Cashmere Wool Fabric is known for its luxuriously softness and extreme
warmth. It is lightweight with a good insulation quality. This is an ideal
fabric for babies wear. Knitwear made of cashmere does not scratch like
other wool. The coarser cashmere is utilized by making rugs and carpets.The fiber of the cashmere wool contains natural crimp. This quality helps the fiber to interlock during processing which again allows it to be spun into a very fine and lightweight fabric. The number of crimp is correlated with the fineness of the spun yarn and therefore the softness of the finished product. The fabric retains the loft (small air spaces trapped between the fibers) which makes it warm without weight.
Pashmina is the highest quality of cashmere. Kashmir pashmina is the most original and authentic cashmere. Making of pashmina in the valley of Kashmir is as old as 3000 years B.C. The pashmina fabric is exceptionally light-weight, soft and luxurious. It is very warm. The natural colors of pashmina fabric ranges from white to gray, red, brown and black.
Cashmere Wool Fabric is obtained from Cashmere goat, a member of Capra hircus. Biologically, the word cashmere is not the name of any breed of goat but refers to the under hair or downy undercoat extracted from any breed of goat. It is also known as 'Kashmir goats' or 'Himalayan mountain goats'. The goat gets warm hair fibers, which is exceptionally silky and strong, in its body to protect it from the cold mountain temperatures. The hair sheds naturally during the molting seasons, in spring, which last for several weeks. The hair is collected with coarse comb or sometimes even sheared to make fine or thick yarns and then it is made into light to heavy-weight fabrics.
The largest producer of cashmere in the world is China. Mongolia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand are the other producers of cashmere wool. Mongolia produces the finest cashmere in the world. In China and Mangolia, the animals are not sheared as in Afghanistan, Iran, New Zealand, Australia, and United States. It is rather combed by hand with a coarse comb.
Characteristics of Cashmere Wool Fabric
- It is luxuriously soft.
- It is light-weight.
- It is extremely warm.
- It does not scratch.
- It has a very good insulation quality.
- Cashmere wool fabric is widely used as cashmere sweaters because of its extremely warmth quality. It is very light and do not scratch like other woolen sweaters do. Babies wear are also made of cashmere wool fabric because of its softness. It is also used as shawls, scarves, blazers, coats, jackets and underwear.
- The coarser cashmere is used as rugs and carpets.
