Woolen yarn was hand-spun by the people who provided this yarn to the vankars/ weavers to obtain the products required by them earlier. Today mill spun yarn is used and it is very rare to see somebody engaged in the traditional method of spinning.
For dyeing, the required yarn in hank form is tied with the poly pack at both ends and weighed, Colour along with acid is measured and heated to 65 - 750C and dyed till the solution turns colourless, so that the colour gets transferred on to the yarn, after this process yarns are spread. The above said process is repeated for two times for darker colours, it is then washed in water, dried in shade and in sunlight for fixing of the colours. There are two methods of warping used here with warping pegs or with warping frame.
• warping pegs
• warping Frame
In warping pegs, the wooden pegs are fixed to the ground near wall and continue to wall of required length usually done in the premises of the house or outside. Peg serves the purpose of maintaining the sequences and formation of the lease with the help of warping stick of 2 to 3 ft. long to which at one end a hallow stick of 90 degree is attached as a guide to make the warp.
In warping Frame the yarns are propped up against a wall to make the warp. If the material is cotton or wool, the warp is then placed in the starch solution and placed between two poles and the additional poles, which is then fixed to the ground so that the warp dries under tension. The strands of warp are even, starched with brush, dried and wound on to a beam. Looms mostly used are pit loom with large frame fixed to ground with a beater and lathe turned wooden cylinder. Shafts are attached to the wooden cylinder and adjusted to the required length with the help of cords on each side. The large frame that constitutes basic structure of the loom is a pit that accommodates the treadle, where the weaver sits on a narrow shallow depression in front of the loom placing his legs within the pit. The weft patterns are inserted individually as the sheds are changed, these are loosely held in weft, engaging only a part of the warp and regardless of whether the extra weft pattern is done from end to end or localized. Motifs are woven without reference to a graph. The step of weaving in the motif is done based on the experience of the weaving gained over a period of time.
Normally weft threads are inserted through fly shuttle technique; weft threads are inserted in a geometric form such as square, diamond and triangular shape where symmetry is required in special cases. The selection of warp ends according to the patterns required is done behind the shafts as part of preparing the loom for weaving. Weaver staggers the meeting point of the two wefts to create the kangri (temple), the elongated triangle made which is most commonly called, is developed by the understanding of the structural property of interlocking. Finishing (making up) of a blanket or shawl is joining or adding of fringes, which is considered to be an extremely important and integral stage in completing the product.
