30. August 2010 13:21
by Jobo
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I keep hearing about how wonderful cashmere is as a fiber. I've fondled cashmere clothing in fancy stores and touched a few cashmere blend yarns, but this is my first time working with pure cashmere fiber!
I tried to photograph the fiber itself, but white fluffy things just don't seem to show well with my camera... The fiber is some 100% Cashmere roving that I bought from Belfast Mini Mills last month. I bought a bag of 2 oz to try, and clearly I should have gone with the bigger bag because this stuff is wonderful to spin on the Russian spindle!
The soft and airy fluff is made up of a relatively short staple, and drafts apart like a dream. It was very easy to achieve a uniform thin single. In fact I managed to spin up 0.5 ounces in only a few evenings... each handful just drifted by!
Next step will be to ply this yummy cashmere single with the devilishly soft 100% angora single I finished last week... Angora and Cashmere yarn - the absolute height of soft fuzzy decadence!
I think I might end up with a little bit more of the angora than the cashmere... just looking at the skeins... but it's hard to tell because the cashmere spun up a little thinner than the other. I figure I'll try and ply them first, and if I run out of cashmere I'll have to spin a little more. I had a feeling that 0.5 ounces of cashmere might feel a little different spun than 0.5 ounces of angora would...
More to come :)