Cashmere

Collecting cashmere wool. Collecting cashmere wool.

Cashmere is a very fine fibre from the undercoat of the long-haired Kashmir goat (capra hirgus laniger, but currently regarded as a sub-species of the capra aegagrus hircus). It is much softer than normal wool, and it also isolates much better.

The Cashmere fibres derive from the neck region of the goat. The goat has two fleeces: a fine under fleece or underdown, and a coarser outer coating (guard hair). To retrieve the underdown, it must first be separated from the guard hairs, before they can be further processed.

The largest producers of cashmere are China, Mongolia, Iran, Turkey, and a number of Central Asian states. Cashmere is still produced in Kashmir, in the extreme northwest of the Indian subcontinent, where it is also called pashmina.

Wikipedia (retrieved 22 January 2017).

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 22 January 2017).

WV

Last modified on Tuesday, 10 December 2019 19:31
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