All fibers

The Hircus Goat and Cashmere

The "HIRCUS ENGAGRUS" goat, descended from the "FALCONERI" goat, is famous for the product obtained from its undercoat, called "tiflit" or "duvet", and is the famous cashmere goat.

The animals are medium-sized, with a height at the withers of around 60 centimeters and a weight of approximately 60 kilograms for males and 35 kilograms for females. They have small heads, erect ears, and well-developed horns curved outwards, which become imposing in adult males.

Externally, the animals produce a fleece with long, coarse hair, but if you open it, you'll notice a very soft, fluffy, and almost silky undercoat beneath: the famous "duvet" which, once processed, will become the cashmere we know.
In May, during the shedding period, shepherds gather their flocks to collect the fiber. The goat is tied by its legs, and once the animal is laid on a blanket, the shepherds begin combing.

The operation is carried out with combs similar to small rakes; they have sixteen hooks and pointed teeth. First, a coarser comb is used, then a finer one.
The animal is combed with energetic movements over its entire body, starting from the back and finishing with the ears and legs.

The operation takes about thirty minutes per animal. The product obtained is a mix of duvet and ordinary hair and is collected in makeshift bags, usually made of
polypropylene or jute.

On average, an "HIRCUS" goat yields 300-350 g of greasy wool in males, 200-250 g
in females, and 400-450 g in castrated animals, but in exceptional cases, it can yield as much as 700 grams.

Lambs are combed for the first time only after their first year of life, and the best quality duvet is obtained up to the fourth year; in subsequent years, the goat produces less duvet and of a more ordinary quality. They are long-lived animals, living about fifteen to sixteen years, and during their lifetime, females give birth to four or five kids.

The wild yak lives on the Tibetan plateau, in the Pamir Mountains, and on the slopes of the Himalayas, up to 6000 meters in altitude.

The domesticated yak, slightly smaller in size, is used as a pack animal and provides leather, meat, milk, and wool.

The fur of younger specimens is used for clothing, while the long hair of the adult is used to weave blankets and tents.

The harsh winters, as well as the temperature fluctuations between seasons, have led to the yak's coat growing warm and protective.
The outer layer, the "guard hair," consists of longer, rougher hairs that protect the animal from the elements, while the undercoat, the layer closest to the skin, insulates the animal from the cold and keeps it warm.

It is from this soft layer that the most precious fiber used to make our yarns is obtained.

Every spring, the thick fur of yaks is carefully combed to collect the fiber and then trimmed. Only the belly and the lower part of the animal are combed, while the neck, back, and the entire upper part are neglected. Each animal annually produces about 100 grams of hair which, by selling the fiber, is the only resource for nomadic families to earn money. The fiber is stored in large sacks and shipped to collection centers, where it is sold to buyers and enters the production cycle that will transform it into spinnable fiber.

Alpaca produces a shiny, silky natural fiber.
It is warmer than wool, and not prickly.
The fiber has a particular structure that helps protect against the cold and maintain constant body heat and humidity.

Being free of the natural oily substance called lanolin (present in wool), the fiber does not cause allergic reactions. In fact, alpaca, like all camelids, does not produce hair, but rather hair, very similar to our own hair, and alpaca garments should be washed with shampoo and conditioner, like our hair.
Furthermore, it does not attract or retain dust.

The preparation, carding, spinning, weaving, and finishing processes are very similar to the process used for wool.
The most prized Baby Alpaca is obtained from the first shearing of alpaca young, when they are just one year old, and is considered a noble fiber due to its particular properties and characteristics that distinguish it from other natural textile fibers.

Thanks to the fineness of the fiber (22.5 microns), the finished garment is extremely soft.
The fiber has a particular structure that helps protect against the cold and maintain constant body heat and humidity.

The camel appeared in North America 40/50 million years ago and descended from an animal about the size of a small dog.
Two million years ago, it migrated to Europe and Asia, becoming extinct in its land of origin.

The Camelus belongs to the Camelidae family, which consists of two subspecies: the one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) and the two-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus).

The one-humped camel or Dromedary is found mainly in Africa, Arabia, the Middle East and, although rarely, in some parts of Asia. It provides a poor and ordinary fiber, not used by the manufacturing industry but only
for making local handicrafts.

The two-humped camel or Bactrian is found in Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and is closely related to the rare wild camel known in Mongolia as "Khavtgai".

From the young camel, very soft hair is extracted, which is used to make our yarns.

Merino is a breed of sheep especially valued for its fleece, from which a very fine and prized wool is obtained.

Origin and history

Its origin is uncertain. Probably known in the Middle East in ancient times, it is thought to have spread to the Iberian Peninsula via Morocco in the Early Middle Ages. Certainly, modern Merino derives from a breed raised in Spain in the 12th century.
Spain itself, by law, maintained exclusivity until the 17th century.

The first country to which Spain granted the Merino sheep, at the beginning of the 18th century, was France, apparently following a donation between the respective monarchs.

The industrial production of Merino wool fabrics for clothing received a strong impetus after World War II. Among the main
reasons, the need of the clergy who, evidently, must wear certain garments in all seasons, even in summer.
In Australia, the Merino sheep was introduced at the beginning of the 19th century and found a particularly suitable environment thanks to the favorable climate and the availability of pastures.

Productive characteristics

Each specimen can produce up to 10 kg of very valuable wool

Distribution

It is estimated that almost half of the world's Merino wool production comes from Australia.

New Zealand is the country with the largest number of Merino sheep in proportion to the population: there are seventy million, compared to three and a half million inhabitants.

Today it is present in various parts of the world, and it is estimated that almost half of the existing sheep belong to the Merino breed.
There are many sub-breeds. A sub-breed of Merino raised in Australia, the Merino Poll, is hornless.

This type of wool is particularly sought after because of its fineness, depending on the fact that the hair of a Merino sheep is thinner than the hair of a common sheep. Generally, a hair with a diameter of 20 microns or less comes from a Merino sheep.

This particular characteristic, combined with the other qualities of common wool, makes it a very valuable fiber, ideal for certain clothing items, especially men's suits. A Merino wool suit is as resistant to wear and creasing as a common wool suit, but unlike the latter, being lighter, it can also be worn in warmer seasons.

The fabric commonly known as cool wool or "four-season wool" is generally made from Merino wool.

Australian wool is assembled into bales and sold in traditional public auctions, attended by buyers from all over the world. The best bales, i.e., with the finest wool, are traditionally purchased by Italian wool mills.

A legendary aura surrounds the discovery of silk and its spread, from the Far East to Europe.
Sericulture, the breeding of silkworms for the production of raw silk, is certainly a Chinese invention dating back about 5000 years.

For the West, China itself has often been synonymous with silk, and the road that led west from China was known
as the "Silk Road." The route through which, two thousand years ago, silk, perfumes, spices, and precious stones arrived in the Mediterranean from China.
The journey lasted one or more years, depending on the political and military conditions of the countries crossed. This route did not change much over fifteen centuries.

It is narrated in a book by Confucius that the Chinese empress S-Ling-Chi discovered how to raise silkworms and weave their saliva, a full 2600 years before Christ, and that the grateful people deified and worshipped her as the "goddess of silk."

Jealously guarded in the recesses of the imperial court, silence enveloped the discovery for long centuries, and only in the fourth century AD did Japan and India learn about it.
Another legend tells of the cunning of a Chinese princess who married the king of Turkestan and, so as not to give up her silk clothes, hid some eggs of the precious animal in her hair.

It was only later, in the sixth century AD, that silkworm breeding could also be introduced in Mediterranean countries.

Silk is a very precious textile filament derived from the secretion of an insect called the silkworm.
The best known silkworm is the bombyx, the larva of the Bombyx mori moth, i.e., the mulberry silkworm, belonging to the order of Lepidoptera and the family of Bombycidae.

The complete life cycle of the insect lasts approximately 45-50 days and goes through the following stages: hatching, growth of the larvae
through five instars, cocoon spinning, emergence of moths, mating, and egg-laying.
In spring, the eggs hatch when the mulberry tree begins to have leaves at the ideal stage of maturity for feeding the newly hatched larvae, which is between the end of April and the beginning of May.
At hatching, the seeds turn white, and the larvae are born, about 3 mm long.
Upon hatching of the eggs, the breeder transfers the small silkworms onto horizontal racks covered with mulberry leaves; the larvae, about half a centimeter long, are small and dark, turning whitish after ten days.
Not all seeds produce cocoons: on average, 10% are lost due to the death of the embryo or larva.
The larvae are insatiable and feed voraciously on the leaves of the white mulberry "Morus alba". To feed 28 grams of seeds, 1000 kg of leaves are needed.

Flax grown in Western Europe is known to be the best in the world.

This level of excellence is the result of a combination of three beneficial factors: the availability of suitable land, favorable climatic conditions, and the knowledge of expert flax growers attentive to quality.

In the agricultural production sector, specialists leave nothing to chance: soil preparation, variety selection, flax sowing and growth, crop control, harvesting by uprooting, and retting to facilitate fiber extraction. All these steps require the same rigor and care.

With a strong tradition but open to the advances of scientific and industrial research, this crop has always been cultivated with respect for the environment.