Cashmere Hoody- waffle thermal

As with most things, depends on the weight and cost. Determine those and I'll tell you if I'm interested! ;-)

For ideas, look at Patagonia's $300 cashmere hoodie!

Good cashmere is really pricey. It would help if you had an idea what these will cost. My wife works at a Cashmere store that sells $700 men's sweaters. The cheapest ones are about $300.

The weight will depend on how thick we all decide, which adds to the cost as well. My existing one weighs in at under 10ozs. and the waffle in my opinion is just right. This particular sweater also has a woven panel on the back of the neck and is slightly large in the body. I would want it a little longer in the body to cover when sitting and then add a hood which should probably add 2 ozs. I was hoping to offer it at no more than $140. Ideally a target of $120. I have a clothing co. so I am familiar with the costs.

Too rich for my blood.

Cashmere is great for backpacking – much warmer than merino and very lightweight. The problem with most store-bought cashmere garments, sweaters especially, is that they are not knitted/sewn for rough wear. Particularly is that so for the single and 2-ply cashmere that's best of all. If you could convince me of durability I'm definitely interested.

Richard,
It depends on construction of the garment in some cases. A waffle pattern will have more durability than your basic thin layer cashmere found on a fine gauge sweater. I have been using my existing cashmere thermal for 3-4 years without any issues. There was some separation at one of the seams but this seems to be more a question of how best to knit ends together. In this particular case it was for aesthetics and not durability. I haven't been bushwacking off-trail with these thermals extensively as an outergarment but I don't think any thermals will hold up to that after a few days. My patagonia merinos did not fair well. I have been keen to create a hooded version because yes it does appear to be less weight with better heat retention than merino. I don't have data but maybe someone else can second Richards points. My field experience indicates it is extremely warm and as everyone knows very comfortable. I wear it under a down jacket and wow it feels great! Anyway, I will probably have a one-off made if there isn't significant interest from others.

I've been skeptical of cashmere for outdoor gear. I have some cashmere sweaters for casual wear, and they've pilled really quickly. In winter, I wear either cashmere or merino every day at work, and I've found that while cashmere is warmer, merino is less expensive and holds up better. Even wearing merino 2-3 times more often than cashmere, the merino is in much better condition.

That said, I could be interested. The price you mention is low for a cashmere hoody. If I could get something where the sleeves aren't too long for me, I'd give it a shot. Being short, I can't find any long sleeve options where I don't need to roll up the sleeves.

Are you considering using thumb loops on the sleeves?

Have you considered other fibers? I've been wanting to see how well alpaca holds up.

Count me in, provided it's under $150.
I'm a Large. Neutral colors strongly preferred.
If it comes to one or two off, I'd like to confirm specific dimensions.

BTW, you don't have you Personal Messaging set up. If you want to do that, it happens in Change My Profile, found at the right, under Community.

Greg,
Thanks. got it taken care of. I only like neutrals and earth tones so that shouldn't be a problem. I will probably sample one first and then go from there.

Please keep me/us in the loop:)

Christopher, keep us advised. I agree that a waffle weave/pattern would help. If it can be stiched like merino, with flat seams, I think it would be fun to try

I would likely be interested, given that the final garment is in your target price range. Sounds like a cool project, thanks for sharing it with the community.

Seth

Machine washable?

Sorry for the late reply… probably not machine washable per se. but I do wash my other waffle cashmere in the machine on a light cycle and then dry in the machine on low temp intervals. This will bring the original shape back if the sweater has stretched too much. I think its much better to hand wash and then lay flat or use the drying machine on low temp. sporadically making sure not to shrink it excessively.

strongly interested,please keep me posted!

Hi!
I’d love to find an outdoor specific cashmere (or Alpaca, Yak) garment, is there actual something on the market?

As an alternative contact some of the New Zealand firms that use possum fur, possum fur is softer, warmer and lighter than cashmere and with similar wear rates.

Personally I think this would better suit a knitters group, do you know of any groups that need supplemental income? Indigenous/First Nations and use Musk Ox fur?

An alternative is to buy a couple of cheap Uniqlo cashmere jumpers and use one as a fabric donor to make the hood with, one sweater should give two hoods

$300-USD sounds about right for a custom garment

Personal experience tells me a Cashmere/Merino blend would work better and that adding up to 10% nylon adds strength and longevity without detracting from the other good properties of the natural fibres

As far as pilling is concerned I found the best way to wear cashmere is over an LW synthetic top and under an UL windshirt, it is what I wear when downhill skiing when it gets really cold

Nice input, thanks Edward. And also for remiding me of Possumdown, I had a beanie and gloves (I think I bought them on BPL years ago, was there a onlinshop?!) which I wore till they came apart. Great material!

I found some good stuff in NZ shops very fast, I’ll dive into that later.
I wonder why there is no real brand selling “technical” garments (feature and cut-wise) from Possum-Wool-blends?
I imagen theres quite a good market for it (the outdoor market s SO enormous it seems…)

I really think they [ the NZ Possum user peoples] are far more fashion oriented. I recently emailed PossumDown about gloves and they had not even heard of trigger finger gloves for instance, and had not contemplated making balaclavas.

That seems to be a business opportunity, I guess there are some relevant readers here on BPL for such a project ;)
Get it on!