May 31, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Yarn shop takes on a cashmere battle
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

Dawn Casale, owner and operator of The Knit With, voluntarily removed what she suspected was mislabeled yarn from her store’s shelves to have it tested. She later found out that her assumptions were correct and the yarn was indeed counterfeit. (Photo by Erin Vertreace)

The Knit With, a little yarn shop perched in a historic house overlooking Germantown Avenue, has joined battle with Knitting Fever Inc., a large yarn distributor based in Amityville, N.Y.

In 2001, Knit With, at 8226 Germantown Ave. across the street from the Chestnut Hill Hotel, began selling a line of yarns called Debbie Bliss, named after the well-known knitter and designer.

“The yarn was flying off the shelves,” said Dawn Casale, owner of Knit With and daughter of its founder, Marge Casale.

“[Bliss] has very charming designs and knitters love to knit her designs,” so of course the yarn was just as popular.

But as knitters used the yarn, they would complain about “pilling,” which is when tiny balls of “fuzzies” form on sweaters and scarves, Casale said.

She said most yarns do pill — the result of the natural and synthetic fibers that are spun together shifting against each other — “but they should not do it to the degree this yarn was,” Casale said.

After getting complaints, Casale said she and her brother, Jim Casale, asked Knitting Fever, the suppliers of the yarn, why the pilling was so extensive. Casale said Knitting Fever replied that it was because of the cashmere content, which would be pulled by coarser fabrics and therefore pill. Satisfied with the answer, but still a bit suspicious, Knit With went on selling the yarn.

A few years later, in July 2006, the Casales heard a rumor that an unidentified yarn, with the same content and composition as the yarn causing the pilling, did not actually contain cashmere. The unnamed yarn had been tested by The Cashmere and Camel-Hair Manufacturer’s Institute, a reliable source in the knitting industry, Casale said.

Immediately, Casale removed all yarn fitting that description from the shelf, and Knit With put the yarn to the test, literally. The Casales spent more than $10,000 to have Kenneth Langley, a professor of textile sciences at University of Massachusetts’ Dartmouth College of Engineering who has been testing fibers for more than 20 years, test these yarns.

According to the testing, Knitting Fever’s claim that the pilling was caused by cashmere was untrue. The test results found that three of the yarns — Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby and KFI Cashmereno DK — which were labeled as having 12 percent cashmere but actually had none.

And three others — Noro Amagi, Noro Cash Iroha and Noro Lotus — contained less cashmere than their labels claimed.

Because of the mislabeling, Knit With recalled the yarn, which was already off the shelves, and offered customers a full refund plus 10 percent of the purchase.

It approached Knitting Fever with the results of Langley’s testing, expecting that, based on the findings, Knitting Fever would recall the yarn. But it did not.

According to Federal law, both the distributor (Knitting Fever in this case) and retailer (Knit With) are responsible for mislabeling. They are supposed to test every yarn that is sold by them, Casale said.

But this demand is impossible for a small yarn store crammed with 500 types of yarn in 500 square feet of floor space.

Testing each type would put the small store out of business, considering that testing only six types cost the shop more than $10,000. So small knitting shops, like Knit With, often trust the information provided by their suppliers.

But Knitting Fever would not acknowledge Knit With’s claim. It refused to recall the yarn or alter the labels, insisting that the yarn contained cashmere.

Cashmere, which is hair from a specific goat, the Kashmir goat, is distinguishable from other hair fibers by its width and slanted growth pattern. This is what “separates it from other goat fiber,” Langley said, and is what he looked for under the microscope when he tested numerous samples of the yarn.

To test yarn, Langley takes a sample of each ball — 500 snippets for judgment on whether cashmere merely exists in a yarn and about 1,000 pieces when a percentage is needed — and examines them under a microscope, comparing them to images of cashmere he has on file.

Langley said that distinguishing goat hair fibers is tricky, but not difficult. Each piece of cashmere fiber is different, he said, similar to the differences in people’s faces. Like faces, he can tell when a hair is cashmere, even though each fiber has different features.

Langley was confident in his results, which claimed Knitting Fever mislabeled or inaccurately labeled its yarns.

But in an e-mail, Sion Elalouf, the president of Knitting Fever, insisted its yarn contained cashmere, and said Knitting Fever did its own testing.

“All cashmerino yarns produced prior to and after January 2007 [when the official definition of cashmere was made into Federal law] contain cashmere,” he wrote in an e-mail.

He said that the cashmere debate is a complicated issue, naming the various countries cashmere comes from and explaining that cashmere fibers vary in width depending on the way they are twisted, dyed and washed.

“A lot of money was spent to establish that these accusations were incorrect,” he said. “We obtained a signed affidavit from our supplier confirming the correct amount of cashmere that has gone into every batch of cashmerino.”

And they also did numerous testings, including DNA testing by Shirley Technologies Ltd., TFT (Ilkley) Ltd. and SGS Wool in England, and Instituto per lo Studio delle Macromolecole in Biella, Italy.

“Every test has come back containing cashmere,” he said. Although no two results have come back exactly the same, he said, illustrating the variety of cashmere fibers.

Knitting Fever believes the accusations are the result of a disgruntled client.

Casale told the Local that she stopped doing business with Knitting Fever in 2005, after receiving “a taste of KFI that I didn’t like,” Casale said. She said there were month-long delays in product delivery.

“There was always an excuse every time we called,” she said.

Knitting Fever confirmed that its relationship with Knit With ended in 2005, but Elalouf claimed that Knitting Fever stopped associating with Knit With, rather than the other way around, because of contention between Jim Casale and a sales representative.

But despite Knitting Fever’s claims and test results, Knit With has continued to advocate for a recall and is looking for ways to bring a class action suit against the distributor.

Other stores have continued selling the yarn at regular or discounted prices, Casale said. She doesn’t know of any that have recalled and offered money back to its customers.

“We’re turning over every stone to see whether a class action can be made for all the stores that sell the yarns,” Casale said.

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.

**Corrections
In last week’s front page story “Yarn takes on a cashmere battle,” a photo caption under a photo of Dawn Casale that ran with the story contained the sentence: “She later found out that her assumptions were correct and the yarn was indeed counterfeit.” While tests performed for Casale did indeed indicate that the yarn in question did not contain cashmere, the yarn’s manufacturer, Knitting Fever, contested the conclusion. The fact that Casale’s tests had been contested should have appeared in that caption.
Also, on the front page story “Orchestra to play play Pastorius,” the director of the Chestnut Hill Health Care Foundation Susan Hansen was incorrectly identified as Shirley.**