Carolyn's Angora Scarves

Carolyn likes to knit scarves with Angora yarn.  This scarf is "self striped".   What does "self striped" mean?   When the yarn is originally spun with different colors, the yarn looks patched or spotted.  When knitted, the patches of different color are concentrated in rows thus look like the knitter is changing the yarn to make stripes.   

Recently Carolyn likes a bit smaller scarf than the wider and thicker scarves.  This is her newest scarf.  It's 100 percent white English Angora dyed in pink.  It's light and airy.



 

American Fuzzy Lop Bunnies

American Fuzzy Lop youngsters are way more active than the Angora bunnies.  The fuzzy babies are curious, they want to explore their surroundings.

Baby Fuzzies have more airplane ears than the adult Fuzzies.  It takes some time for the crown to develope to allow the ears to drop.

 

Angela Gets a Haircut

Carol has a chestnut agouti French Angora doe named Angela who is a real beauty.

Angela won Reserve In Show at the San Jose show in March under Doug King.

At the same weekend in the San Jose show, Angela won Reserve In Show again under Jordan Miner.

In April at a show in Colorado, Angela was the only French Angora in the entire show and she won a Reserve In Show again under Wendy Lane.

Angela would have won more top honors if it were not for the strong competition from Betty's English Angora Aurelia and Carol's American Fuzzy Lops Green-Burb Wish and Green-Burb Moody Blues.  When some of the best rabbits are all wool breeds, the chance is that only one would be selected.  It is very unusual for a judge to pick two Angoras or an Angora and another wool rabbit to be the Best In Show and the Reserve In Show.
By June, Angela's coat is very dense but lost some finish.   It's time for Angora to get out of her heavy coat and go into the next phase of her life.  

Angela gets cut down and getting ready for motherhood.   Can't wait to see her little ones coming out of nest and going onto the show table.  

Look at this gorgeous color and texture and the length of Angela's wool, can't wait to see what Carol will make from it.

 

Handsome Anchor

Aurelia has three littermate brothers.  Anchor is one of the three.   

Anchor and his two brothers alternate the BOSB win to their sister Aurelia who won BOB and BIS on a regular basis.

It's hard to compete with Aurelia but Anchor held his place.  He was cut down a few months ago but now is back on the show table and winning legs again.  

 

Betty and Carolyn Collabrated a Fallyn Doll

Fallyn is Carolyn's princess cat, carries the HRH title, the HRH Fallyn.

Betty decides to try to knit a Fallyn doll.  The top and bottom are handspun chocolate agouti French Angora yarn, the black stripes are fluffy mohair yarn.   The red sweater is handspun merino yarn. 

This is the back.  If you notice the difference, the front head has a space to put in nose and eyes while the back is totally striped.  

Carolyn sees Fallyn everyday while Betty only sees Fallyn in photos, the finish work of making it look like Fallyn goes to Carolyn.  This is Carolyn's finished Fallyn doll.  Absolutely cute.  

 

Carolyn added not only the skirt and ribbon, but also added a tail that is made from the black mohair.  How cute.  

Carol's French Angora Holly Is the Proud Mama

Holly is a gorgeous French Angora doe that bred and owned by Carol.

Carol grooming Holly when Holly was in shows.  After Holly won many shows and achieved the Grand Champion status, she went into the mama ward.

Holly has had an earlier litter and raised more Grand Champions.   Here are the 3 babies that she is raising right now, future Grand Champions.

 

Very Cute French Angora Babies

Such cute babies!  Is it Easter again?   No, these are cute French Angora babies in a beautiful garden full of blooming flowers.   Whose babies are those?  Stay tuned.

 

English Angora, First Coat? Second Coat?

 

There is an erroneous concept about English Angora: they are one-coat wonders, they show in their first coat and then retire because they cannot come back with another show coat.   

WRONG! 

Here are two pretty English Angora tort does.   Can you tell which one is in her first coat and which one is in her regrown coat?   Even if you can tell which is which, can you say which would have a better chance of winning BOB or even Best In Show?

 

Chick-fil-A Coming to Morgan Hill

In our tiny town of Morgan Hill, fast food wise there are 3 McDonald's, 2 Taco Bell, 2 Burger King, 2 Jack-in-the Box plus In-N-Out and Carl's Jr.   We had heard of Chick-fil-A a lot but had never tried it.  The new Chick-fil-A opened at the end of May this year, we are giving it a try.  
(Morgan Hill has a population of about 45,000, small in CA standard.  Our neighboring city is San Jose that has a population of close to 1 million.)

Got to go try it.

These are our orders.  The food is good and service is excellent but it's way more expensive than McDonald's.

 

Remember When: Big Winners in Tiny Shows

Monterey Fair had open rabbit shows from the mid 1980s to the mid 2010s.  The earlier shows were single shows but more populated with exhibitors and rabbits while the later shows were double shows but smaller numbers of exhibitors and rabbits.   It's local for several of very active exhibitors, Chris Zemny and Betty Chu are two of the loyal supporters.    In 2014 English Angora Chu's Franchesca won Best In Show and Holland Lop Critters Coop Ajax won Reserve In Show in show A under judge Ray Stacy. 

At the 2014 Montery Fair in show B, judge Joe Lugo picked the same two rabbits English Angora Franchesca the Best In Show and Holland Lop Ajax the Reserve In Show.  

Though Monterey Fair was a tiny show, the big winner Franchesca was no tiny winner.  She had won open Best In Show 20 times and open Reserve In Show 9 times and in addition, she made the Guinness World Record as "Longest fur on a rabbit" in 2014.  So far this record has not been broken.

Holland Lop Ajax sure was not a tiny winner either, 2 months after the Monterey Fair, Ajax made it to the top of the rabbit world: The Best In Show at the 2014 ARBA convention held in Fort Worth, TX.

 

A Red Rose from Bud to Full Bloom

Sharing with our readers a pretty red rose going from a bud to a fully blower flower. 

 

Renner Meets His New Mom Carolyn

Betty and Carolyn got together recently.

Here is Renner, how do you like him?

Yes, what a cutie, what a sweetie.

Renner is the luckiest little boy to have Carolyn as his new mom.   All Carolyn's pets live inside with her and hubby Earl in a home with AC, gets cuddled, loved up, gets exercise and the best treats.  All Carolyn's pets have health insurance, each gets check up every year and all live longer than most of their littermates.

 

June 14, 2025 San Jose Shows are Coming Up

The San Jose triple shows are coming up.  Deadline for entries is Monday, June 9, 2025.  The show catalog has been posted on the Facebook group California Rabbit Shows and California Rabbit Shows 2000.   If you are not a member of these groups and need a catalog, email to our blog englishangora1@yahoo.com    will be happy to send you a copy.

The rabbit show is held in conjunction of the large animal show at the EXPO Hall at the Santa Clara Fairgounds.  You can show your rabbits and enjoy seeing the big counterparts.  

 

Remember When: English Angora Big Winners at ARBA Conventions

I have attended 34 ARBA conventions.   From 1987 to 2019, I attended 33 consecutively then another one in 2022.     When COVID hit at the end of 2019, many activities were cancelled in the next few years including the 2020 ARBA convention that was supposed to be held at Harrisburg, PA.    I had time to think about lots of things, including the attendance of the ARBA conventions.   It was time consuming, expensive, and the hardest for me was the travel.   Traveling by itself was difficult, traveling with two huge kennels that each weighed around 100 pounds was even more difficult.   As time goes by, as I age, as I am more concerned about my health, and as I cumulated many wins and accolades, it seems that getting some more wins at conventions was no longer as important or attractive to myself.    Looking back, I have had close to 30 BOB and BOSB at the conventions with 4 major wins.   

Sweet Sixteen was my biggest winner.  She broke the glass ceiling to become the first wool breed animal to have won a Best In Show at the 1992 ARBA Convention at Columbus, OH.

Here is me holding tort doe Sweet Sixteen after the win.  One trophy was for the win of "Best 4-Class" and the other was for the win of "Best In Show".   Before 1996, there were only 2 finalists: a Best 6-Class and a Best 4-Class.   6-Class are heavy weight rabbits that are judged by senior, intermediate and junior classes (buck and doe, thus 6 classes) while 4-Class are light weight rabbits that are judged by senior and junior classes (buck and doe thus 4 classes).    

White doe Vera won the Group II at the 2001 ARBA Convention at San Diego, CA. 
In 1996, there was a change in the Best In Show finalist grouping.   Instead of breaking into heavy weight and light weight, the BOBs were broken into 4 Groups.  In the early years, the rabbits in each Group were determined just before the Best In Show judging.  Now the composition of the Groups is announced in the convention show catalogs.  


 

Vera and I at the NARBC booth taking the "official photo" for the newsletter.

Tort buck Ashton was the Group winner at the 2003 ARBA Convention at Wichita, KS.  
It was unusual for an Angora buck to be a convention BOB winner, and being a Group winner was even less frequent, possibly Ashton was the only one.   After having a colored senior doe and a white senior doe winning big, I was elated to have a buck winning big.   (I also had a white buck won the convention BOB but he did not advance) 

There was an official photo of me with Ashton but I could not find it.  Here is a photo of two of us at the Heinold booth.  Heinold invites the BOB and BOS winners to have pictures taken at their booth at every convention.  

Lilac tort doe McKenzie won the Group at the 2013 ARBA Convention at Harrisburg, PA.  
She is a relatively young senior but she got the body type, wool and finish to make it to the top spot.  

This is the official win photo of Mckenzie with me taken at the photo booth as a part of the prize.