I'm still mentally tired after the post about sheep wool, so this blog post about mohair will be shorter.
Some quick facts about Mohair:
Comes from the Angora goat, in Norwegian also called mohair goat so as not to confuse with the Angora rabbit
Originally from Tibet and probably migrated to Ankara (formerly Angora) in Turkey
Found in England, dating to the 8th century
The wool is naturally shiny and sparkling
Soft hair fibers (25-45 microns, human hair is 50-90 microns thick),
Kid mohair is the softest mohair wool (~ 25 microns) and comes from goat kittens
Colors incredibly well, compared to other types of wool
60% of the wool/hair produced worldwide comes from South Africa
an adult goat produces 5-8 kg of hair per year
The goats are sheared twice a year
PETA believes that in 2018 they revealed the mistreatment of goats on several farms in South Africa, through both "eyewitnesses" and video. Mohair South Africa, in collaboration with SAMIC, was able to identify 2 farms in the videos where the abuse took place. Further investigation by SAMIC showed that the abuses were carried out by an independent cutting company on both farms.
Based on the wording of CISION PR Newswire all video material comes from these two farms.
The farms were suspended (late spring to early summer 2018) from future wool auctions pending the investigations of the NSPCA and SAMIC. And was put under surveillance on probation by Mohair South Africa, and had to report when the goats were to be cut again.
The employees from the videos had to go through training and disciplinary actions in the shearing company following and report directly to Mohair South Africa.
This means that if Mohair South Africa does not like the training or the disciplinary actions against the employees, that company must find another industry.
Mohair South Africa has taken a hard line against the parties who broke the animal welfare laws, as they are responsible for approx. 800,000 angora goats and approx. 30,000 people who have mohair as their only income. Most mohair workers live in the Karoo, a sparsely populated semi-desert (a good place to look for fossils) in the country. And any blow on the reputation of mohair puts the lives of these people at risk of extreme poverty and hunger.
If you do not want / can have or work with mohair, there are alpaca and sheep wool yarns that are spun and brushed to the same texture as kid mohair.
You can also look at the table below and compare the softness between different types of wool. The softness is determined by the diameter in microns (micrometers). The smaller the micron the softer the wool.
Du kan laste ned denne tabellen gratis nedenfor 👇
Og hvis du ikke kan/vil jobbe med ull har Hobbii et eget garn kalt Fluffy Day av akryl som etterligner kid mohair garn.