Inside the Workshop: A Scottish Cashmere Mill

At Johnstons of Elgin mill in Moray, Scotland, hair fibre from Mongolia is so fine it takes the fleece of four goats to produce a single sweater. The mill, operating since 1797, processes raw material through dehairing, dyeing, spinning, and knitting using methods refined over two centuries.

Cashmere quality is measured by fibre diameter. The finest grades measure between fourteen and sixteen microns, roughly one-fifth the diameter of a human hair. These fibres come from the undercoat of the Capra hircus goat, grown during harsh Central Asian winters and combed from the animal each spring.

Elgin is not the whole of the Scottish trade. Hawick, in the Borders, has spun and knitted cashmere since the eighteenth century and still houses Hawico, William Lockie and Barrie Knitwear, which Chanel bought outright in 2012 to secure its own supply. A great deal of the yarn passes through Todd and Duncan at Loch Leven in Kinross, which spins and dyes for mills that compete on everything except where their yarn comes from.

Dehairing separates the precious undercoat from coarser guard hair. Johnstons uses a proprietary system achieving separation rates exceeding ninety-nine percent. This step alone can take several passes through machinery, each calibrated to catch progressively finer guard hairs.

Scottish cashmere dyeing produces colours of exceptional depth. The mineral-rich Highland water contributes to the process. Johnstons maintains a library of over five thousand colour recipes developed over two centuries, allowing precise matching across production runs and decades.

Knitting involves fully fashioned construction, where each piece is knitted to shape rather than cut from a larger panel. This eliminates waste and creates superior drape. Seams are linked stitch by stitch, creating nearly invisible joins without bulk.

Judge a sweater by weight and construction rather than by the word on the label. A two-ply crewneck in a serious gauge weighs between three hundred and fifty and four hundred and fifty grams, and anything markedly lighter has been knitted thin to hit a price. Stretch a cuff and watch whether it returns. Rub the surface briskly with a palm for a few seconds: short fibres, the residue of careless dehairing, start to ball up immediately, and that is precisely what pilling is.

The sustainability challenges are significant. Overgrazing by cashmere goats has contributed to desertification in Mongolia, and demand for cheap cashmere has driven proliferation of low-quality product. The best mills work directly with herding cooperatives to ensure quality and environmental responsibility.

Care is where most cashmere is lost. Hand-wash in lukewarm water with a little baby shampoo, press the water out without wringing and dry flat; dry-cleaning solvent strips the oils that give the fibre its handle. Store folded rather than hung, and always wash a garment before putting it away for the summer, because clothes moth larvae are drawn to body oils and salt rather than to clean wool. A cashmere comb lifts pills without dragging fibre out of the knit in the way a razor does.

Visit https://www.johnstonsofelgin.com to explore their range. A well-made Scottish cashmere sweater, properly cared for, will last fifteen years or more, its character deepening with wear. The initial investment, measured against that lifespan, represents remarkable value.