When was cashmere invented

That is because the wool is exceptionally warm, and now unbearable for it. This makes the goat rub itself against rough surfaces like shrubs, rocks, and walls to get rid of this wool. Herders take note of the situation and immediately call for professional help. This raw wool is Cashmere locally called Pashm. It is collected and put into small zip-lock packets. Later it is cleaned by local men and women, and a partially cleaned batch of wool is sent to Kashmir for further processing. When the raw wool arrives in Kashmir, it is handed over to womenfolk.

They sit in groups and start with the cleaning of raw fibre. Raw fibre is full of dirt, dust, and foreign material which gets attached to the animal as it moves around. Impurities like vegetable wastes, grass, dirt, thorns of bushes are found to be mixed with this fibre. Besides guard hair is still mixed with pure threads.

The wool is cleaned thoroughly and placed in a thin rice powder paste for 3 to 4 days. Womenfolk from all parts of the valley come together and begin the process of spinning. This is done by fitting the raw wool in a wooden spinning wheel locally known as "Yinder". Spinning the wool transforms the raw wool into long threads or yarn.

The yarn is so fine; its diameter is microns only. The yarn is then handed over to weavers. Weavers are usually men, who sit two at a time on a wooden handloom that is native to Kashmir. Men mount the fine yarn on the handloom and begin weaving into fabric. This fabric can be made into a shawl , wrap , scarf or handkerchief even.

This is how Cashmere shawls are made from Cashmere wool. Since Cashmere is fine and delicate, it stands only for hand embroidery. There are several types of hand embroidery that are done over Cashmere wraps. This makes them more beautiful, and resplendent to look at. With times changing and younger generations finding embroidered shawls overdone for them, Cashmere adapted to modish patterns and introduced some casual designs.

Also read: What does Cashmere feel like? The history of Cashmere is interesting enough to be made into a movie. It has watched ups and downs and then finally perished, only to be revived again. And their countries were the first ones who manufactured their own Cashmere wraps, with their own unique designs.

However, even then, the wealthier ones among them still preferred Cashmere from Kashmir, as it was the best in terms of quality, warmth, and grace.

It was around the 16th century when Cashmere was discovered for the first time in Kashmir. A Sufi saint by the name of Mir Syed Ali Hamdani discovered fine wool in Ladakh and ordered craftsmen to handcraft a pair of socks from it. When the order was complete, the saint was mesmerized by it. He gave it as a gift to the then ruler of Kashmir Zain ul Abideen. This "flake" is then washed, combed, dyed and spun mechanically, while the manual work returns to the knitting of pullovers.

Each knitting machine is operated manually, and the worker pays utmost attention to the specifications of the garment that he is making : factors such as the tension of the yarn and shape of the garment are continuously controlled.

The panels thus obtained are then assembled by hand by linking point by point and not with simple machine stitching as in a low quality garment.

The garment is then washed to reach the right handfeel, and also this process is controlled by an expert in this highly specialized work. A cashmere goat produces about grams of cashmere fiber per year, and the yarn is so thin that it takes 7 miles of yarn to make a pullover. Therefore a sweater requires an average annual contribution of 5 goats cashmere!

Consumers tend to have a wrong idea that the "pilling" is a quality problem: it is impossible to have a cashmere sweater that does no pilling. The characteristic of a cashmere pullover is its very fine and soft fiber. To increase this feature at most, the pullover is treated so as to bring the finest fibers to the surface, in order to have a soft and smooth handfeel if there were not enough fiber on the surface you would have a rough and dry handfeel ; therefore any kind of friction on the surface creates the pilling.

Mongolia is perfect, where winter hits 45 degrees below freezing. Quality cashmere counts Poor quality cashmere will pill almost immediately when rubbed between your fingers. When crushed in your hand, higher quality cashmere will have very few wrinkles. Good quality cashmere springs back to its original shape when stretched gently. Cashmere knitwear can be found in stores such as Marks and Spencer and Principles.

But while a double-faced cashmere coat from Louis Vuitton costs pounds 1,, the high street has managed to keep prices low by mixing the cashmere with other fibres and buying in bulk. It is unlikely that this covetable fibre will ever go out of favour with designers, and its widespread availability means it is now more accessible than ever to the masses and not just the privileged.

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