Author : Wahid Ahmad
Nowadays, China produces most of the global cashmere fabric and these shawls have become widely popular across the US but traditional pashmina from Kashmir made with centuries-old methods is rare to find To do all this painstaking work, it requires a robust workforce Let’s take a look how a Pashmina shawl is made and why is so popular.
The unwanted carded fibre is spun on wooden spinning wheel with the utmost care to avoid breakage hand spinning is the most time- and painstaking process that needs to be performed very carefully. Lots of dedication and patience is required during this procedure. Approximately 90grams of this wool are collected from one goat every year and go through the process to produce pashmina. The balls of yarn are squeezed onto prech (stringed wooden frame) and then rewound onto another prech.
Four to six iron rods are driven into the ground at intervals, adding up to the length of the wrap. This is called Yarun. The number of wrap threads varies from 1800 to 2400 across the width of the fabric. Weaving pashmina shawls on traditional handlooms usually made of Deodar wood, the weave will be plain or a diamond (cheshme bulbul), twill (Saada) or herringbone (maachli gond). The pedals for feet control the up-down movement that lifts the mechanism to let the shuttle pass through. Around 50 shawls can be weaved by an artist in one go, which are cut into standard shawl sizes. Depending on the requirement, the shawl or yarn is dyed by specialist dyers called Ranger. Shade cards are used to select and match a required color; there is a large array of colours in which to dye the base shawl. Mixing colours to get a perfect shade. Sun-dried pashmina shawls
Out of the vast collection of walnut wood, bocks are chosen as per embroidery design to be drawn on shawl. Chemical ink is used for printing, after which needle work is done on the printed designs. The master craftsmen carefully prints the design using blocks to create an imprint for embroidery.
The handprinted base of cloth guides the fine hand of the embroiderer for needle work to be done to form a particular design called Sozni embroidery.
Usually on the blanks of river Jehlum the washing of the finished shawl is done by a dhobi, a traditional washerman, after they are embroided. Finally the shawls are being steam pressed over a large rotating drum for evenness.
Pashmina shawl is the art of handcrafting luxury shawls from Kashmir wool these shawls are super soft fine lightweight and remarkably warm the name pashmina derived from the Persian word pashm meaning the finest wool that is used in weaving the Kashmiri shawl are obtained from the Pashmina goat count in the Ladakh these gotes are rare and exotic and are found on the Himalayan range it is one of the finest and highest quality wool in the whole world it is very costly due to its fine quality of wool it needs hard work meticulous efforts and immense patience it never cause skin allergy or irritation it takes around 72 hours or more to complete one shawl it is one of the fundamental source of income for the local Kashmiri people.
The process starts with herding the goats and harvesting their wool. From there, the fiber is woven into a fabric, dyed, and made to produce pashmina. In Western countries, it is known as Kashmir with a ‘C’, but this unique fabric originated from the Kashmir region of the Himalayas with a ‘K’. Pashmina in Ladakh is considered one of the best since it is grazed at very high altitudes.
This unwanted carded fiber is spun on a wooden spinning wheel without breaking it. Every year, about 90 grams of wool per goat goes through the system that results in pashmina. The hanks of yarn are then squeezed and wound around a prech, which is a stringed wooden frame.
Weaving pashmina shawls on traditional handlooms, usually made of deodar wood, takes quite some time. They can be woven in plain weave, diamond twill, or herringbone patterns. These shawls are then dyed by specialist dyers called Ranger, who use shade cards to select them and match them up with the required color. Finally, Dhobi washes these shawls on the banks of the Jhelum, and they are steam-pressed for evenness.