I have just finished the first clue of Stephen West’s latest Mystery Knitalong – the Go Go Dynamo Shawl and am about to embark on Clue 2, in which he suggests a ‘Mohair Dare’ – that is, using mohair instead of, or together with one of the colours. This is in line with something I mentioned in last week’s blog, namely that it is very fashionable at the moment to add mohair to one’s knitted garments. This week, however, I thought I would tell you all about the fibre itself.
Mohair is one of the oldest textiles in use. It is a fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora Goat (as opposed to Angora wool which comes from the fur of the Angora rabbit.) Looking at the picture above, it seems to me that they are very similar to sheep. In itself mohair is both durable and resilient and has a high sheen which makes it ideal for blending with other fibres. Like all wool, it has excellent insulating properties making it warm in winter, and it’s ability to absorb moisture also makes it cool in summer. It is naturally elastic, flame-resistant and crease-resistant. It is more expensive than most sheep’s wool and is now considered to be luxury fibre, along with cashmere, alpaca and silk. Blending it with silk, as most of the mohair I sell is, makes it super-luxurious. Like other wools, it is composed mostly of keratin, but it’s special properties are unique to the Angora goat i that while it has scales like wool, they are not fully developed, making it feel different to wool. The diameter of the fibre expands with age, growing along with the animal. This means that the finer, softer hair from younger animals is used, for example, in scarves and shawls, while the thicker, coarser hair from older animals is used in carpets and heavy fabrics. In addition, it takes dye very well allowing for vivid, saturated colours.
The Angora goat is thought to originate from the mountains of Tibet, but they reached Turkey in the 16th century. Fabric made from mohair was known in England by the early 18th century and the word was adopted into English sometime before 1570, coming from the Arabic mukhayyar, a type of haircloth. The raw product was first exported to Turkey from England, which then became the leading manufacturer of mohair products with yarn being exported all over the world. Until 1849, the Turkish province of Ankara was the only place that produced Angora goats. Due to the great demand for mohair fibre, there was a great deal of crossbreeding between Angora and common goats. The goat was introduced into South Africa, where it was crossed with the native goat, and later into the US, Australia and New Zealand and today South Africa is that largest mohair producer in the world, supplying around 50% of the fibre. Shearing takes place twice a year, in Spring and Autumn and one goat will produce between 5 and 7.5kg of mohair a year.
In more recent years, mohair has been very much part of fashion culture. During the 1960s, a blend of mohair and wool suiting fabric known as Tonik or Tonic was developed in England. This had shiny, colour changing appearance and was popular in the mod subculture, coming back during the mod revival of the 1980s at which time large mohair jumpers were also extremely fashionable. The mohair we sell today is a finer and softer product, definitely more luxurious and usually blended with silk. As I have said before, it is often held together with another wool, often merino, to create a luxurious fabric that is both fluffy and lustrous. Here in the shop we sell a range of mohair and silk blends, Mohair Luxe from Lang, Mohair from Malabrigo and of course the gorgeous Soft Silk Mohair from Knitting for Olive. All of them gorgeous in their different ways. And those clever people at West Yorkshire Spinners have just launched a wonderful brushed Aran called Fable, which is a blend of Falklands Wool, British Mohair and British Alpaca.
So, will I do the Mohair Dare in the Knitalong? Actually, I won’t this year, as I am doing some quite strong contrasts as it is. But perhaps next time.
