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Posted By: Laun-spinning editor Short bits of mohair - 10/04/12 01:49 AM
I received this question from a reader yesterday:
I was given a very large bag of mohair. The problem is, it is mostly short pieces that will not catch on the carder. What can I do with this fiber so it isn't a total waste? Is there something else I can use it for?

Here are my ideas:
If there are any longer staples, I would try to harvest as many of those as possible and bag them separately to process as usual. The shorter lengths might be useful if they could be literally sprinkled onto a silk cap. The caps I have been spinning lately are very "catchy". They drag against any rough spots on my hands so I'm pretty sure they would catch the mohair snippets. Both silk and mohair are lustrous, but the mohair would still add interest to the finished yarn. You might have to stretch the cap or hanky about halfway first, then sprinkle the mohair over the silk fold it over itself to contain the snippets a bit and finish stretching the cap until it can be spun.

Another idea would be to dye it different colors and place it like confetti between two sheer silk scarves and meander quilt it with decorative threads.

Do you have any suggestions? (I hate to waste fiber)
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