Badma Yarns sources cashmere fleece directly from herder cooperatives in Mongolia, and conditions the wool in Switzerland, in one of the best Swiss spinning mills where every step of the process is looked after in an old-fashioned way and the tradition of Swiss perfectionism is present all over the place.
This high-quality yarn is made using only the downy undercoat of cashmere goats which gives it its unmistakable feel. Goats are shorn or combed, then the guard hairs are separated from the down. All of this work is done by hand. We use 6 rounds of dehairing instead of 3 or 4 as industry average.
Mongolian cashmere yarn is the best of its class due to harsh climate of Mongolia, severe and windy winters. Goats develop a very thick but fine undercoat protecting them from the elements. Their fiber is thinner than the cashmere produced elsewhere, and it is also longer: this means that the finished garment will have almost no pilling. Knitters who work with cashmere know that shorter fibers produce quite a lot of pilling. Our produces very little pilling, and one has to do a lot to get there.
Cashmere is produced in a variety of natural shades, but in can also be dyed as it takes on colors very well. We have noticed that undyed cashmere remains softer than a dyed variety, so we source as wide a palette of natural cashmere as we possibly can. Thus our customers enjoy this incredible natural softness. To dye our cashmere, we use very mild coloring substances to minimize the effect of the dying on the fiber.
Our cashmere is truly a luxury yarn yet very reasonably priced. Our margins remain quite reasonable too: we have straightened our deal chain to make sure that our cashmere remains affordable. The knitters who tried our yarn swear by its quality.
We recommend knitting not too tight with that yarn but not too loose either. Cashmere has a lot of drape, and needs some room to expand. Our cashmere is 3-ply and has long fibers which means that it very wear-resistent and durable. It is better knit on No.3 to No.4 needles. For elastic stitch at the wrist or the bottom of your garment, you can go down to 2,5-2,75 needles.
The thickness of Mongolian cashmere ranges between 14 to 16 microns. A human hair can be anywhere 60 to 180 microns thick.