Does Angora come from a goat or a bunny? And what is a Yak???

Today I want to write about various animal fibers. I'll write about plant fibers another day.

Alpaca fiber comes from the animal of the same name. It is a small camelid that is indigenous to South America. It is related to the llama and looks very similar, though much smaller than a llama. The natural colors of the fiber can range from white to tans to many shades of brown to grays to black. The fiber is luxuriously soft and light and warm.


Angora comes from the Angora rabbit, which originally came from Turkey. The fibers are obtained by combing the rabbit. The wool is amazingly soft and fine, and is usually combined with other soft wools to make it easier to spin.


Cashmere comes from the Cashmere goat, which has a coarse outer coat and a very fine undercoat. The undercoat is shed or can be combed. If the animal is sheared, then the not-so-desirable coarse outer hair gets mixed in with the soft luxurious inner coat.


Mohair comes from the fiber of the Angora goat. This makes it confusing because of the Angora rabbit. The fiber is warm and fuzzy and a bit 'hairy'.


Qiviut is wool from the musk-ox, which lives in VERY cold places like Siberia and Greenland and Alaska. You might have correctly guessed that their wool is extremely warm. No other hoofed animal lives in such cold climates. They live in herds of from 10-20 animals. They've been around while (used to hang out with woolly mammoths!) The qiviut wool (the undercoat) is unbelievably light- weight and soft. I have knitted with qiviut yarn before, and it is truly luxurious.


Yaks are long-haired animals that live in the Himalayans of Central Asia. They have a very soft undercoat that can be removed by combing. They get up to about 1200 pounds, so I’ll let someone else comb them.