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.