Yarn
We are very proud of our growing herd of Angora goats here Purple Pony Farms. We shear, wash, card and spin the mohair ourselves. Keep scrolling to see the process. Our buck, Wizard, has volunteered to be a model.
The handsome Wizard, our very proud Angora buck, prior to shearing.
Shearing
The first step in making mohair yarn is shearing. Our goats are sheared twice a year, spring and fall. This process never hurts the goat, no more than a haircut hurts you. In fact, they get quite the spa treatment. Snacks and refreshments are available to them the entire time and they receive pedicures at the same time. I draw the line at a face mask and hot stone massage though.
Wizard posing halfway through his haircut, wondering why his snack is five seconds late.
Washing
After the goats are relieved of their luscious locks, the fiber is then washed to remove dirt, grass, hay and the natural oil (called lanolin) that coats the fibers. In some cases (looking at you, Wizard!) we wash the fiber multiple times. We love our bucky buck dearly but his aue-de-buck perfume doesn't need to go home with anyone!
Wizard's fabulous curls fresh off the goat. The bag is to show just how much fiber we got this shearing. An Angora will grow as much as 25% of their body weight a year in mohair!
After a thorough washing, the fiber is now very soft but a tangled mess. We use large wire brushes to detangle, or "card", the fiber. This will give us a lovely nest of long, soft fibers.
The final step is to spin the fibers. We use hand-held drop spinners. The newly formed string is then rolled into skeins, weighed and posted up here for sale!
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Bear with us as products are limited as our small herd grows