Where does cashmere come from?

Question

Cashmere: the soft woolen material expensive jumpers are made from.

Answer 1

Cashmere is fiber from the undercoat of a Cashmere goat. It is so expensive because only a few ounces are obtained from each goat per year. It is such a delicate yarn, more fragile than wool and more susceptible to abrasion, that it is usually blended with wool to make it more durable.

Answer 2

What is cashmere? Cashmere is the underdown shed annually by goats living in the high, dry plateaus surrounding the Gobi Desert, which stretch from Northern China into Mongolia. These goats have a coarse outer hair that repels the weather. Under that outer coat lies a much finer fiber, cashmere, which insulates these animals from the bitter cold.

Why is cashmere so expensive? The harsh geography of this area of the Gobi Desert supports a very limited number of goats. It takes one of these rare goats four years to grow enough cashmere for one sweater. Each goat is combed by hand every spring. Then the fleece is collected and sorted by hand. Cashmere sweaters are usually knit on hand-operated machines. Therefore, the scarcity of the fiber and the handwork required to convert that fiber into a luxurious garment both contribute to cashmere’s price.

Answer 3

wrong again,,actually An extremely soft, luxurious fabric made from the hair of the cashmere goat - native to Kashmir in northwestern India, Tibet, Turkestan, Iran, Iraq and China. Cashmere is obtained from the animal by combing rather than clipping. Cashmere is more like wool than any other fiber. The fabric is light in weight, wonderful to wear but not known for its durability.

Answer 4

Goats

Answer 5

cashmere is goat hair.
It's named after Kashmir in N India, where they make shawls and such from this wool.

Answer 6

It's from the kashmiri goat - the hair of which is combed and spun into fine, warm yarn.

Answer 7

Isn't it Angolian Goats?

Answer 8

It comes from Kashmir.

Answer 9

goats from foreign parts and nice finding out those foreign parts

Answer 10

Cashmere wool
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Cashmere wool is wool obtained from the Kashmir goat. The name derives from an archaic spelling of Kashmir. It is sometimes incorrectly applied to any extremely soft wool, similar to Champagne being used to describe any sparkling wine.

Contents [hide]
1 Classification
2 Primary uses
3 General characteristics
3.1 Natural colors
4 Source of the fiber
4.1 Geographic origin
5 Gathering process
5.1 Production
5.2 Annual yield
6 Types of fiber
7 See also
8 External links



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Classification
Cashmere wool is classified as a specialty hair fiber.

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Primary uses
Cashmere is used in men's and women's clothing. One of the most notable applications of cashmere is the highly regarded cashmere sweater.

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General characteristics
Cashmere is characterized as luxuriously soft, with high napability and loft. It is noted as providing a natural light-weight insulation without bulk. Cashmere is extremely warm (in order to serve its original purpose of protecting goats from cold mountain temperatures.) Fibers are highly adaptable and are easily constructed into fine or thick yarns, and light to heavy-weight fabrics. Appropriate for all climates, a high moisture content allows insulation properties to change with the relative humidity in the air.

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Natural colors
Gray, brown and white.

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Source of the fiber
The Cashmere (Kashmir) or down goat is the source of the wool that becomes cashmere fiber for clothing and other textile articles. The goat (Capra hircus Laniger) is a mammal belonging to the subfamily Caprinae of the family Bovidae. The goats produce a double fleece consisting of the fine, soft undercoat or underdown of hair commingled with a straighter and much coarser outer coating of hair called guard hair. In order for the fine underwool to be classified and used as cashmere it must be de-haired. De-hairing is a mechanical process that separates the coarse hairs from the fine hair and after de-hairing the resulting "cashmere" is ready to be dyed to color and converted into yarn, fabrics and garments.

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Geographic origin
The goats reside predominantly in the high plateaus of Asia with the most significant populations being found in the northwestern provinces of China (Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Qinghai and Tibet), Mongolia, Iran (Kerman and Khorasan provinces)and Afghanistan. Many nations in that area rely on cashmere as a luxury product that is exportable for high profit, including the significant supplier countries: China and Mongolia.

Today, little is supplied by the Kashmir State of India, from which its name is derived. The cashmere products of this area first attracted the attention of Europeans in the early 1800s.

[edit]
Gathering process
Specialty animal hair fibers including cashmere are collected during the spring molting season when the animals naturally shed their winter coat. Depending on the weather and the region, the goats (in the Northern Hemisphere) molt over a period beginning as early as March and as late as May. In China and Mongolia, the commingled mass of down and coarse hair is removed by hand with a coarse comb that pulls tufts of fiber from the animal as the comb is raked through the fleece. The long, coarse guard hair is then typically clipped from the animal and is often used for brushes, interlinings as well as other non-apparel uses. As a result of this combing process, the collected fiber has a higher yield of pure cashmere after the fiber has been washed and dehaired. Animals in Iran, Afghanistan, New Zealand and Australia are typically shorn of their fleece resulting in a higher coarse hair content and lower pure cashmere yield.

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Production
China is the largest producer of raw cashmere and current estimates of production put their annual clip at approximately 10,000 metric tons. Mongolia produces somewhat more than 3,000 tons annually with Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Central Asian Republics producing significant but lesser amounts. In total the annual world clip is estimated to be in excess of 15,000 but less than 20,000 tons. After the natural animal grease, accumulated dirt and coarse hairs have been removed from the fleece creating "pure cashmere" it is estimated the refined quantity is only about 6,500 tons. Pure cashmere then can be dyed and spun into yarns and knit into sweaters, hats, gloves, socks and other apparel items or woven into fabrics then cut and assembled into garments such as outer coats, jackets, pants, scarves, blankets and other highly luxurious and desirable items. Fabric and garment producers in Italy, Scotland, England and Japan have long been known as market leaders in cashmere although recent trends have seen a growing production from countries that actually produce the fiber like China and Mongolia.

The famous Johnstons of Elgin began cashmere weaving in 1797 and are the eldest cashmere mill still in use today.

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Annual yield
Up to 500 grams of fiber per goat, with an average 150 grams of underdown.

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Types of fiber
Virgin — New fiber that has not been processed in any way, or has been made into yarns, fabrics or garments for the first time.
Recycled — Fibers reclaimed from scraps or fabrics that were previously woven or felted and may or may not have been used by the consumer.