Saturday, August 25, 2007

Angora Goats

Shortly after we discovered spinning, and I had bought a cloud of mohair at the


Hans is the sire of our Angora Goat herd. He's much more impressive now and has several children running around that look just like this.

Taos Wool Festival, we found a poor matted mess of an Angora goat at the local livestock auction and I just had to rescue her. I named her Muffin and once she had the felted rug shorn off of her, she turned out to be very pretty and very pregnant. She had two kids, Bran and Blueberry. That fueled another passion for Jeanette - Mohair - who went and bought a prize winning (Estes Park 2003) buck from Kai Mohair. his name is Hans. Their fiber is so very soft and lustrous and strong. Many spinners and knitters recommend blending a bit of mohair in with wool to create socks that ‘last forever.’

Jeanette’s first project with mohair was a scarf made with my first attempt at spinning. Let’s just say that the scarf has character!

Jeanette took the idea one step further and, using the first clip from Hans, drop spindle spun and crocheted the ‘Arachne Wrap’ which took second at Taos and first at Gunnison Fiber Festival and then Jeanette retired the wrap from the show circuit.