Cashmere: What, Where, How

Cashmere comes from the fleece of Cashmere (or Pashmina) goats, indigenous to the high altitudes of the Himalayas. The soft, insulating under-down fibres must be shorn or brushed from the goat and carefully separated from the coarser “guard hairs” that protect the fleece when the goat, not you, is wearing cashmere. This, and the fact that each goat produces an estimated average of only 150 gms of soft under-down account for true cashmere’s rarity and cost.

[None of our products includes “shahtoosh”, which is illegal and is made from the endangered Chiru or Tibetan antelope, now protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).]

Lemon Gecko products are all handmade in the Himalayas, in Kathmandu, Nepal. We have chosen a raw cashmere and a process that results in the softest knitted cashmere that we have found.

It can take around four days to make one of our ponchos. We first double warp the yarn - this is key to the extra warmth and depth of our products. The cashmere is then knitted on hand machines and dyed by our Master Dyer, drawing on over a decade of experience. It is then repeatedly immersed to further soften the product.

Caring for your Cashmere: Top Tips

Washing

Personally, we wash ours on a gentle hand-wash setting of our washing machine on 30 degrees. And we avoid the spin.

More cautiously, we recommend:

• Gently hand-washing your cashmere in lukewarm water using a mild detergent.

• Soak the cashmere for a short time and gently swill around in the soapy water (no rubbing and scrubbing)

• Rinse well in clean lukewarm water

• Gently squeeze out excess water(no wringing)

• We then dry the item flat in its original shape in a warm place, but away from direct heat or sunlight.

• When dry, use a cool iron if necessary.

To irreparably damage your gorgeous cashmere,

• use a tumble dryer

• rub and/or wring viciously

• stretch and/or hang from a washing line while still heavy with water

Dry Cleaning

If you don’t mind all those chemicals, you can dry clean Lemon Gecko cashmere very effectively.

Caring

Cashmere is one of the finest natural fibres in the world. It is gorgeous to wear and as such requires a little more care than products made from coarser wools. The very fine fibres in pure cashmere can lead to pilling or “bobbling” during the first occasions that you wear it. This is quite normal and not indicative of poor cashmere – it is an inevitable consequence of the very fine, very soft fibres. The bobbles can easily be removed by using a cashmere comb. We find that most of the bobbles disappear with washing.

Storing

To avoid hungry moths, we recommend storing your cashmere in the muslin bag provided – or something similar.