A Workshop With Robin Russo

March 31, 2011 in Thoughts, Workshops, A new experience!, Spinning, Yarns | Tags: angora,cashgora, cashmere, mohair, pygora, Robin Russo, spinning | 5 comments (Edit)

Rarely do I have the pleasure of TAKING a workshop.  Last Saturday I did just that!  Robin Russo, renown in the spinning world, taught a full day class on goat hairs.  I am so lucky to have been home this weekend so I could attend. About 20 of us gathered in a room with our wheels in anticipation.  We were given a variety of cashmeres in different grades to spin as well as pygora and angora and cashgora.  I spun my little heiny off and by the end of the day had produced this ball of yarn… It consists of several grades of cashmere, pygora, cashgora, and mohair (kid, yearling, and adult).  It was pretty fascinating to see samples of the different types of mohair, which is what the fleece of an angora goat is called: The mohair taken from a goat that is 6 months old to a year old is considered “kid”.  It is shorter, curlier, and maybe not as shiny as more mature mohair.  Yearling mohair is a bit less curly, and longer because it has had a longer time to grow than a kid’s.  Adult mohair is so shiny and has much less curl.  It was used a lot in the earlier 1900s for upholstery fabric because it would wear so well.  I remember my Grandma’s couch…. Pygora is the type of goat that is a cross between a pygmy goat and an angora goat.  I never knew before that angora goats have only come in one color: white.  Once they were crossed with pygmy goats (which have lots of colors in their fleeces), more color is being produced in with this cross breed. Here is my notebook of samples at the end of the day: