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#508899 04/04/09 06:59 PM
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MsMae Offline OP
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Hello Llyn,
Had to tell you, love your article about the 'Dust Bunny'.
Also have a question. I've been researching different animals with spinnable wool and have discovered pygora goats. A mix of pygmy and angora goats. Small in size and some the wool can be harvested by combing instead of shearing. Are your familiar with this new breed? Would be interested in hearing what you think.

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MsMae #508966 04/04/09 10:59 PM
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There is a breed association at pygoragoats.org which has info on the animals.

The fleece is high luster and very silky in appearance. Slippery to spin but does spin up into lovely yarn which will develop a halo, as does mohair. It is also relatively inelastic.

While I haven't spun a lot of pygora, I have spun and knit a lace carf of the fiber and it does make a beautiful yarn for lace knitting. Besides that, those little goats are cuties smile


Llyn - Spinning Editor
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Llyn #509094 04/05/09 06:53 PM
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Dear Llyn, People who live close to us have pygmy goats and the babies are just toooo cute. I thinking about sending an early letter to Sant Claus. Thanks for the web site address, I'm going there next. Love,

MsMae #546897 09/06/09 03:24 AM
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Darn ... I wish I'd seen this post back when it was a new topic. I could have added something to the discussion. smile

I have raised Pygmy goats for nearly 30 years, but when I took up spinning, the next obvious step (in my mind, anyway) was to add PYGORAS to my herd! We did - and their fleece (raw or processed) has been flying out the door. I'm lucky if I manage to save some to use myself!

We also already have cash deposits on the sale of four Pygora kids for spring 2010 - and the does haven't even been bred yet. Their fleece is WONDERFUL and highly sought after by the hand spinners who have discovered it. Being small and retaining the adorable Pygmy personality hasn't hurt them any, either.

Spinners are finding these small, fluffy goats to be great pets as well as providing them with a fleece than *can be* somewhat of a combination between mohair and cashmere - and sometimes more one way or the other.

Pygoras come in three fleece types and all are good for spinning. Depending on the "type" of fleece (A, B or C), they might be just combed once a year in the spring for a luscious cashmere "crop" of soft undercoat, combed and then clipped for a separate downy undercoat and lustrous "ringlet" outer coat or some of them can be sheared as you would an Angora goat.

Our first Pygora, "Yarn" (great name, isn't it?) has a Type A/B coat - leaning towards B - we comb her undercoat out first and then clip her outer coat - both have been gorgeous! Here is a photo of our "Yarn". (Hopefully the image will come through.
file:///c:/html/YarnSnicker.JPG

Last edited by Deb - ALASKA; 09/06/09 03:26 AM.

Deb Frost
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Well, the photo didn't come through. I'm still getting the hang of this program. Anyway, if anyone is interested, feel free to contact me and I can send you a photo of her - she is a real cutie. smile


Deb Frost
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Deb, that is very interesting to hear about your Pygora goats. I'm not familiar with the fiber and one of these days, I need to try some. I've heard such great comments about that fiber. Will you or can you send the picture in a PM? I wonder if it will go through that way. I'd like to see it.

Nikki in Colorado

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ear Deb, Can't believe so much time has gone by since I asked the first question about Pygora goats. blush Loved what you had to say about them. Rehabilitation is taking longer than I had expected but my plans to get some little woollies are just on hold not canceled. Have a couple of questions for you. Can you spin the wool or hair from the pygmy goats? And, since I'm just learning to spin, how difficult is the wool from the pygora goats to spin? I imaging the different types would have a different difficulty level. Can't tell you how much I love getting my hands into a nice fluffy bit of clean, loose wool. Thank you so much for sharing hard earned information. I'm sure we all appreciate it so much. Glenda

MsMae #614298 08/01/10 10:22 PM
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Hi Glenda! It's so good to hear from you again. I blush to admit, I don't even recall how long it has been since that conversation, but I DO remember talking (smile).

I have spun Pygmy undercoat ... but they are definitely not a real "fiber goat". Even in a cold climate like ours where Pygmies grow a very lush undercoat to see them through our cold winters, what I manage to comb out of them in the spring is usually well under one ounce per goat - and that is for the heavier "down" producers in my herd. It IS soft as a cloud though. I have occasionally blended Pygmy undercoat with other fibers and gotten the most wonderfully soft hand in the final yarn. Pygmy (and Pygora) down (undercoat) is so luxuriously soft and lofty - it is hard to beat this side of qiviut. smile

Glenda; Pygora OR Pygmy fiber is not a fleece I would recommend learning to spin on. You will just find it frustrating and difficult until you are more experienced and I would hate to discourage you!

Buy some inexpensive coopworth, columbia or other medium staple length wool rovings with lots of crimp. They are SO much easier to learn with - and once you have a handle on spinning, you can fairly quickly work your way up to finer and slipperier exotic fibers.

I've talked to lots of spinners who teach; they almost all recommend starting with Coopworth or similar (if you have money to spend, go for shetland), moving up to Corriedale, Rambouillet and Bluefaced Leicester (often referred to as BFL) and then to fine Merino and Cormo. Once you have mastered spoinning these sheep wools, you will be more than ready to branch out into llama, alpaca and yes! Pygora.

Btw, I keep a big stash of BFL ... it is one of my favorite spinning fibers and blends well with almost anything. It also takes dye well and makes up into any type of yarn you wish from fingerling (baby weight) to bulky without losing it's soft hand. It is also inexpensive and fairly easy to find. smile

Just a quick explanation as to the difficulty factor of spinning Pygora; Pygora (and any other purely or mostly undercoat spinning fiber) is often expensive due to either scarcity or because of labor intensive prep/processing ... or both. "Down" tends to have very short staple length and almost no crimp. Without those to hold your roving together, it can be quite a challenge to spin. Down also almost invariably also means de-hairing, which can take a long time to do by hand - or an additional expense to send out to be done.

You will find most exotic fibers blended with a fine wool or other longer stapled fiber. It not only stretches your supply of exotic, super soft Pygora (or qiviut, camel down, buffalo down, etc.), but it makes it easier to spin.

OK, as to your last question - all 3 Pygora "types"; A, B and C are fun to spin and each has its fanciers. Personally, I much prefer a type B that sort of "leans towards A". Ask a breeder - they will know what I mean. You will get the longer staple length in the outer coat - much of which can be spun, and you will get a lush propensity of undercoat. You will still need to de-hair, but there will be less dehairing necessary than a Type C. C's have wonderful cashmere-quality down which lots of people adore, but your harvest will be much smaller. LOTS to learn! There is loads of information about Pygoras online. Take your time, learn all you can, and feel free to ask me any questions that come up.

Get on with your rehab - hope it is going well - and dream on. Start spinning and practicing so that by the time you have your own Pygoras, you'll be all set to spin that lusious fleece!

Cheers,
Deb


Deb Frost

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