How Pashmina Shawls are made

The pashmina making process undergoes pain staking process and the entire process is done completely by hand.The pashmina wool is collected every spring from the Mountain goat "Chyangra" (Capra Hircus). Pashmina is the goat's soft underbelly down, which lies under the coarse and thick outer hair. Each goat produces only about 3 ounces or 80 grams of pashmina wool each year. One woven pashmina shawl require wool from about three goats, and is basically spun by hand. The yarn is spun on a spinning wheel locally known as 'Charkha'. Hand-spinning is extremely painstaking and time consuming task. It requires immense patience, dexterity and dedication of experienced and expert weavers.

Pashmina yarn is too fragile for the vibration caused by power looms, the weaving of the traditional 100% pashmina shawls are therefore done on hand-looms. The weaving process is in itself an art, which has been passed down over generations to give you the fabulous pashmina shawls and other pashmina products.

The making of the distinctive pashmina fringe and design is perhaps one of the most interesting stages of shawl making. It takes hours to fringe each pashmina shawl, pashmina stole or pashmina scarf or pashmina sweater or pashmina blanket.

Dyeing is also done by hand. Dyers with immense patience and generations of experience are the one who dye the pashmina shawls, as even the smallest negligence reflects on the quality of the product. Only natural dyes are used, making the shawls completely eco-friendly.

Thus pashmina production process includes:

Fiber Collection >> Fiber Spinning >> Weaving in Hand-looms >> Mending White Pieces >> Washing White Pieces to Remove Spot, Blots, etc. >> Dyeing >> Fringe and Designs Making >>Embroidery >> Ironing and finally Packing.

The entire process of manufacturing pashmina products like pashmina shawls, pashmina sweaters, pashmina scarves, pashmina stoles, pashmina mufflers and pashmina blankets etc. are similar.

How is Pashmina Made?

Origin of Pashmina dates back to ancient civilization. In olden days though the pashmina making process was same as today, pashmina were made by hands, collecting pashmina fibers, spinning the pashmina wool, no extra colors were added and there were no dying system and the pashmina products were woven for their own use. As time changed the pashmina products found favor with the royal families, emperors, rulers, kings, etc. This precious fabric was known as the ROYAL FIBERS. Now this royal luxury is being offered in wide variety of shawls, stoles, scarves, mufflers, sweaters and blankets. These luxurious pashmina products are hand woven by traditional weavers whose families have been in the occupation since ages and they inherit this art from their ancestors, and tradition of this art continues from one generation to another generation.

Weaving Of Pashmina on a Handloom

Every summer, Himalayan farmers climb the high Himalayan regions to comb the fine woolen undercoat from the underbelly of, Himalayan mountain goat 'Chyangra' the Capra Hircus goat which is the source of pashmina, and which lives at elevations of 14500 feet (4500 meters) and above, where temperatures rarely rise above minus 40 degree centigrade in winter. Not to be confused with the endangered Tibetan antelope, chiru that is killed to produce Shahtoosh shawls, some also call these Chyangra goat as the Cashmere Goats. To survive the freezing environment at 14000 feet altitude, it grows a unique, incredibly soft pashm, inner coat, six times finer than human hair. Because it is only 15 - 19 microns in diameter, it can not be spun by machines, so the wool is hand-woven into pashmina products including shawls, stoles, scarves, mufflers, sweaters, wraps, throws, blankets, etc. to export worldwide.

With the coming of summer, the Himalayan goats shed their warm winter coats, Their underbellies are covered with two different types of wool: 1) The fine soft inner coat which is called pashmina and 2) a thick coarse outer layer. The wool is gathered by local women, who comb it thoroughly to separate the pashmina from the thicker, less luxuriant wool.

Each fiber is about one sixth the width of a human hair, and one shawl requires about 24 ounces of wool, the annual output of about 4 goats. The wool is too delicate for mechanical looms, and must therefore be spun and woven by hand. The techniques for producing fine pashmina products have been handed down through the generations, and sometimes the women in a family have carried out the practice since the days of the Mughal Empire.

The Pashmina Making Process includes following steps:

                                                                                                                                        1. Wool Collection

Pashmina Wool

First of all the wool from Chyangra (Capra Hircus) goat is collected. The pashmina wool is collected every spring. Then the soft fine pashmina is separated form the thick coarse hair. And both the soft pashmina and the thick coarse hair is taken for their further process.

Pashmina wool being Spun on Charkha

2. Spinning

The pashmina wool is collected every spring and is basically spun by hand. The yarn is spun on a spinning wheel locally known as 'Charkha'. Prior to spinning, the raw material is treated by stretching and cleaning it to remove any dirt and soaked for a few days in a mixture of rice and water to make it softer. Hand-spinning is an extremely painstaking task. It requires immense patience, dexterity and dedication and is amazing process to watch.

Weaving of Pashmina on a Handloom in Kashmir

3. Weaving
Pashmina yarn is too fragile for the vibration caused by power looms, the weaving of the traditional 100% pashmina shawls are therefore done on hand-looms. It is essential for the weaver to have a uniform hand. for par excellence fabric. Weaving here is done with a shuttle carrying the soft pashmina yarn through the fine yet strong silk warp. The weaving process is in itself an art, which has been passed down over generations, to give you the fabulous shawls, which we offer. It takes about four days to weave a single pashmina shawl. The weaving of pashmina products differ according to the nature of pashmina products. Different looms are required to weave different pashmina products. For pashmina shawls, pashmina stoles, pashmina mufflers, pashmina scarves, pashmina blankets and pashmina sweaters are woven in different looms and they takes different amount of pashmina fibers and takes time accordingly.

4. Fringes and Designs

The attractive and excellent fringes and beautiful designs in pashmina shawl will be different than the others. Fringe and designs add extra beauty to pashmina shawls and other pashmina products. The making of the distinctive pashmina fringe and designs is an interesting stage of shawl making. Because the fringe and design making process is artistic and delicate process it takes hours to fringe and design each pashmina shawl or any other pashmina product by the expert.

 5. Dyeing

Dyeing is also done by hand, and each piece individually. Dyers with immense patience and generations of experience are the one who dye the pashmina shawls, Pashmina stoles, pashmina mufflers, pashmina scarves, pashmina sweaters, pashmina blankets and other pashmina products, as even the smallest negligence reflects on the quality of the product. Only metal and azo free dyes are used, making the shawls and other pashmina products completely eco-friendly. The pure water used for dying is pumped up from deep beneath the surface. Dyeing is done at a temperature just below boiling point for nearly an hour. Pashmina wool is exceptionally absorbent, and dyes easily and deeply.

In this way a fabulous pashmina shawl, pashmina stole, pashmina scarf, pashmina muffler, pashmina sweater, pashmina blanket and other pashmina product is made. Since making of pashmina products is an pain staking, artistic and time consuming process therefore the quality and the price of pashmina products are incomparable to other garments or fibers.

Making of Fringes and Designs