Glittery Mohair Shawl - Design F29

I bought some pretty Mohair yarn off Ebay.  It came with no ball bands or anything and other than confirming that it is Mohair, I really have no idea about it.  I decided on a design to knit with this yarn, which means working with charts for the first time ever.  I started work on 17th April and completed one pattern plus one pattern repeat and then I messed up.  It got put to one side for a while until I was ready to sort out where I had gone wrong and tackle it again.

It was about 3 months before I picked this up again.  I sorted out where I had gone wrong and finally figured out how to read the charts.  I decided that I wanted to add some beads to the border edge and selected some lovely turquoise blue beads to match the blue metallic thread in the yarn.  The beads are Size 6 Toho, colour 995 gold lined rainbow aqua and I used 475 of them in total, 25 beads per edge section.

You will see in the photos above that I have taken one with a standard sized stapler to show size and there is also one that shows the back of the unblocked shawl and how the pattern "egg boxes".  I finished making this on 15th August 2010 and soaked and blocked it.  It grew a little bit but that is usual as you are stretching and smoothing the lace out to show off the design.  Really pleased with how this turned out in the end.

Folksy Friday 20th August - For the love of Mohair

 I thought I would blog about Mohair this week as I have just finished knitting a lace shawl in Mohair.

  

So, what is Mohair and where does it come from?

Mohair is a silk-like yarn made from the hair of the Angora Goat and is one of the oldest textile fibres in use.  Mohair fabric is known to have been in England in the 8th Century.  It is durable, resilient and notable for its high lustre and sheen.  It is warm and has great insulating properties.  It is considered to be a luxury fibre like Cashmere, Angora and Silk and is usually more expensive than wool that comes from sheep.  It is the hair from younger animals that would be used for making yarns suitable for clothing.  Mohair should not be confused with the fur from the Angora Rabbit which is called Angora Wool.

The shawl took me about 120 hours to make and took a lot of patience and skill.

The yarn I used has 75% Mohair, 13% Wool, 8% Nylon and 4% Metalic Fibres, so a very good quality Mohair indeed!  Many Mohair yarns are made with less than 40% Mohair fibres.

I added 475 tiny glass beads by Toho to the pretty edging.