Toronto English Angoras

This is something I made a couple years ago and still get people asking me for details on how it was made. If you would like to make one of these for yourself, here is how I did this. I made this duvet as a gift for my parents and they have been using it all year round and loving it. This is a wonderful way to use up any short clippings from your angora or to make something from your angora wool if you do not know how to spin it into yarn.  I started out by making a few tiny test sized pillows stuffed with various amounts of fiber of different lengths. I put those through a few washer and dryer cycles to see how they would fair. The ones with longer fiber did end up felting and creating various clumps which would have made the end product unusable. However the ones that were filled with finely shredded wool did just fine. So the key to making this project last long term is to use wool which ideally is around half an inch in length, up to an inch. At this length the wool turns into ...

  Lots of fair food right next to us What a day! Another fun fair show with beautiful sunny weather. We brought back our main team of whites: BerMah Maurice, Electric Iroc, Electric Uncle Buck, and his sister Electric Unity. We also brought a couple of up and coming babies. Mary was back with her team of whites: BerMah MyMy, Fancy Pricilla, BerMah Misty, and Fancy Elvis.  In our first show under judge John Richter, Electric Unity finally beat her aunt BerMah MyMy and won Best of Variety as well as Best of Breed. Her brother  Electric Uncle Buck beat all the other boys and took Opposite Sex of Variety and Breed. When you're vertically challenged and need to get your hands in the clouds In our second show under judge Mark Stewartson, Electric Unity once again beat her aunt but this time took 2nd place to her brother who was awarded Best of Variety and Breed! However the best news came at the end of the day. Electric Uncle Buck took home the Best In Show award! Our first eve...

The rabbit show tent under the hazy wild fires sky  This show was dedicated to remembering Dave Grandy who sadly passed away last month. A long time member of the rabbit community as well as the person responsible for organizing the rabbit show at the Brooklin fair.   Our colored juniors stayed home this time while our white team was out in full force. This time around every one was showing in the Sr classes and there were no juniors at the show.  Our team of whites The show getting started For boys we brought Electric Iroc, BerMah Maurice, and Electric Uncle Buck. For girls we brought Electric Unity and our "old" lady Electric Melody. Having just finished raising and fostering 13 babies she was very much not in competitive form but she came out to get officially registered. The other person showing with us was Mary (Meg's Fancy Bunnies). She brought two boys, BerMah Misty and Fancy Elvis, and two girls: BerMah MyMy and Fancy Pricilla. Once again this was a close competit...

The show was held inside the white tent so the rabbits were sheltered from the hot sun The DRCBA puts on a rabbit and cavy show at the Schomberg Fair. This was a single show with the rabbit judging done by a DRCBA judge Doris Brady. This was a fun fair show for us so I only brought our two Jr REW EAs, Uncle Buck and Unity, and a few baby Satin Angoras. Mary Grillo brought her REW EAs and Julie Martin brought her colored EAs including a couple Broken babies, a variety which is showable under DRCBA rules! Judge Doris being assisted by Julie Martin, judge in training Oh the joys of showing white rabbits, especially angoras! It seems all of our white angoras that day were having their own contest of who can poop themselves more in one day. We all had to clean some very messy butts on our rabbits. Uncle Buck pooped himself earlier in the day and Unity remained clean all day until about half hour before we were due to show!  Unity being messy 20min later after some grooming magic Both Un...

The Rockton show put on every year by the Southern Ontario Rabbit Breeders Association club is the Ontario ARBA season opener. Just as it was last year, it is a great show to attend and quite busy with 3 main open shows, multiple specialty shows, and a fun youth show for the kids.  We started the day off with a wonderful surprise! A beautiful personalized award lovingly made and presented by Beth Collins for winning the Ontario points sweepstakes for English Angoras for 2022! Judging the shows were Maddie Pratt from MI for Show A, Tom Schweikart from PA for Show B, John Richter from ON for Show C, and Mark Stewartson from ON for the Angora Specialty.  We had a total of 17 English Angoras shown by 4 exhibitors: myself, Laura Hamilton, Mary Grillo, and Julie Martin.  In the White class, we had quite the exciting battle of the BerMah kids (Josee Maher's rabbitry). I brought my Sr buck from Josee, BerMah Maurice, while Mary brought her Sr buck from Josee, BerMah Misty. I brou...

Our first rabbit show of this season in Ontario was held by the Dominion club just outside of Barrie this weekend. Around 200 rabbits competed and it was a very fun show with some great competitions to watch. I spent most of the day clerking for judge John Richter. If you want to learn more about the different rabbit breeds and how they are judged, this is the best seat in the house to do that! Competition for best doe and litter. This involves teams of one doe and three of her babies competing with each other for over all quality and uniformity.    Our English Angoras stayed home but I did bring our two young French Angoras: Electric Trucker Boy, a Black buck, and his Chestnut sister Electric Tatiana. Both were technically Juniors as they are still under 6mo old but because they were both over the Jr weight limit, they had to compete as Seniors. Their only competition were two other Sr girls handled by Julie Martin. A stunning 8mo old REW and an older Chestnut. The REW girl r...

The following is a listing of upcoming shows in Ontario as well as our neighbouring province of Quebec. This list will be updated as shows are announced. More details about each show will follow bellow the list.  Rabbit shows in Ontario are held under one of two organizations: The American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) which is an international organization that has shows across the world, and the  Dominion Rabbit and Cavy Breeders Association (DRCBA) which is a Canadian organization that puts on shows in Ontario.  You do not have to be a member of any of the above clubs in order to participate in the shows. Simply contact the show secretary to register your entries. All shows are open to public visitors. For a listing of upcoming ARBA shows in Ontario you can use this search page (shows will only show up once they have been officially sanctioned):   https://arba.net/show-search/  For a listing of upcoming DRCBA  shows in Ontario visit:  http://ww...

Competitors starting to set up fist thing in the morning Every first two weeks of November, the country comes to the city to celebrate agriculture at the Toronto Royal Agricultural Winter Fair .  The Royal is the largest combined indoor agriculture fair and international equestrian competition in the world! It is a huge event held at the historic Exhibition Place grounds downtown Toronto. The Royal is predominantly known in the city for its many horse and performance dog events but it also includes various large and small livestock competitions, including a rabbit show. The rabbit show at the Royal is organized by the Dominion Rabbit and Cavy Breeders Association . DRCBA was founded in 1909 and is essentially the Canadian version of ARBA.  Angora and wool spinning demo area Judging tables before the start of the show I did not bring any of my rabbits to compete as all have been shaved already but I did come out to volunteer and help with clerking duties. A show clerk is t...