A cashmere fibre project in Afghanistan

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Life can be full of pleasant surprises! Following an exchange of emails with Jane Mundy, who has set up a project in Afghanistan, working with Afghan women using the fibre from cashmere goats to hand-spin yarn for knitting, this week I met Jane  to find out more about her work. The project, called Qaria Cashmere, aims to give Afghan women the opportunity to learn skills which will enable them to gain some independence and make a living using materials from Afghanistan. The Afghan cashmere fibre is wonderfully fine and soft and comes in lovely natural white, brown and grey shades. However, some of the yarn will be dyed using natural dyes and this is where I hope to be involved.

 

afghan cashmere goats in Badakhshan Afghanistan

Afghan goats in Badakhshan province in NW Afghanistan

 

afghan goat herders by their flock

Afghan goat herders in Badakhshan province

 

afghan cashmere sorting in Herat

Sorting cashmere fibre in Herat

 

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Afghan cashmere fibre

 

afghan handspinner

Afghan woman hand-spinning cashmere fibres

 

The natural dyes most commonly used in Afghanistan to dye wool for carpets are madder, indigo, walnut hulls and pomegranate rind and a wild form of larkspur is also used to dye yellows. So my next task will be to test dye some of the cashmere yarns, using dyes which should be available to the Afghan women from the local carpet weavers or from the market. Cashmere fibres will require special treatment to ensure they don’t felt during the dyeing process but I’m sure it will be possible to develop mordanting and dyeing techniques which will be suitable for this lovely fibre.

 

afghan dyeing wool for carpets10911488_1548431828732923_8604222753343103615_o

Dyeing wool for Afghan carpets in Kabul

 

Jane left me some cashmere fibre which I will hand-spin for these tests. However, I fear my skeins will not look as lovely and evenly-spun as those produced by expert hand-spinner, Amanda Hannaford, and shown below.

 

afghan cashmere handspun yarn samples

Samples of Afghan cashmere yarns hand-spun by Amanda Hannaford

 

I will write further posts giving more details of the Qaria Cashmere project. The project has a Facebook page “Qaria Cashmere” and a website (www.qariacashmere.com) is currently being developed.