Pashmina wool is a type of mohair which is obtained from the Carpa hircus mountain goat, native to the high altitudes of the Himalayas, where normal winter temperatures never rise above -30° celcius (-20° Fahrenheit). Every spring, the goats shed their winter coat, and the fleece is gathered, spun, sometimes dyed, and woven into fabric which is very warm and surprisingly lightweight.

High quality shawls and scarves made of this fine wool have been manufactured in Kashmir and Nepal for thousands of years, but the Indians never referred to them as "pashmina". They were popularly called Kashmiri (or Cashmere) wool. Pashmina is an indigenous Nepali word which only became popular after the so-named shawls, woven in Nepal, started being popular in the west.

Pure pashmina is a somewhat gauzy, open weave, as the delicate wool cannot tolerate high tension. The most popular pashmina fabric is a 70% pashmina/30% silk blend, but 50/50 is also common. The 70/30 is tightly woven, has an elegant sheen and drapes nicely, but is still quite soft and light-weight.

Pashmina, being a completely natural fabric comprised mostly of wool, is treated at the manufacturing plant to repel moths, silverfish, and other insects. Therefore, new pashmina may have an unusual odor. This can normally be easily overcome by a thorough airing or a quick, gentle wash (see below). Never scrub or roughly rub pashmina; doing so can easily damage the fabric and tear the threads.

Pashmina Care

Pashmina shawls/scarves, although often labelled "Dry Clean Only", may be gently hand washed in cold water with a light detergent made especially for wool (eucalyptus wool wash is particularly good). Wash and rinse in cool water only; warm water may cause shrinkage.

Do not wring! This can stretch the delicate fabric or break the threads. To dry, gently roll the fabric in a towel to remove excess water, and lay flat to dry. Hanging may cause the fabric to stretch or threads to break.

To remove wrinkles, pashmina may be steam pressed or lightly ironed under a pressing cloth. Do not iron directly on the fabric. This may damage the nap.

Silk/pashmina blend tends to wrinkle more easily, and pressing too vigorously may flatten the nap; if your silk/pashmina blend requires more than light pressing, it may be wise to have it professionally dry cleaned.

Pashmina should always be professionally dry cleaned if it acquires stains or spots that cannot be easily removed by gentle washing in cold water.

As you might notice, all old blog entries have been deleted. This is because we've changed some of our selling strategies and many of the old entries were no longer appropriate, plus, our new shop on this domain is nearly finished (just need to update one mod and install one other). It's going to take some time to stock the new shop, but it's almost ready to go...

And the reason it's going to take some time to stock is because we have loads of new items, and a couple of completely new lines! We've now got a collection of gemstone objects (hand carved goblets, crystal angels, gemstone Buddha figures, pendulums, and other goodies), lots of new sterling silver jewellery in new designs, new costume jewellery (some gorgeous cubic zirconia stuff!), lots of fantastic new gemstone jewellery, plus we're planning on a line of pashmina wool (cashmere) shawls, and we mean the big ones, nearly a full metre wide, big enough to really wrap up in!

So, big things are coming in the forseeable future, once we get our inventory sorted out and photographed and stocked in our shop. Once that's done, we'll also probably be listing some selected items on a few Australian auction type sites (we'll post it here if we do).

We don't have an expected launch date for the shopping cart, as we can't estimate how long the stocktake and photography and other preparations will take, but just as soon as the site is ready, not only will be we be announcing it, we'll be listing our items with Google (GBase) and providing an RSS feed for the shop, and also listing with a few shopping comparison sites, as well.

In the meantime, we're going to make the effort to update this blog regularly with items of general and specific interest (and not just things pertaining to this website or our own business).

So, that's the news from Uncommon Touch. We hope to have more very soon!