Fine Worsted Yak Yarns and Fabrics

This project aims at developing light, thin and high-quality yak knitted fabrics. It is achieved by improving spinning methods and apparatus, optimizing knitting machine settings and parameters, and analysing physical and functional properties of yak with comparison to other animal fibres such as merino wool, cashmere and alpaca in order to facilitate the development of high-quality yak fabrics and textile products.

Yak hair has good features in strength, warmth, odour resistance and breathability, and particularly possesses cashmere like hand feel. However, yak fibres are difficult to be made into yarn because of its short length, large dispersion of fibre length and low fibre cohesion. The success of this project will not only make yak to be better applied in high quality textile products, increase its added-value, enhance the competitive power of local textile industries and bring new business opportunities to them, but also improve the living standard of herders in Tibetan and some other remote communities in China.