About a month ago I was contacted by the nice people over at Stitchcraft Marketing with an opportunity to review a skein of June Cashmere yarn.  June Cashmere works with farmers in Kyrgyzstan to ethically source cashmere. The fiber is then spun into yarn in Scotland and then dyed in rich jewel tones in Maine.

June Cashmere offers two weights of yarn: DK and Lace.  I opted for a skein of the DK weight yarn and chose the Scarlet colorway.  The DK yarn comes in 50 gram skeins with 150 yards of 100% pure cashmere.

The yarn arrived packaged beautifully with an 8.5″ x 11″ color booklet full of photographs about how the June Cashmere yarns come to be, as well as a color card (handy for future purchasing decisions).

I knew immediately that I wanted to make a rich luscious cowl out of this yarn.  I selected the Zuzu’s Petals pattern by Carina Spencer.  I did have to make a few modifications for gauge and yardage, but I couldn’t be more pleased with how the cowl turned out.

This yarn was pure joy to knit with.  It was so luscious and soft and the color is very intense.  I had a little trouble photographing the true color because it is so rich and saturated, and looks slightly different in different lights.  It had a lovely hand and I really enjoyed seeing the cowl take shape. After a simple blocking to open up the lace edging, the cowl is so amazingly soft and warm. I plan to give it as a holiday gift, but I’m sorely tempted to keep it for myself.

I will definitely be looking to June Cashmere for future cashmere purchases!

As a bonus for my blog readers, June Cashmere is conducting a drawing for three lucky winners. If you win, you have your choice of the DK or Lace weight in any color.  You can enter by signing up here with your email address.  The contest will be open until midnight on December 19, with winners drawn by June Cashmere on December 20. Good luck!

A special thank you to Stitchcraft Marketing and the folks at June Cashmere  who sent me the yarn (retail: $44.00) for free. I received no other compensation for this review. All opinions and photos are my own.