Mohair

Angora goats grow a fibre which is silky smooth, soft to the touch and has a beautiful pearly sheen or lustre. Grown in wavy locks, it resembles curly human hair although much finer and is called mohair.

3rd fleece of Vermont African Lancelot - a Lara Downs Angora buck

Being a natural fibre with a smooth surface, mohair has many wonderful properties including being lustrous, imparting warmth without weight, is moisture absorbent and dirt and stain resistant, as well as being simply beautiful.

Baby Angoras or Kids, grow super fine, delightfully curly mohair used in luxury yarns, fine knitwear and men's top quality suiting. The best quality kid mohair feels luxurious and can be worn against the skin.

Mature Angora goat fibre is stronger and while still soft to touch, is best used for blankets, outer clothing, upholstery eg velour and soft furnishings where its excellent warming and draping qualities come into their own.

Lara Downs Mohair & Merino farm offers an extensive range of luxury mohair and merino wool products for apparel and handcrafts.

Quality Control at Lara Downs

At Lara Downs, we only process our best Fine Kid Mohair (<25 microns) for our yarn to ensure that it meets our quality criteria. For mohair Top for craft purposes, we use Strong Kid Mohair (27-29 microns). We do not process any stronger grades of mohair and choose to sell that part of our clip to the export trade.

A word of caution when buying other commercial Mohair yarn :

There are many different yarns for sale claiming to be Mohair or a Mohair blend. The discerning buyer needs to beware of yarn described in very vague or general terms. Mohair varies greatly in quality and fineness and is priced accordingly. Super fine Kid will be most expensive, but something described simply as Mohair might be anything from Kid through to stronger fibre and much more likely to be at the stronger (cheaper end) of the fibre spectrum.

Many yarns described in large lettering on labels as Mohair, prove on closer inspection to contain only minimal Mohair content. It pays to read labels carefully before you buy and not pay a high price for what might be predominately wool or synthetic fibre: both much cheaper fibres than Mohair.

Don't be fooled into thinking that all mohair content in yarn is Kid Mohair and likewise resist the temptation to think that all Mohair is scratchy, based on a bad past experience. The best quality Kid Mohair will never be scratchy and will be soft and comfortable against the skin.

We are pleased to say that over the past 20 years, the quality of Mohair world wide and Australian Mohair in particular has improved dramatically. We hope that you have only enjoyable Mohair experiences from now on.

Pam & David Goble