Cardiff Cashmere Prime is a cashmere and silk laceweight yarn that is an incredibly soft silk mohair alternative.

Beautifully soft, wonderfully light and effortlessly luxurious, Cardiff Cashmere Prime is an exquisite brushed yarn made from 68% cashmere and 32% mulberry silk. With its delicate, airy halo and exceptional softness, Prime is a beautiful alternative to traditional silk mohair.

Designed to be knitted either on its own or held together with another yarn, Cardiff Cashmere Prime adds warmth, softness and a subtle fluffy texture to your knitting without the use of mohair. This means it's a perfect substitute for those that can't tolerate mohair well. 

Cardiff Cashmere Prime can be used for nearly anything including sweaters, cardigans and smaller accessories that you want to wear right next to your skin. This luxurious Italian cashmere yarn makes each project feel extra special.

For Cardiff Cashmere Prime pattern ideas and colour inspiration check out our Ravelry folder for suggestions, or see more styles and weights of Cardiff Cashmere in our full collection.

Why we love it! Prime is the softest alternative to mohair you will find anywhere! It's so incredibly light and soft, one ball goes a long way so there's no need to save it for smaller projects. It feels like knitting with air.

Ideal Pattern: Chantal Beanie Morca Knit

Prime by Cardiff Cashmere Features:
Yarn weight: Laceweight
Approximate meterage: 300m/ 122yds per 25g
Ball size: 25g
Suggested needle size: 3 - 3.5mm when knitted alone
Composition: 68% cashmere and 32% mulberry silk
Care: Hand wash only, dry flat

What is the difference between Cardiff Cashmere Prime and Cardiff Cashmere Classic?

Both are luxurious cashmere yarns, but they have different characteristics.

Cardiff Cashmere Classic is a smooth, 100% cashmere DK-weight yarn, ideal for knitting sweaters, cardigans and accessories.

Cardiff Cashmere Prime is a much finer, brushed cashmere and silk lace-weight yarn, designed to create a soft halo or add extra luxury when held together with another yarn.

The two can be combined beautifully in the same knitting project.

Is Cardiff Cashmere Prime suitable for sensitive skin?

Cashmere is prized for its exceptional softness, making Prime an appealing choice for garments worn close to the skin. However, individual sensitivities vary, so we recommend testing the yarn against your skin if you are particularly sensitive to fibres.

How much Cardiff Cashmere Prime will I need?

Each 25g ball contains approximately 300 metres of yarn so you get more per gram than you would with mohair! This means that you could need less balls of Cashmere Prime for you project than you think.

The number of balls you'll need depends on your chosen pattern, garment size and whether you're knitting Prime alone or holding it together with another yarn.

Always calculate your requirements using the total meterage specified in your pattern.

About Cardiff Cashmere

The very best cashmere in the world comes from the highlands of Inner Mongolia in an impervious area of Central Asia where the temperature undergoes severe changes between the seasons and between day and night. To survive these conditions, Hircus goats develop very thick coats consisting of a rough outer coat and a fine and soft undercoat. This beautifully soft undercoat is what goes into Cardiff Cashmere yarn. The goats coats are combed at the beginning of the summer season and used in the textile industry. Cardiff Cashmere, through a responsible selection of suppliers, procures the best raw materials on the market. 

To select the best lots, main features such as fineness (never more than 15.5 microns), length (never less than 38mm) are carefully evaluated. The mix of these characteristics allows Cardiff Cashmere to produce yarns which then have a softer handle, greater resistance to pilling and greater durability once worked. 

You can find out more about Cardiff Cashmere and why cashmere is so soft on our blog.

Our Grayshott yarn shop is conveniently located for knitters visiting from Haslemere, Hindhead, Farnham, Guildford and the surrounding Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex areas. Come in to our knitting wool shop in Grayshott to see the yarn and colours in person.

*Please note that screen resolutions on computers and mobile phones are different, so the colours you see on screen may differ slightly from the true-to-life colours.