Cashmere FAQ

A Brief Introduction of Cashmere Products

What is cashmere? Cashmere is the fine wool under the long hair of cashmere goats. Goats which lived in extremely cold area have cashmere. Goats which lived in mild weather only have short hair and do not have cashmere at all. Sheep only have sheep's wool.

Where produces cashmere? The major cashmere producing countries are: China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and some middle Asia countries, Nepal, Iran and a small part of Russia. China is the most important cashmere producing country. It processes more than 75% of world's cashmere.

Where produce the best cashmere? The best cashmere produced in a small area in Northwest China: Yinchuan Plain ( Ningxia Province) and Erdos Plateau ( Inner Mongolia, China). According to a research by a British Fiber Institution, the world's finest cashmere is produced exclusively in the region between 105-115 degrees longitude and 35-45 degrees parallels (Yinchuan and Erdos).  The fiber fineness is about 14-16.5 micron.

The second best cashmere produced in Xinjiang China and Nepal. The fiber fineness is about 14.5-16.5 micron. (The quantity of Nepal cashmere is very small and takes little proportion in cashmere market.). The cashmere fiber produced in Mongolia is courser. The fiber fineness is about 15 micron-17.5 micron. The Iranian cashmere is the coarsest and greasy.

cashmere goats

other goats

major cashmere area

dehaired cashmere

Why is cashmere more expensive than some other natural fibers? Cashmere is called the "soft gold". What makes it more expensive? What are the major features of it? Cashmere is the highest class of all natural fibers. It's warmer, softer, light weighted and smoother  than all the natural fibers. 

1. The fineness and special scale. The fineness could be 14 microns. Besides, cashmere, if you observe under the microscope,  cashmere has very small scale and the scale is not protruding. That is why cashmere scarf feel much more soft and smooth than woolen scarf. That also explained why cashmere can wear directly to your body and wool can't.

2. The quantity. A goat can only produce about 50 grams washed cashmere annually. A piece of women's sweater usually has a weight of 150 grams - 300 grams, that's the cashmere from 3-6 goats. A piece of men's sweater usually weighs about 250-450 grams, that's the cashmere from 5-9 goats!

3. Man power consuming producing process. From cashmere raw material to sweater needs more than 70 processes of production, expensive special equipment and a lot of skillful manpower. For example, the raw material selection processes usually require thousands upon thousands skillful workers to choose by hand,  even before processing by machines.

4. Expensive machines. The whole process of cashmere production requires specialized precision machines. Almost all the machines are imported from the US, Germany, Italy and Japan and all the imported cashmere processing machines are expensive. For example,  only one set of fiber fineness tester is almost half a million US dollars.

Fortunately, China has increased the production of goats and its abundant inexpensive and experienced manpower has greatly reduced the cost of production, now the price of cashmere sweaters is almost as low as woolen sweaters in the past.

What is high quality cashmere?

High quality cashmere must have the following features:

a. Fineness. The fineness of cashmere varies from 14 micron to 17+ micron. The 14 micron cashmere has the most soft hand feelings. The larger the number of microns, the coarser you will feel. However, the total percentage of 14 micron is less than 1% of all the cashmere and it is difficult to separate it from the other fineness cashmere. Generally speaking, any cashmere with the fineness under 15.8 micron is considered the top quality cashmere.

b. Length. The average length of the cashmere can be from 18-50. But the percentage of long fiber is very little. The measurement of the length of cashmere is average length. Loger the average length, the better cashmere is. Generally speaking, the average length from 34-40mm will be considered top quality cashmere.

c. Purity. The purity of cashmere is another vital factor. We consider the purity of cashmere above 99.8% is the top quality. The other 0.2% is the cashmere which has some feature of wool (Under the microscope, the scale of the wool is larger and more protruding than cashmere. A tiny amount of cashmere has both cashmere and wool scale features, i.e., half is cashmere and the other half is wool. Since the fineness is the same, even the cleverest machines can not see the difference.) That's why the manufacturers usually call the best cashmere 99.8% purity.

d. Color. Here the color is the color of white cashmere. Nature does not give the white coats pure white cashmere. Most of the times, there are pieces of yellowish or some other colors mixed in the white colors. That requires the manufacturers hire a lot of workers pulling out the other colors from white with tweezers, piece by piece. The best white cashmere is white/white, which is the cashmere hand picked by workers.

In Internet, the price difference of "same 100% cashmere sweaters" is very big, ranging from $50 to $$300+, why is the price difference so big? What is the reason of "inexpensive"? What is the reason of "expensive"?

 Some cashmere sweaters are "inexpensive" because:

• Coarser cashmere. In the raw material market, the price difference between high quality cashmere ( fineness under 16 micron, fiber length above 32mm made in upper and middle reaches of Yellow River in China) and coarser cashmere is very big, the price of the latter is 2/3 or even 1/2 of the former.

• Impurity. Some manufacturers even  mixed some other fibers in the cashmere such as sheep's wool, camel cashmere or even chemical fibers.  Some of the "100% cashmere sweaters" are made of 100% sheep's wool and no cashmere at all! In the raw material market, the price difference between pure cashmere and finest sheep's wool is 10 times. so, a piece of $50 "100% cashmere sweater" made of fine sheep's wool may be more expensive to a $150-$250 pure cashmere sweater. If the retail prices is extraordinary low, then you have to consider the possibility of the purity and fineness of the cashmere.

• One ply yarn: The total weight of cashmere is reduced, so the cost of production and selling price are reduced. However, sweaters of one ply yarn is far less strong than two ply yarn, because two-ply yarn twisted the two thread of one-ply yarn together and thus much more stronger.

• The design and weight. Some of the designs are complicated and a skillful worker can only make one piece per day. While for the simple designs 10 pieces could be made by the same skillful worker. ( For example, Intarsia is a complicated way to make. Another example is complicated beads.) Besides, some cashmere sweaters made of 4 ply or higher yarn, the sweater is very heavy, thus the price is higher.

Some cashmere sweaters are more expensive because:

• Better cashmere

• Good design

• Famous Brand. If everything is the same, the brand usually causes the biggest price difference which is  the major reason for sweaters selling above $200.

What is the quality of your sweaters sold in this website?

All the products in our website are made of 100 pure cashmere with a fineness under 15.8 micron. You can compare our cashmere products with those sweaters from any expensive department stores. Since we manufacture for almost all the important and famous brands all over the world, we have high taste of good designs. Our brand is one of the 3 most famous Chinese brands. Our discounted cashmere sweaters are among the lowest price of the same supreme quality.

How to choose cashmere sweaters?

Generally speaking, the best cashmere sweaters are those with highest quality and lowest possible price. The first thing you choose is the quality of cashmere. Then, you choose the weight, cashmere is traded in grams, so the weight is very important factor to decide the price. After that, yarn count and plies. The bigger the number, the thinner the yarn will be. Any cashmere machines can make thick yarn, but only the long fiber can make fine yarn. In the market, most of the cashmere sweaters are made with 2 ply yarn, it is much more stronger than one ply yarn because it twisted two pieces of one ply yarn together,

Style, color and size is a personal choice.

What are the basic technical terms I have to know before I buy a cashmere product?

• Jersey. Plain knitted. The simplest way of knitting.

• Ribs. Ribs is a more complicated way of knitting. Ribs is not only looks prettier, but also have much more heavier weight, thus it is warmer.

• Cable. Cable, is just like ribs, is a special way to knit sweaters. It is also have a much more heavier weight.

• Jacquard. Jacquard is a way to make complicated patterns by computerized machines. Only computerized Jacquard machine can accomplish that job, it requires the technician to design the process according to the pattern and it requires the workers change the colors all the time. The finishing process is extremely time consuming.

• Intarsia. Intarsia is one way of Jacquard. It is the most complicated way of all the textures. It is not only consider the patterns outside the sweater but also consider the patterns inside the sweater. This requires not only a manufacturer has sophisticated computerized machines, good engineer to design the patterns for the machine, but also requires highly skillful workers to realize it by hand. It is a tedious and time consuming task. The finishing process is most complicated and time consuming. For example, a skillful worker can make 12 pieces jersey sweaters per day, but for intarsia, the same worker can only make one piece a day or even two days for one piece.

• Embroidered. To Embroider flowers and patterns in the ready made sweaters. There are two kinds of embroidering: hand embroidering and machine embroidering.  Not only hand embroidering is tedious and time consuming task, machine embroidering is also a time consuming task. It requires the technician to design the pattern and the workers change the color of thread all the time.

• Beaded. Beaded is a complicated method to sew the tiny beads to the sweater, it horribly time consuming. 

• Hand Knitted. Hand knitted sweater requires a worker to knit by hand. The most skillful worker can finish one sweaters in 3-5 days. It can take weeks for those less skillful worker to finish one piece.

• Lining for Knitted Products. Some sweaters lined with fur or leather. It is time consuming and requires special machines.

Can cashmere products avoid "pickings"?

Pickings are tiny woolen balls which happen after people wearing it for some time. It usually shows up in elbows. Some people lie down with cashmere sweaters, then there will be pickings in the back.

There are 3 reasons to cause pickings. The most direct reason is the feature of cashmere. Cashmere has very tiny scales and they are not as protruding as that of the scales of wool. The goodness is you feel fine and smooth, the weakness is the twistability is not  as good as wool for the textile industry. The second reason is because of the short fiber. The third reason is because of the twist. If you increase the twist of the yarn, there will be less pickings and the yarn is stronger. But high twist cashmere sweaters feel coarser and harder. So. for cashmere sweaters, products produced by long fibers have less pickings. Even wool and some short chemical fiber will have pickings. We can not totally avoid pickings.

For woven cashmere products, there is no picking problem. The twist of woven fabrics is high and there is little chance to have pickings.

There are two ways to reduce pickings and we have taken the both. One is to reduce the content of short fibers. This will increase the cost by 20% or more. The other is to use higher twist. The best twist is an equilibrium of good hand feeling and highest possible twist. We have in cashmere business for about 30 years. We have made countless tests each year and basically find that equilibrium point, but we are still trying to find more exact equilibrium point to meet with our customers increased request. 

In a word, for knitted cashmere products, pickings can not be 100% avoided, but we can reduce it to a point our customers can accept.

How to clean cashmere sweaters?
The best way we suggest is dry cleaning.
You can also hand washing. The key point is to clean it with soft soap, clean it gently with hand and rinse it thoroughly. After cleaning, put the sweater on top of the towels, roll it over with the towel. After washing and drying, do not hang it because the weight of the water will stretch the sweater and make it deformed. Just keep it flat on a table surface and wait it dry up naturally. To prevent discoloring and deform, avoid using bleached detergent and put it in the dryer.

How to store cashmere?
Hang up your cashmere sweaters or put it in the closet after cleaning and make sure to put some anti-moss natural drugs with the sweaters.
The best way to store your cashmere sweaters is to use the vacuum plastic bag which is now available in all the department stores. Do not forget to put the natural anti moss drugs inside the drugs.

Copy right by All Cashmere since 1999