I bought a bunch of angora goats to have my own fibre to spin.  Than the herd grew to large proportions and I coudn’t keep up so I started having them sheared and sold some.  I really enjoy the critters but I had not spun any of their fibre. I started after 1.5 years to spin their fibre and realized I hated it.  It always seems to go up my nose and irritate me.

So I cut back on them more, but I missed them greatly and decided to give spinning their fibre a second chance. I tried and it wasn’t as bad as it was the first time as I had gotten into more spinning, gotten better at it and started to enjoy spinning again. but the mohair was still not my favorite.

My health started to go down hill.  The animal numbers started to go uphill.  something had to give and it appeared to be ME!!  I started to sell my angora goat herd off, put a lot of the sheep in the freezer and went from 40+ head last winter to only 15 head right now with perhaps another 5 going here shortly.  10 is my magic number that I think I have to be at or BELOW! to be able to find a balance somewhere.

Been weaving up a storm lately, a lot with yarns that I have spun myself.  Found a lot of things I can’t do, some that I can do and make numerous mistakes.  still learning on what I can and can not do and what does and does not work with weaving hand spun yarns.

What does all this mean?  well after making at least 4-5 scarves in the last week, I realized I can’t wear Mohair.  apparently I am allergic to it.  maybe that is why I have hated spinning it, working with it, touching it and wearing it.  Anything with mohair in it gives me the creeps and I tear it off in less than a minute.  I had a sample of a 2 ply yarn that had been spun and given to me.  one ply was 100% angora bunny and 1 ply was 100% alpaca.  I wound the skein of yarn around my neck and wore it outside for 2-3 hours while I did my chores yesterday.  not only did that skein of less than an ounce keep my neck warm when normally I wear a scarf wrapped around my neck 3-4 times, but I didn’t claw it off.  That is a good thing!

I finished a 100% merino scarf the other day, and it was OK for me to wear as well.  so my intuition of having merinos and angoras for my new fibre seems to be accurate.

Today I cleaned out my entire fibre room of anything that has mohair in it.  Raw fleece, Mill processed Rovings, yarns, and even blends that have mohair in them.  Expect to start seeing me list them on line as I am going to clear all Mohair from my ranch as I have sold off all the angora goats so there will be nothing new coming up.  Wow, can’t believe I am allergic to the stuff. Maybe I should have worked with the fibre before I bought a herd of angora goats 3.5 years ago.  can you say DUUUUH!!!!????