can either be brushed to enhance the nap or shaved for a smooth fabric.  

THERE WILL BE TWO CATEGORIES:  FELTED HAT AND FELTED SCARF 

  1. There will be two categories for entry – HAT and SCARF                
  2. Prizes in each category will be Amazon gift cards in US dollar amounts 1st – $100.00, 2nd – $50.00, 3rd – $25.00 
  3. Maximum of 125 grams of fiber in the finished piece.  
  4. The piece must be at least 50% humanely shorn angora rabbit wool. 
  5. It is all about the fiber.  No Nuno or laminated felt this time. 
  6. Natural colors or dyed fibers are accepted. 
  7. You are welcome to enter one hat or one scarf or both.
  8. Work must have been completed in 2022.
  9. Deadline is midnight US Central Time, April 30, 2022

Our Judge is Pamela MacGregor, a renown felter.  The decisions of our judge will be final.  

HOW TO ENTER

Entry is free and open to IAGARB members and the public.

To enter, you will need to send your

Contact information

Three Digital photos

A sample of the fibers.

Please send your contact information and 3 digital photos to:  

secretary [at] iagarb [dot] com

1. One image close-up 

2. One image showing the piece being worn

3. One image of your choice

Fiber Samples will be mailed to: 

E. Maclean / IAGARB PO Box 19782, Sacramento, California, USA 95819-0782

1. Unfelted 10-gram sample with a description of the source of the angora fiber and the content of the blend.

2. A sample of the same felt used in your submitted piece(s) 3”x3” (8cm x 8 cm)

DO NOT SEND YOUR ACTUAL HAT OR SCARF. 

This is a no-contact competition.  Samples will not be returned.

By participating, you agree that All photos will become the property of IAGARB for promotional purposes

Winning photos and names of the winners will be posted on the IAGARB website.

Questions? Please contact:

Erin Maclean: angora [at] bungalowfarm [dot] com 

Catherine Fulbright: fulbrightfibers [at] gmail [dot] com

 

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Angora Blizzard One Skein Contest Winners

ANGORA BLIZZARD TWO-PLY CATEGORY

 

FIRST PRIZE ($100 Amazon gift card)

Catherine Fullbright – USA

 

SECOND PRIZE ($50 Amazon gift card)

Stacy Reinert – USA

 

THIRD PRIZE ($25 Amazon gift card)

Cindy Conover – USA

 

ANGORA ICE ONE-PLY CATEGORY

 

FIRST PRIZE ($100 Amazon gift card)

Leanne Boughner – Canada


SECOND PRIZE ($50 Amazon gift card)

Deborah Briggs – Shetland Islands, UK

 

 

Two entries arrived after judging was completed.  We sincerely appreciate the efforts made.

Jan Scanlan Coles – Canada

Tammy Vaughan – USA

 

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The IAGARB Wool Co-op is busy making another run of 50% ANGORA SOCKS!

 

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Dear IAGARB Friends,

Here is the completed Yarn Contest flyer.  Please send it out to your friends and groups.
We are very much looking forward to seeing what everyone can do with this beautiful yarn!
Results will be posted on our website this spring.

You can download the flyer below to send to your interested friends and groups.

Good luck!

Link to Contest Flyer for friends and groups:

iagarb knitting contest 2021 Fin. 2

ANGORA BLIZZARD YARN – ONE SKEIN CONTEST

We have a fun challenge for you.  What can you knit with one skein (approximately 2 oz or 60 grams) of Angora Yarn?

The International Association of Germany Angora Rabbit Breeders (IAGARB) is holding a contest to promote luscious, humanely harvested German Angora Rabbit Wool.  We want to spread the word of the pleasure of knitting with our yarns and the beauty of the finished items.

Angora Blizzard and Angora Ice Yarns are a blend of 85% Prime Angora and 15% domestic Cormo sheep wool.

Angora Blizzard is a 2-ply (approximately 240 yards)

Angora Ice is a 1-ply.  (approximately 480 yards)

They are available in either white or natural grey or dyed colors.

Our yarn is 100% grown and spun in North America.

PRIZES

There will be two categories for entry – Blizzard (2-PLY) and Ice (1PLY).

Prizes in each category will be Amazon gift cards in US dollar amounts:

1st – $100.00

2nd – $50.00

3rd – $25.00

HOW TO ENTER

Entry is free and open to IAGARB members and the public.

Please send your contact information and 3 digital photos to:

nancyneverswept [at] gmail [dot] com

  1. One close-up
  2. One showing the piece being worn
  3. One of your choice
  4. Tell us about your pattern (please include measurements)
  5. Include your proof of purchase

Our Judge is a fiber arts professional, not affiliated with IAGARB

RULES

  1. Work must have been completed in 2021.
  2. Items will be knitting only from IAGARB Blizzard or Ice yarns and weigh no more than 2 ounces or 60 grams.

3.  Please indicate if your pattern is original.

If you are using someone else’s pattern, please include credit to the owner.

4.  Contest deadline will be midnight May 1st, 2021

5.  By participating, you agree that All photos will become property of IAGARB for               promotional purposes

6.  Winning photos and names of the winners will be posted on the IAGARB web site.

Questions?  Please contact:

Erin Maclean:  angora [at] bungalowfarm [dot] com

Catherine Fulbright:  fulbrightfibers [at] gmail [dot] com

 

VENDORS who carry IAGARB Co-op Yarns

Prairie MoonRise Farm, Minnesota

Please email: jane [dot] killpack [at] gmail [dot] com for color options

Blizzard Yarn: White, Silver, Dyed

 

Bungalow Farm Angora
Erin Maclean, California

www.bungalowfarm.com

angora [at] bungalowfarm [dot] com

Angora Blizzard and Ice in natural, hand dyed using natural & synthetic dyes

Ice in Silver and natural dyes

 

Desert Garden Farms
Andrea Miranda

DesertGardenFarms.com

Info [at] desertgardenfarms [dot] com

Angora Blizzard in dyed and natural

 

Fulbright Fibers
Catherine Fulbright

Eugene, Oregon

Fulbrightfibers [at] gmail [dot] com

I have one ply and two ply yarn available in white and dyed.

 

Susan Wagner

sw6789587 [at] gmail [dot] com

Angora Blizzard in natural white

 

Samson Angora
Leslie Samson

Ontario, Canada

llbsamson [at] gmail [dot] com

Angora Blizzard and Angora Ice Yarns in white and silver

 

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As a benefit of membership, IAGARB invites you to participate in monthly Zoom discussions.

  

You can visit with other angora rabbit breeders to weigh on various topics.  Ask your questions.  Offer your advice.  Learn from other rabbit breeders from across the continent.  

This is a great way to meet like minded people – from the comfort and safety of your own home.  

The IAGARB Zoom Discussions are held on the 2nd Sunday of every month.  Notices are sent to members with the link for topic and time.  It’s easy to click and join.

Here is a sample of some of the topics covered:

 

  • Winter care
  • Excellent German Angora 
  • Marketing panel Discussion 
  • Breeding German Angoras 
  • The Albino German Angora 
  • Colored German Angora
  • Tips for improvement:  shearing, grading fiber, evaluation, and registration 
  • Show and Tell— sharing your angora creations 
  • Rabbit Colonies and Alternatives to Cages
  • German Body Type
  • Winterizing your Rabbitry
  • Shearing German Angora Rabbits
  • Coat Syncrocisty
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!


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Can we interest you in some GOOD NEWS?

The IAGARB 2020 AGM will be held at YOUR HOUSE.   

We have two days of Zoom Meetings planned that will be open to all of our membership from the comfort and safety of your own homes.  

No muss, no fuss, no risk, no cost.  

Over the past year, IAGARB has been using Zoom for monthly discussions on a wide range of topics of interest to our members.   Presentations have been offered, followed by excellent discussion, questions and interaction from those participating.  Under current circumstances, sliding our AGM to a virtual format seems an obvious solution to the inability to hold a physical AGM.

We look forward to a good turn out.  Literally, with the click of a button, you can see and visit angora rabbit breeders from across the country.  We do realize that Zoom may be new to you.  

If you are unfamiliar with Zoom, kindly log in 30 minutes early to acquaint yourself with the platform.  In this way, we hope to eliminate any delays during the presentations.  

Give it a try.  It really is easy.  

This year’s IAGARB AGM program is FREE.  

As IAGARB has done for the last 33 years, non-members are welcome to participate.   In lieu of any fees this year, we encourage our members invite other angora rabbit breeders to the Saturday program.

The IAGARB AGM Business meeting will be held on Zoom on Sunday.  Attendance is a privilege of membership.  

We hope to see you soon!

Leslie Samson

President

PROGRAM

Saturday, MAY 2 

12:00 pm Eastern

11:00 am Central

10:00 am Mountain

 9:00 am Pacific

DESIGN A KNITTING PATTERN WITH ERIN CLAYTON (2 hours)

Erin Clayton of Erineen Designs will discuss her creative process, how she finds inspiration everywhere for her patterns and what kind of things you should look for in a pattern to make the most of your yarn.

Erin will incorporate information about how to write and standardizing patterns. She will explain the industry standard for writing patterns for others to follow. She will also discuss copywriting a pattern and how to respect copyrights in your own knitting.

 

Erin writes on her Ravelry page, “My mission is to help knitters build a wearable knitwear wardrobe. I create designs that are easy to knit yet engaging, which are a pleasure for the knitter to work on and that leaves them with a piece that will fit into their wardrobe. I design timeless pieces that can be reached for over and over and that will fit into wardrobes for years to come.”

Erin lives in Dover, New Hampshire.  

Our Saturday Workshop schedule will resume again in the afternoon.

 

Saturday, May 2

3:00 pm Eastern

2:00 9pm Central

1:00 am Mountain

12:00 pm Pacific

Space is limited.  If you are interested in attending and you are not a current IAGARB member, please contact Erin Maclean for the Zoom link depending space availability.  

 

RABBIT TEETH WITH DR. MARK BURGESS (2 hours)

Join us for a presentation and discussion by Dr. Mark Burgess, DVM.

Our topic will be a very important one, vital to a rabbit’s health – TEETH.  

Dr. Burgess is passionate about the subject and has a great deal to share with us on this subject.  

How many teeth?  Did you know that the dentine on all rabbit teeth grows continually?  How to care for and how to identify problems in a rabbit’s mouth.  Infections, unusual growth, osteomyelitis, malocclusion.  

We will also ask him to bring us up to speed on recent RHD outbreaks in the US and the implications of Covid-19 on other species of animals.  

Dr. Burgess has focused on exotic pets since graduating in 1986, giving him extensive experience with these species that few practitioners can match.

  • Opened Southwest Animal Hospital in 1995
  • The practice consists of the highest ratio of exotic pets in any full-time veterinary practice in Oregon
  • Has discovered numerous new diseases of exotic animals, and is a published author both in medical journals and textbooks
  • Teaches exotic pet medicine at Oregon State University’s Veterinary School
  • Lectured at national and international medical conferences
  • Appeared in television and newspaper stories covering exotic pets & their medical problems

Space is limited.  If you are interested in attending and you are not a current IAGARB member, please contact Erin Maclean for the Zoom link depending space availability.  

 

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THE 2019 IAGARB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

APRIL 11-14, 2019

LABADIE, MISSOURI

Thursday, April 11:

3-5 pm: Meet and greet at the Big Farm, site of 2019 AGM for the early birds. Wine and maybe homemade goat cheese will be served.  Tour the farm.

 

Friday, April 12:

    9-4 pm:   Rabbit Registration begins.

    9-12 pm: Felted Collar class with Jane Killpack, Session 1

    11 am to 12:30 pm:  Judges Seminar, Focus on the Standard

     1:30 to 2:30:  Judges Seminar, Focus on Wool

     2:30 to 5 pm:  Judges Test, Part 1 Written

     1-4 pm:   Felted Collar class,  Session 2

    5 pm:      Meet and greet and dinner at The Hawthorne Inn.

 

Saturday, April 13:

     9 am-4 pm: Rabbit Registration continues. 

     9 am -11:30 am:  Judges Test, Part 2 Practical

     9 am-1 pm: Intro to Barrier Dyeing– Shibori with David Keller

     5 pm: Dinner by Chef Maria Sakellariou, Head Chef of The Culinary Odyssey.  $35 per person

    7 pm: Rabbit Scrabble Game Challenge. Words are limited to rabbit terminology.

    More meet and greet and exchange of ideas.

    Spinning and knitting or other fiber arts encouraged.

    Show and tell.

 

Sunday, April 14

   9 am-noon:  Annual General Meeting

  12 pm:  Vietnamese sandwich lunch

   1 pm- 3 pm:  Ken Gossard, DVM, Guest Speaker, Pregnant Does and Animal Conditions

 

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS:

Felted Collar Class Fine Cormo wool and locks of Teeswater or Wensleydale will be used to create a fun, one of a kind collar to be worn dressed up or down. There is massaging/rubbing but no rolling in this method. Basic felting experience is helpful. Half day class, two sessions offered.

Class fee: $40.  Materials fee: $49, materials fee is payable to the instructor the day of class. Please bring your enthusiasm and 2 – 3 bath towels and 1 hand towel to class. You may also want an apron or other means of protecting your clothing as this is a wet felting process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Killpack is a farmer and fiber artist living on a small southern Minnesota farm. In addition to German Angora rabbits she raises Cormo and Teeswater sheep, Nubian dairy goats, Sebastopol geese, chickens, ducks and bees. She loves working with the farm’s products by making goat cheeses, honey recipes (next up mead) and finding fun ways to use their animal’s fiber!   Her love of felting started at a Midwest IAGARB meeting where she learned to make her first, of many, felted hats. She has since added scarves, shawls, and other garments to her felting “addiction”.

 

Intro to Barrier Dyeing– Shibori      We will be dyeing fabrics, raw fibers (risky, messy, and difficult), top, and yarn. We’ll be using traditional indigo, and Osage. There will be some technique done that you’ve never seen demonstrated (it’s a secret don’t tell anyone), and we’ll be going over how to do more of this type of dyeing at home with common household items you probably already have. You’ll need to bring anything you wish to dye, we are going to be working a lot with felted angora pieces, and yarns.  I will have fiber, yarns, and fabrics to dye that you can purchase.  Materials fee covers dye and chemicals.  $40 Class fee, $25 materials fee. 

David Keller is a fiber artist and consultant that grew up in northeast Missouri. He’s been doing fiber arts for 28 years starting with crochet at 8 years old, dyeing in his mid teens, picked up knitting in his early 20s and has been running a dyeshop and teaching craft classes for the last 8 years. His hand spinning specializes in art yarns, color deconstruction spinning, radical insertions, tailspinning, and ergonomic technique. His dyework includes thousands of custom solid colors that he weaves together in colorway sequences that ranges from 2 to 15 colors and their gradations. He’s kept German angora rabbits for 7 years and recently started breeding them. Rare breed chickens and quail are next. He loves film, music, and art, playing games, spending time with his son, playing with the dogs Dexter and Sinister (literally means right hand and left hand), and constantly runs thought experiments.

 

The IAGARB JUDGE’S SEMINAR

Every time you select your rabbits for breeding, every time you buy a rabbit and every time you decide which rabbit in a litter to keep and which one to sell – you become the judge of your own rabbitry.

This is a class offered to all of our members. It is open to anyone interested in learning more about German Angoras and the IAGARB system of judging.

In this class we will learn about the history of the German Angora in Europe and how it was selected over decades to be the wool producing Uber-Angora admired around the world for its superior fiber production. You will learn about the German goal setting system of quantifiable evaluation.

We will move step by step through the procedures of an IAGARB judging and registration. You will be better prepared to participate in our performance testing. As well, this information will help to conduct similar daily assessments in your own barn.

Fee for Class: $30.

JUDGES TEST

If you have been an IAGARB member for 3 consecutive years as of April 2019 and if there is a need based on membership for judges in your district, you may apply for the Judge’s Test.

Fee for Test $30. (The application form is found on the AGM Registration Page).

 

AGM GUEST SPEAKER, KEN GOSSARD, DVM

 

To register for classes and events please see  AGM 2019 REGISTRATION PAGE

 

   

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SAVE THE DATE!

Labadie, MO

April 11-14, 2019

We are pleased to announce IAGARB will be holding its 32nd annual meeting in Labadie, MO.

Information regarding workshops and registration will be posted as soon as it is available.

Scenes from the 2016 AGM in Labadie:

View from the Dinner Table

Dye Workshop results!

Ready for the Chef’s Dinner Saturday night.

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NOTE:  THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER.  WE HOPE TO RESCHEDULE IN THE SPRING.  

 

Come see an Angora rabbit shearing at The Woolery!

The Woolery Your Fiber Arts Supplier Since 1981

 

 

Angora Shearing Demonstration
Angora Rabbit Shearing Demonstration
January 13th
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Come see an angora rabbit shearing! This is a free event at The Woolery. Open to anyone with an interest in either angora rabbits or angora wool. These are beautiful animals that produce one of the softest and warmest fibers in the world! They are gently shorn every 90 days.

Rabbit club members will be on hand to answer your questions. Samples of angora garments and accessories will be on hand so you can feel the softness for yourself.

Sponsored by the International Association of German Angora Rabbit Breeders

IAGARB.com

The Woolery 859 E. Main Street Suite 1A Frankfort, KY 40601

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