1.
Angora goats in the paddock..
2.
Hand classed mohair...
3.
Mohair yarn creation...
4.
Mohair throw magic
It all starts with Angora Goats in the paddock...
It all starts right in the paddock with these cuddly little guys and a good old dose of NZ sunshine!
The mohair used for our products is grown by angora goats in New Zealand. The goats are shorn twice a year yielding up to 2.5kgs per fleece each time, 5kg per year. This process does not harm the animals! The younger and better bred goats produce the super soft kid mohair we use for our mohair throws and yarn.
...then our Mohair is hand classed...
The mohair is hand classed into four main grades which separates the higher quality mohair from the lower quality:
Superfine Kid (23-25 micron)
Kid (26-28 micron)
Young Goat (29 -31 micron)
Adult (32-34 micron)
The lower the micron the thinner and therefore softer the fibre. Kid Mohair comes from the younger and better bred goats and is noticeably thinner and softer than the adult mohair and young goat mohair used by most Mohair product suppliers. You will be amazed how soft and luxurious our kid mohair products feel compared to products made with young goat and adult mohair. Read more about
the kid mohair difference.
...onto the premium Kid Mohair Yarn creation...
The Kid Mohair we keep is then sent for scouring (Mohair has about 15% grease in it) where the grease is removed to leave a clean fibre. It is then sent to the masters at Design Spun in Napier where the Mohair is combed into sliver/spinners top which takes any vegetable matter and shorter fibres out.
The sliver is spun, twisted with 6% nylon, creating a loop yarn (boucle). The nylon used with our Mohair limits the shedding which can occur in other Mohair yarns. The loop yarn is then brushed on a machine made like a wirebrush that draws the fibres out
giving our yarn a finish with 100% mohair pile and a quality that can only be had with Kid Mohair. It is luxuriously soft with a characteristic fluffiness.
It is then dyed and either left on cones for the manufacture of our mohair throws or taken off the cone and wound into our 50g premium kid mohair yarn balls or mohair hanks for hand knitters.
The final
mohair yarn is 94% Kid Mohair and 6% nylon and 100% New Zealand grown and spun.
...and finally the Mohair Throw magic.
The yarn is woven together in Masterton to form a ‘piece’ of fabric and then brushed to perfection using a centuries old brushing technique which was originally used for knitwear.
The technique involves the use of dried teasels from the thistle plant which have been adapted to fit onto a large brushing machine. No man made-substitute has proven to give a better finish than the natural teasles. This is the key ingredient to whipping up a luxurious light downy finish for our blankets.
The piece is then separated into individual
mohair throws in three sizes knee, single and queen and a careful eye is run over them to insure there are no faults.
