C26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 11,1981
BY SHEILA MILLER
BECHTELSVILLE - At times,
all of us feel like our world is
spinning, but for Brenda Bothe of
Bechtelsville spinning is her world
and craft.
The 32-year-old resident of Berks
County explained her interest in
the craft was sparked about six
years ago after she purchased her
first spinning wheel As for spin
ning materials, anything was fair
game, she said, even the undercoat
of her Collie dog.
At that tune, Brenda said, she
was living on an acre lot in
Collegeville.
T wanted to have an animal to
produce the fibers I needed for
spuming, but sheep were out of the
question So, I started raising
Angora rabbits,” she recalled
“But then, inevitably, six sheep
found their way into my backyard
That’s when I moved to Berks
County ”
Brenda explained she wasn’t
interested in just any old sheep
when she invested in them she
wanted t " fleeces from naturally
colored sheep. This interest in
black sheep brought Brenda and
her business partner and fiance,
Steve Day, together
“Steve had a small flock of black
sheep at his place m Collegeville
Now we probably have the largest
flock of naturally colored sheep in
eastern Pennsylvania 30 ewes
and their lambs plus 3 rams,”
Brenda said.
She explained black sheep are
not actually coal black in color, but
range from gray to brown to dark
brown. She added these Karakul
sheep are ‘goaty’ in conformation,
so they are crossbred with
Corriedales, Hampshires, Rom
neys, Dorsets, and Suffolks to
improve their carcass charac
teristics and wool.
Along with their naturally
colored sheep, Brenda and Steve
also raise Romney’s, a breed of
sheep developed in England for
their high-quality white fleeces.
At the present time, their
purebred Romney flock consists of
19 ewes and 1 ram, along with
about 25 lambs The ewes normally
produce twins after they are two
years-old, with single lambs as
yearlings. A number of this year’s
lambs have been sold already to
Brenda plucks the 3-inch long hair from the coats of her
Angora rabbits and spins it into luxuriously soft and warm
mohair yam.
Brenda Bothe's world
breeders in New York, New Jer
sey, and Maryland, with some
going to Pennsylvania clients
When she moved to the 51 acre
farm, Brenda didn’t leave behind
her Angora rabbits. Hutches in the
corn crib and small shed now hold
over 30 rabbits 28 does, 2 bucks,
and their litters.
The rabbits are of two varieties,
some French but mostly English
According to Brenda, the hair from
the English Angoras mak;es better
wool
Four times a year, Brenda
plucks the hair from the rabbits to
spin into yarn She explained the
rabbits’ coats, with colors of gray,
blue, fawn, and white, will shed
naturally and new hair will grow in
when it reaches 3-inches in length.
She said she plucks the loosened
hair from the rabbit before it
becomes matted, otherwise it will
clump together like the hair mats
on a shedding dog in need ot
brushing.
Brenda explained she keeps her
rabbits for three years
"After that amount of time, they
don’t produce as large a litter and
their wool gets coarser,” she said
‘We like to get eight rabbits per
litter, and normally we get
anywhere from six to thirteen ”
With the yam that she spins from
her rabbits and sheep, Brenda
knits garments made from all
natural fibers She has even grown
flax and made linen Last summer,
she raised silk worms and has their
cocoons ready to process for silk
yarn
“I had these four-inch long silk
worms in boxes in the house,” she
laughed. “As they became ready to
spin their cocoons, they kept
crawling up and out of their boxes
for some reason I had to keep
putting them back They scared a
few ot my customers.”
Now Brenda has a jar full of the
cocoons She explained she had to
bake or boil them to kill the worms
and keep them from hatching into
butterflies.
Her next step will be to boil the
cocoons for about an hour to
dissolve the glue excreted by the
worm to bind the silk fibers into a
cocoon The rough silk, called
mawata, can Joe dyed in about an
hour Then it’s ready for carding or
combing and finally spinning
According to Bremia, it only afford to make anything big, ” she Philadelphia Handweavers Guild,
takes a few hours to spin enough smiled. Although she majored in art in
yam to make a scarf (2 to 3 oun- Brenda, who received her college, Brenda said most of what
ces). She said she uses a lacy stitch Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine she has learned about the craft of
when knitting the scarf on her hand Arts from Temple Umversity, spinning and weaving has been
loom because the yarn is * too Philadelphia, will be returning to self-taught
dear” to use a lot the big city next week to deliver a
“It’s so expensive, you can’t talk on exotic fibers to the
“Knitting looms are as common as sewing j n England in the late 1700’s. With the aid of
machines in Europe," remarked Brenda, as this modern model manufactured in Japan,
she turned out five-inches of sweater panel in Brenda can complete a sweater, like the one
a matter of minutes. She explained the knitting on her lap, in a few hours.
loom is not a new invention, but was patented
Brenda Bothe, of Bechtelsville, Berks wheel to convert a sheep's washed and carded
County, creates garments from all natural fleece into wool yarn,
fibers. Here she uses an Ashford spinning
With the arrival of Spring, the sheep are JRomney’s, selling the fleeces to handspinners
about ready to ‘lose’ their winter woolies. like herself
Brenda will be shearing her black sheep and
is spinning
r^K
wT"
r a .
(Turn to Page C 27)