Cashmere Socks by Pantherella

Pantherella Cashmere Socks

The most luxurious socks in the world - cashmere is softer and approximately three times warmer than sheep's wool. Our Cashmere is processed in Mongolia and then spun into the most luxurious quality yarn by Italian spinners .

Our leisure weight cashmere yarn is woollen spun using the finest grade of cashmere knitted with nylon to give extra durability and stretch. An affordable taste of luxury. It takes approximately 6 goats to produce enough fibre to make one dozen pairs of Pantherella short cashmere socks.

The Cashmere Pantherella use has a count of 3/80 NM - this number translates as the number of ends (ply) by length in metres per 1 gram of mass (3 ply x 80 metres). Pantherella's leisure-weight knit Cashmere socks are knitted on a 96-needle machine.

Wear around the home with soft shoes or slippers, for total indulgence, and like fine wine, cashmere will improve with age if cared for properly.

What is Cashmere?

Cashmere is one of the finest natural fibres in the world and is obtained from the hair of cashmere goats (Capra Hircus Laniger). Pantherella cashmere comes from Mongolia, where around 40 million goats contend with winter temperatures as low as -30°C.

Due to the low temperatures, their coat is made up of two distinct layers - the outer layer (guard hair) and the undercoat (cashmere). The guard hair is coarse and waterproof, which serves to protect the goat (and the undercoat). The undercoat is ultrafine, soft and an excellent insulator, to protect the goat from the extreme cold. Only the soft, ultrafine undercoat is used to produce cashmere. In spring, as the goats moult for summer, they are combed by hand to remove their ultrafine undercoat, while leaving the guard hair intact.

These combings are then washed and sorted to remove any stray guard hairs. What is left is pure cashmere. This laborious process results in a fibre that is exceptionally exquisite and rare. It therefore it commands a higher price than more easily obtained fibres.