Kashmir Fabric

Kashmiri is famous for Pashmina, Shahtoosh and woollens. Among other fabrics silk and tweek are also very famous fabrics of Kashmir. When you are in Kashmir try to buy some of these to make your travel to Kashmir a success.

Some of the exquisite items produced by Kashmiri people are :
Namdas
These colourful floor coverings are far less expensive are made from woollen and cotton fibers which are manually pressed into shape. Prices vary with the percentage of wool used in weaving - a Namda containing 80% wool being more expensive than one containing 20% wool. Chain stitch embroidery in woolen and cotton thread is done on these beautiful rugs.


Chain Stitch and Crewel Furnishings
The high quality of embroidery done on wall hangings and rugs has made the Kashmiri crewel work very demanding all over the world.

The stitching in done in a different pattern in these embroideries. The chain stitch, be it in wool, silk or cotton, is done by hook rather than any needle. The hook is referred to as ari and the hook work covers a much larger area than needle work in the same amount of time. The whole embroidery is executed on white cotton fabric, pre-shrunk by the manufacturers. The intricate work of each piece lies in the size of the stitches and the yarn or fabric used. Tiny and delicate stitches are used in this form of stitching. The art of crewel embroidery can result in creative wall hangings.

The craftsmen also works on rugs patterning crewel-embroidery to cover the entire area. Figures or motifs are worked in striking colors to bring the striking effect; the background in a single color, made up of a series of coin sized concentric circles. The background fabric is not be visible through the stitches.

Crewel is similar to chain stitch, but here the motifs, mainly stylish flowers, do not cover the entire base and the background is not embroidered upon. Wool is almost invariably used in Crewel work and colour ways are not as elaborate as in chain stitch. They make excellent household furnishings being hand or machine washable.

Silks, Tweeks
Sericulture and tweed weaving are one of the major industries in Kashmir, with departments of the state government. The state government closely monitors the whole process. Interestingly, just as little or no raw-material for tweed comes from Kashmir, the same way almost no weaving and printing of silk is done in the state. However, the cocoon raised in Kashmir is of the superior quality, producing an extremely fine fiber and any silk woven from this thread or fiber becomes known. The fineness of the yarn lends itself particularly well to the weaves known as ‘chinon’ and ‘crepe de chine’, in addition to the universally recognized silk weave.

On the other hand tweed is woven in Kashmir with pure, never blended, wool. The resultant fabric, made with imported know-how, compares favourably with the best in the world. It is available by the length occasionally as ready to wear garments.

Pherans
This is costume is somewhere between a coat and a cloak. This is absolutely fitted to the Kashmiri way of life, being loose enough to allow the necessary kettle of live coals which is carried around in much the same way as a hot water bottle. The men’s pherans are made of tweed or coarse wool; while women’s pherans are somewhat more stylized, are most probably made of raffel, which boasts of ari or hook embroidery at the throat, cuffs and edges.

Shawls
There are three fibers from which the Kashmiri shawls are made - Pashmina, wool and shahtoosh. The prices of three are incomparable. The woollen shawls are within the reach of the most common people, while Shahtoosh is once-in-a-lifetime purchase.

The embroidery of Kashmir on woollen shawls have made the Kashmiri shawls very popular because of the embroidery. A fine shahtoosh shawl passes through a finger ring.

Wool woven in Kashmir is raffel and is 100% pure. Many kinds of embroidery are worked on shawls – ‘sozni’ or needlework is generally done in a panel along the sides of the shawl. Motifs, usually abstract designs or stylized paisleys and flowers are worked in one or two, occasionally three colors, all subdued.

Another type of needle embroidery is known as Papier Mache work. This is done either in broad panels or either side of the breadth of a shawl or covering the entire surface of a stole.
Well-known ari or hook embroidery, on floral motifs are finely worked in concentric rings of chain stitch.