Holding Mohair Double

Why nobody knits mohair alone

Mohair comes from the angora goat and has almost no crimp - the fiber is long, smooth and slippery. Spun alone at lace weight it has very little elasticity and not much structural integrity, which is why both of the mohair yarns this site lists are mohair-silk blends: the silk is the core that holds the yarn together.

Even blended with silk, a mohair-silk lace yarn knitted alone gives a fabric that is beautiful, extremely light, and almost structureless. It has no recovery, so ribbing does not grip and a garment grows. Holding it with a second yarn gives it a backbone. Mohair yarn explained covers the fiber itself.

What to hold it with

The arithmetic nobody writes down

Two things surprise people the first time: the needle size, and the yardage.

1. Go up, but not by the thickness you expect. Mohair is mostly air. Held with a DK yarn it does not make a bulky yarn - it makes a worsted-ish yarn with a halo. Start one to two sizes above what the partner yarn alone would take and swatch.
2. You need the same yardage of each. This is the one that catches people out. Held-double projects consume both yarns at the same rate, so a sweater needing 1,200yd of DK also needs roughly 1,200yd of mohair. At 229yd a 25g ball that is five or six balls, not one.
3. Swatch the combination, never either yarn alone. The ball-band gauge on the mohair is for mohair knitted alone, which almost nobody does. It is close to irrelevant here.
4. Wash the swatch. Mohair blooms when it is wet - the halo opens and the fabric grows. A swatch measured dry off the needles will lie to you.
5. Expect the fabric to be warmer than it looks. The halo traps air, so a lightweight mohair-held sweater is warmer than a heavier plain one.

When not to do it

• Cables and textured stitch patterns. The halo fills in exactly the shadows that make a cable readable. You will have done the work and it will not show.
• Socks, and anything that takes abrasion. Mohair has no elasticity and sheds; a sock needs recovery and wear resistance. Use sock yarn instead.
• Anything for a baby. Mohair sheds loose fiber continuously - see is this yarn safe for a baby.
• A first sweater. If your gauge is not yet consistent, you will want to rip back, and mohair is very close to unrippable once it has been worked.
• Ribbing that must grip. Neither yarn is doing much for recovery. Work the ribbing in the partner yarn alone and add the mohair after it.

Softening a scratchy wool with it

This is the other reason knitters reach for mohair, and it works. Held together with a coarse, grabby wool, the mohair halo sits between the wool and your skin, so the stiff fiber ends that cause prickle are standing in a cloud of something much finer.

It does not change the wool - it changes what touches you. If the underlying problem is a genuine sensitivity rather than mechanical prickle, this does not help. What makes yarn itchy distinguishes the two.

Washing and the shed

Both mohair yarns listed here are hand wash, and that governs the finished garment regardless of what the partner yarn says - a superwash merino held with mohair is a hand-wash fabric.

The shedding is permanent and there is no technique that stops it. It is worst in the first few wears and settles down without ever stopping. If you knit in bed, expect to find mohair in the bed. Plan around it rather than trying to fix it.