I see one of those “coat of many colors” yarns and I can’t dig the pocketbook out fast enough. The Good News is these mixed-color yarns are all the rage, the Bad News is fashion is capable of turning on its heel quicker than we can respond.
I use a lot of mohair because it’s a cheap and plentiful “filler” for dubbing blends. Lots of sparkle and plenty of spike – important qualities for big nymphs and steelhead flies, and especially Spey flies – which translate “scruffy” and long fibered into fly movement.
It’s the Poor Man’s Seal substitute, offering the same loft and spike yet absent the transparency and guilt associated with clubbed orphans.
This is Muench “Furrari” (France) and each skein is a blend of a dozen colors. It also boasts an extremely loose weave; two strands of black thread are the core, with a single strand of black spiraled around the mohair to keep it tight to the center threads.
It can be transformed into loose fur by yanking out the black threads and sliding the fibers off the center element. The mohair will collapse into loose fur that can be dubbed or added into something else.
The range of colors is the real bargain. Each color is about a foot long before transitioning to the next, plenty to wind a large fly body or yank off as a handful of dubbing.
If left intact the black threads offer the ability to wind it as a coarse, spiky yarn – with much of the black obscured by the trailing fibers. It’s perfect for the Jay Fair nymphs or anything else using mohair as a wound yarn.
It retails at nearly eight dollars a skein, but I got it off of eBay for five dollars. There’s quite a selection of colors offered by yarn stores selling their stock on eBay, most have priced it at six bucks per 80 meter skein.
Having a dozen colors in all the right Olives and Browns is a real boon for the frugal. It beats buying those three yard cards (x12) to realize the same color palette.
Colors shown below: Left (Purple, Green, Blue, Yellow) #4401, Center (Olive and Browns) #4407, Right (Grey, Brown, Claret,Green) #4401.
The same colors shown under natural light. Makes a big difference.
Tags: Muench Furrari mohair, dubbing blend, filler for dubbing, eBay, J Fair Wiggletail, spey fly, combed fur, mohair, fly tying materials. mohair yarn
i’ve been using mohair yarn for many years on some of the patterns that i tie. i simply pull off wisps of the yarn fibers and dub it to the thread
That would work swimmingly with this yarn as well due to the looseness of weave.
The volume of colors available on a single skein makes this material a real boon. You could use the same skein for literally hundreds of different flies.
Does the yarn become translucent when wet? I like the look of it dry, but I’ll bet it looks even better in water with a few captured air bubbles.
However, Moes are now in CITES, so that may be the last of that yarn you see.
top notch