Cashmere is a fine hair which comes from Capra Hircus goats. These goats live in huge, wild, nomadic herds in China, Mongolia, Afghanistan and Iran. They produce different types of fibre ranging from the finest and most expensive white for white Chinese, through coarser, darker Mongolian and then Afghan and Iranian. Cashmere fibre is a rare natural harvest and a traded commodity so all fibre prices are subject to market fluctuations

Very light White for white Chinese cashmere is the rarest, finest and most expensive cashmere fibre. It is used mainly for white yarn and for pastel colours. Not surprisingly, these light colours in yarn are more expensive to buy from a spinner. Note that the more common brown cashmere cannot be used for light colours, only medium and darks.

Grade A cashmere is 34mm-36mm, the longer fibres giving higher tensile strength when knitting and better product durability.

This is where the dyed hair is first carded which gets all the fibres lying in the same direction in a web. The web is then cut into strips called slubs before being put on a spinning mule where the slub is drawn out and twisted into yarn. Fine cashmere is spun at a count or weight of 36 grams per kilometre (after which two ends are normally twisted together giving a yarn weight of 72 grams per kilometre).