If there's one thing I love more than a delicate, crunchy woolen-spun wool, it's the idea of a delicate, crunchy woolen-spun wool to which a dusting of cashmere has been added.
Every region leaves its mark on those who live there, whether they're animals or humans. While the cashmere most of us know best comes from the Himalayas by way of China or Mongolia, cashmere goats live in many places around the world. They just grow
I'm a sucker for cashmere and cute packaging.
But there's something more to these kits, which actually don't look like kits at all—they look like a sort of magical multicolored caterpillar in fiber form.
I first noticed them in people's pictures on Instagram. I followed the tags and
Any time I see cashmere with an unusual twist, I get excited. This fine, short-stapled fiber is all about delicate tenderness in a normal plied-yarn construction.
But when you twist the same fibers and feed them through a more complex plying machine, one that wiggles the plied
A few years ago at Interweave Knitting Lab in Manchester, New Hampshire, I ventured into the North Light Fibers booth. I met Sven, who, with his wife, operates a mini-mill that produces their own line of branded yarns in Rhode Island.
We got to talking, and
Even without knowing what's in it, you instinctively know this yarn is something special. The skein sits in your hands like a hummingbird nest, and it feels just as exotic and precious. Each fine strand nestles within its neighbors, and together they reflect light in
The global cashmere market has had its share of booms and busts. Some of the most significant changes came within the past two decades as our thirst for inexpensive cashmere led to overgrazing and, ultimately, the desertification of Mongolia.
While the bulk of the world's cashmere
Superior has long been one of my favorite yarns. It's an airy confection of cashmere fibers that are held together by a luminous silk core and then brushed to produce a soft, ethereal yarn with a gossamer halo.
That same heavenly lightness keeps Superior from having its
Most cashmere yarn is good, and some is even really good. But very, very rarely do you encounter extraordinary cashmere. This is the yarn that, when you touch it, causes time to stand still. Your fingers sink effortlessly into the skein, and you are overcome
Habu Cashmere represents all the things I love about yarn. On the skein, it looks and feels like one thing. But if you have faith, cast on, and walk through your project, you'll gradually witness the yarn come alive and transform into something totally different.
Habu
We've seen yarns that shift from color to color, and even from texture to texture—slubby to smooth, bouclé to bumpy. But Noro has just upped the ante with a yarn that not only shifts colors but actual fiber content: wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca, angora, kid
