Does cashmere break?

#1

I have this skein of laceweight cashmere from Hipknits and I’ve stored in the plastic ziploc bag it was sent to me in. I only took it out occasionally to cuddle it.

Now I have a shawl I want to make, so I went to wind the cashmere and I find it is breaking while I try ot wind it. In fact, even holding two strands together, I can just pull a little and it breaks! :pout:

Did I do something wrong? Is all cashmere so delicate? Should I go ahead and knit with it from the hank directly? Wouldn’t the finished item also be fragile?

If I can’t knit with it, what can I do with it :shrug:

Please help!

#2

Oh no! I hope you don’t have moths!

#3

I wouldn’t knit it directly from the hank…hanks will hopelessly get knotted…you must put it into a ball…
My guess is it breaks because the fibers spun to make the yarn could have been short and don’t have a lot of each other’s length to grab onto. You just may have to be careful as you knit with it and not tug too hard. I’d talk to a spinner on the boards to see what they have to say about breaky yarns…