When I first discovered knitting, I was really drawn to the idea of knitting my own cashmere sweaters.
I have pretty sensitive skin, so my winter closet is primarily a couple core cashmere knits.
Then I saw how much basic wool yarn cost and the idea of knitting with cashmere seemed more like a pipe dream.
That, plus my first project (the Lakes pullover) was riddled with small mistakes haha and I knew that spending a couple hundred on cashmere yarn wasn’t something I wanted to risk.
At least, until my knitting skills improved or cashmere yarn prices cratered.
A couple months later, I was still as addicted to knitting as ever, but I discovered a really affordable source for cashmere – Amazon!
I was skeptical at first.
I’d heard of fake yarn listings rampant on Temu, where the ‘cashmere’ listings were really cheap acrylic, but I figured I’d take the risk and just try out some of the various cashmere yarn listings on Amazon.
At least they had free shipping, a generous return policy and actual customer service support!
Spoiler: I found some incredible cashmere yarn.
small, even stitches – I realized I like knitting on fine gauge yarn
Amazon Yarn
I thought about gatekeeping this, after I posted about it on Instagram and the yarn temporarily sold out! But this is too good not to share.
I purchased 3 balls of this cashmere to knit my Camisole No 9, a simple spring summer tank design and the yarn exceeded all my expectations.
It’s soft, fine-gauge and super drape-y, in a beautiful shade of brown.
It kind of reminds me of deer’s fur? Like it has a subtle sheen and glow in the light.
And I only used 2 balls to complete the tank so my total project cost? ~$24 for the yarn and ~10 for the pattern.
In my book, $34 for a cashmere tank is a steal!
I used just over 2 balls to knit this cashmere tank top
The Best Affordable Cashmere
The yarn is a pretty fine, fingering-weight cashmere.
It’s listed as 100% pure organic cashmere. It feels like 100% cashmere to me, but perhaps not top tier Grade A.
In comparison to my store bought cashmere sweaters, I’d say this is a bit thinner and softer. So perhaps a lower tier grade of cashmere?
With that being said, it’s still exceptionally soft and my friends who’ve seen my project ooh’d and aah’d over it – they couldn’t believe I knit it.
Read more: MFTK’s Camisole #9 – Pattern Review
Colors
The cashmere yarn comes in 20+ colors.
All of them are beautiful – there’s a good mix of pastels, neutrals and deep jewel tones.
I find they sell out of popular colors quite quickly, so I wouldn’t wait too long. Then they’ll usually take a couple months to restock.
Weight
I actually love how fine the gauge is – it produces incredibly small, even stitches in plain stockinette.
I’m constantly after the even, fine work that only machine knitwear can produce, and this fine cashmere gets prettyyy close.
Blocking helped fluff up the stitches and further relax the fibers, so it also has some nice drape.
the cashmere yarn came with 2 spools of matching embroidery thread
Embroidery Thread
The yarn came with some small spools of embroidery thread.
I find this is common with finer-gauge yarns that are typically used for machine knitting. I thought this was a nice touch, especially considering how affordable the Amazon yarn already was.
And it came in handy, since Camisole No 9 calls for some sewn bind-off work around the neckline and armholes.
Having thread the same exact color and shade as the rest of the project came in clutch, for a really professional looking edge to the tank.
But I have to say, the embroidery thread was quite difficult to work with.
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Instead of laying flat like normal thread, it had a tendency to spring into tight coils.
So knitting with it wasn’t the most pleasant, especially since I had had to undo and re-sew the bind off 5x to prevent puckering.
Still, the included thread saved me the trouble of having to find matching yarn and came in really handy for all the finishing work.
I can’t complain, considering it was a bonus to even get thread with the yarn!
I used the embroidery thread for the folded hem, neckline and armholes. since the thread details are visible, it came in really handy to have matching embroidery thread to use!
Overall, I love this affordable cashmere.
It’s high quality, really pleasant to knit with, and creates the most beautiful stitch definition.
And of course, the price is unbeatable! Check out more of my yarn reviews here.
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