About Cashmere

Where does cashmere come from?

All genuine cashmere comes from the Capra-Hircus Goat. This goat lives high in the Himalayan Mountains and on the cold high level plains of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia.

The outer fur actually feels rough to touch. Certainly if you were to stroke this goat it wouldn't feel amazingly soft like one of our jumpers or pashminas.

The finest hair is on the inner layer, next to the skin. The Sanskrit word for this is 'pashm', hence the name pashmina, which is commonly used to describe the very finest cashmere from the chin and underbelly of the goat. All our cashmere products are made from 28 count 2-ply yarn unless it says different. This is the best yarn for making regular pashminas and cashmere knitwear. We can also offer 60 count yarn or 42 count yarn which are spun finer and a lot thinner on request.

So how do you know that the items on this site are made from the finest cashmere?

Firstly, we regularly send our products for testing. On the right is on of our test certificates to prove it is pure cashmere. We do this every few months. When buying cashmere its important to look into where it comes from and the actual cashmere contents if you want to be that its pure, as there are so many cheating producers and manufacturers on the market. Its not unusual to find cashmere products claiming to contain 100% cashmere when it actually contains a mix of wool, rabbit fur and other unidentifiable materials. A majority of these producers are based in China which is one of the reason why we dont source our cashmere from there. The second reason is that the cashmere is massproduced in huge factories with poor working conditions. The process of massproducing cashmere products also lessens the quality and the feel of the products.
Secondly you should read through come customer testimonials. We know that our cashmere feels better than anything in the shops, and its almost a shame that we sell online, because whenever people actually feel our products they are invariably amazed.

When we have had the fibres actually measured, they are about 14.5microns, which is very fine indeed. (1/6th of a human hair)
This information from one of the labs we use for testing is also interesting http://www.hk.sgs.com/understanding_cashmere_en.pdf

How should I look after my cashmere ?

Cashmere is not cheap, and you will want to make sure that your purchases stay in the best condition for as long as possible. To keep the fabric looking great, try using a SWEATER STONE.

The labels of our cashmere knitwear and pashminas states that it should be dry cleaned. The reason for this is because cashmere is very delicate and fine and it is important to be careful and follow the instructions when washing them. If you stick them in a washing machine on 60C with different colours its quite predictable that they are going to be ruined. We do not accept such returns caused by mishandled cashmere.

It is not difficult to wash and care for your cashmere at home. If you want to wash it yourself we would recommend hand washing cashmere garments or a mild shampoo, although when we wash ours we do use a washing machine set at 20C and a washing liquid for delicates. To keep the colours its important to wash it with the same or similar colours. You can buy a special cashmere wash, but it will cost you more than a normal delicates wash and the ingredients are the same.

Once the garment is washed, you should roll it between towels and gently squeeze to drain most of the water, then lay it flat to dry. As the cashmere knitwear is very fine it is unusual but might happen that heavier ply jumpers gets some bobbles especially in the armpits where it has been rubbed. If your jumper has bobbles you can easily remove them by washing it and remove any bobbles that are left by gently rubbing with a towel on it. After 1-2 washes your jumpers should stop bobbling.

For pashminas, they can be dried in the wind, as they are after they have been dyed.

Read more and buy our cashmere on www.mypashmina.co.uk