Cashmere

Cashmere is the fine winter undercoat of cashmere goats, not their coarse outer hair. Most down measures 14 to 16.5 microns across, finer than nearly all merino wool at 17 to 22 microns. That fineness does two jobs at once. Thin fibers bend under pressure instead of pressing into the skin. The cloth feels soft rather than prickly, and they pack more insulating air into each gram. A cashmere sweater gives roughly the warmth of a wool one at a fraction of the weight.

Supply sets the price. One goat yields 100 to 200 grams of usable down a year once the guard hair is separated out. A mid weight sweater takes 300 to 400 grams of yarn. Several animals stand behind a single garment. Cheap cashmere is rarely fake, it is short. Fibers under about 32 millimeters slip out of the twisted yarn and tangle on the surface. That tangle is pilling.

Judge it on construction rather than on the fiber name. Two ply, meaning two spun strands twisted together, wears far longer than one ply at the same weight. Hold a section against your palm, and if you can read your skin through it the knit is loose and will thin at the elbows within a season. Stretch the cuff, let go, and watch whether it returns to shape or stays wide.

Care follows wool, only stricter. Hot water and agitation felt it permanently. Hand wash below 30 C in wool detergent, or use a wool cycle. Squeeze rather than wring, and dry flat, because a wet knit stretches under its own weight. Wash two or three times a season, not weekly, and store it clean and sealed since moth larvae prefer cashmere to almost anything else in the closet.

Cashmere goats grow a coarse outer coat over a soft down layer that carries them through winters well below freezing, mostly across Mongolia, northern China and Iran. In spring the down loosens on its own, and herders either comb it out by hand or shear the whole coat. Combing takes far longer and yields cleaner fiber, which is one hidden reason two sweaters can differ so much.

Harvested fleece arrives as a mix, so the next step is dehairing, a mechanical separation that pulls coarse guard hair out of the down. Yield falls sharply here, and the care taken shows up later as softness. What survives is scoured, sorted by length and natural color, spun into fine yarn and usually twisted with a second strand into two ply. Undyed white down commands the most, because it takes pale colors without a bleaching step that would weaken the fiber.