How do these different premium wools compare? Any others I’m not aware of?
Shortest answer: Mohair and cashmere come from goats (angora and cashmere goats respectively), while merino is a breed of sheep. As the above link explains, they differ in fiber fineness, staple length, tensile strength, wicking power and other aspects. In general, how different animal-hair fibers compare depends on what qualities you’re looking for. Different species and even different breeds have distinctive characteristics.
Other specialty animal-hair fibers are made from some forms of the hair of angora rabbit (as opposed to angora goats), “cashgora” crosses between cashmere and angora goats, alpaca, llama, camel, and others.
The highest-end “luxury” animal-hair fibers include:
- qiviut (Arctic musk ox), along with similar fibers from yak and bison;
- vicuña and guanaco (South American camelids related to llama and alpaca);
- and shahtoosh, a fiber traditionally made from the undercoat of the chiru, an antelope of the Tibetan plateau, which is now illegal to deal in or even to own.
Additional premium-marketed fibers include cervelt (from the undercoat of NZ red deer), possum-merino blend (from the brushtail possum, an introduced pest species in NZ), and various specialty sheep-breed wools.
Great explanation!
All I’ve got to add is a funny bit from my childhood. I was a little kid and I’d read about mohair somewhere, and didn’t have a clue what it was. So I asked my dad.
He turns to me, and with the straightest face you can imagine, says “Well, you see what happened to Curly.” and turns back to his newspaper. I was very confused for quite a while after that.
Vicuña is the finest of the fine, but scarcities both natural and artificial put it out of reach
I generally don’t like animal fibers near my skin.
I like the feel of Merino better than cashmere, by my hand.
Cashmere feels catchy, to me. I mean, like it pulls against you if you drag your hand across it.
I suspect there’s much difference in price by where it’s from. How rare. How enjoyed/desired by the rich.
It’s all a hair shirt to me. Makes me itchy thinking about it.
Your Dad was a quick wit. Calvin’s dad has nothing on yours.
I never had kids but I always thought I’d have been great at spur of the moment Dad jokes and nutty-but-plausible-to-a-kid explanations. Especially for the second or third kid after I’d built up my repertoire on kid #1. :evil_grin:
I’ve had several Pendleton 100% Merino shirts, and they were all itchy. Layered synthetics for me.
I adore Merino wool. Cashmere was always my first choice but it’s second behind Merino. Lightweight and warm.
All things equal, something made of merino is going to be more “rugged” and designed for outdoor or inner layer wear, cashmere is a bit more fashion. This says nothing about the properties of the wool itself so much as how they’re used in industry, and often merino may be a blend.