Eco Cashmere DK

Virgin cashmere blended with responsibly recycled cashmere fiber, spun in Prato, Italy by a family-owned heritage mill. A yarn with softness you feel on the first stitch and a quiet integrity in every wear after.

Product specifics:

Fiber Content: 100% Cashmere (50% virgin, 50% responsibly recycled)

Needles: 4-4.5 mm/ US 6-7

Meters/Yards: 150 m/ 164 yds

Gauge: 21-23 sts = 10 cm/ 4"

Grams per skein: 50 g

Care: Hand wash cool. Reshape. Lay flat to dry. Visit Caring for Your Cashmere for detailed care instructions.

Origin: Made in Prato, Italy.

Mill certification: Cardato Recycled (Chamber of Commerce of Prato, audited by SGS)

Colors:

• Alta, 80001
• Aunela, 80041
• Ivalo, 80008
• Tornio, 80010
• Sto, 80002
• Salla, 60322
• Kolari, 80009
• Levi, 80420
• Narvik, 80005
• Nero, 80006
• Ranua, 80412
• Ruka, 80130
• Pajala, 80121
• Sirkka, 80131
• Raahe, 80119
• Lieksa, 80247
• Juuka, 80244
• Lapua, 80415
• Kuhmo, 80031
• Koli, 80029
• Tervola, 80129

The Exceptional Details

About this yarn

Eco cashmere is our signature yarn and the reason Nordic Yarn exists. It blends virgin cashmere with carefully sourced recycled cashmere fiber, creating a yarn that is exceptionally soft, naturally lofty, and more resistant to pilling than conventional cashmere.

The recycled component is not a compromise. By blending fibers of different lengths and textures, the resulting yarn gains structure and durability while keeping the cloud-soft hand that cashmere is known for. It is the rare case where the more responsible choice is also a better material.

The craft of Prato

The yarn is spun in Prato, the Italian textile district that has been regenerating wool and cashmere for more than a century. The craft of recovering and respinning fiber was pioneered there by the cenciaioli, artisans who built an entire industry around the idea that good material deserves more than one life. That tradition is still alive. Today, the district recycles roughly 22,000 tons of textile waste each year, saving an estimated 60 million kilowatt-hours of energy, 500,000 cubic meters of water, and 18,000 tonnes of CO2 compared to producing the same quantity of virgin fiber.

Our mill is part of this tradition. Every skein is spun by people whose families have worked with recovered fiber for generations.

What "responsibly recycled" means

The recycled cashmere in this yarn comes from pre-consumer mill waste and post-consumer garments that would otherwise be discarded. The fiber is sorted by hand, separated by color and grade, and mechanically shredded back into usable form. Because the sorting is done by shade, most of the yarn requires no dyeing at all. Only the darkest colors need additional dye, and those are applied using methods compliant with the Greenpeace Detox protocol, which restricts eleven classes of hazardous chemicals across the textile supply chain.

Independent life cycle research on recycled wool fibers finds that they produce roughly one-tenth the carbon emissions of virgin wool during production, and reduce overall environmental impact by approximately 60% across water use, land use, and chemical inputs, even when accounting for the shorter fiber length typical of recycled material.

The yarn is produced at a mill certified under the Cardato Recycled protocol, an environmental standard administered by the Chamber of Commerce of Prato and audited by SGS. The certification requires a minimum of 65% regenerated fiber content and full documentation of environmental impact across the production life cycle.

A palette built by hand

Our colors are developed by the mill's color technicians, who match each shade by blending sorted recycled fiber with undyed virgin cashmere. For most colors, this means no added dye. The fiber itself carries the color, recovered from the garments and mill stock that came before. Dark shades require a small addition of dye, applied using non-toxic, low-impact methods.

How it knits

This yarn blooms beautifully after blocking, developing a soft halo that gives garments a quiet warmth and depth. It is well suited to sweaters, wraps, hats, and anything worn close to the skin. The DK weight knits at a worsted gauge due to the yarn's natural loft. Keep this in mind when substituting for a pattern written in standard DK.

Care

Cashmere softens with gentle washing and lasts for years when cared for well. Full care instructions are on our Caring for Your Cashmere page.