Greetings Crafty followers,  

We hope you are all safe & well. A special welcome to our new subscribers from last month. We hope you enjoy your welcome 10% discount code.  

This month we wanted to talk about the Cashmere goat.   

Known around the world for its luxurious soft touch & thermal properties Cashmere is one of the finest of the natural fibres. To be certified as Cashmere the micron must be less than 19. Human hair has a diameter of around 75 microns to give you some comparison. For luxury garments usually the micron is around 14. As you can see from the below photograph (4th from the left) the scale structure & diameter of Cashmere is much smoother & slimmer than other fibres except for silk.   

Having such a soft touch & excellent thermal properties Cashmere is very much sought after & the prices reflect this. Also due to the rarity of the goat, in comparison to wool from a sheep has pushed the price up and up.  

There are many different grades of cashmere, the best coming from China. Due to contamination of black hairs found in this natural product, the best of the best is known as WXW China cashmere, which stands for white for white & should have 0 black hair content.  

There is also grades of Chinese cashmere that do have some black hair content which is to be expected. The two most important factors are the micron & the length. The longer the fibres staple length, the easier it is to spin. So, the finer the micron & the longer the length makes for the most premium types of cashmere and carries the highest price.  

There are also other shades available such as light grey, fawn, cream & brown.  

Mongolian cashmere is also a very sought-after product, followed by Iranian / Afghan cashmere and then Russian cashmere which tends to be the coarsest fleece from the Goat.

At Crafty Fibres, we are lucky enough to stock a wide range of Cashmere products in dehaired form & all in natural shades. Whilst expensive in comparison to Sheep wool or Alpaca the product has a luxurious touch like no other fibre.  

We hope you have found this months newsletter informative & interesting & we look forward to seeing you next month. Don’t forget to tag us in your Crafty creations on Facebook & Instagram.  

The Crafty Team