Fine Pashmina Ek Rukh Ring (Palladar) Shawl — White & Terracotta

A fine Kashmiri pashmina ring shawl (Palladar) on a soft white ground, self-patterned through the field and finished at each end with a deep band of large interlocking paisleys in terracotta, dusty blue, rose and gold, closed by a row of broad coloured stripes at the edge.

The name comes from the test. A Palladar is a shawl fine enough to be drawn whole through a finger ring — and that is only possible when the pashmina has been hand-spun on a charkha to a thread so fine it is barely visible against the light. Spinners who do this work have often done nothing else for decades. The weaving that follows is just as slow, because yarn this fine breaks if the loom is pushed.

Ek Rukh — woven on one face

Kashmiri weavers distinguish between do-rukha, worked so the pattern reads on both faces of the cloth, and ek rukh — one face. This shawl is ek rukh, and on a Palladar that is the correct choice rather than the lesser one.

Patterning both faces at this density would have doubled the weight of the end panels and ended the ring test for good. Working one face keeps the cloth light enough to remain a true Palladar while still carrying a full colour design — you get the ornament and the fineness together, which a do-rukha piece at this scale cannot give you.

Turn the shawl over and you can see exactly how it is made: the reverse of the panel shows the loose ends and floats where each colour turns back. That is not a flaw to be hidden — it is the visible record of a single-face weave, and the reason the shawl still weighs almost nothing.

The ring test

The base cloth is the same ultra-fine pashmina as our plain ring shawls, so this shawl will pass through a ring — but draw it through slowly. The ek rukh panel is denser than the plain ground and can catch if it is rushed. We would rather tell you that than let you find out. Fed through gently, it goes.

White is the hardest ground to keep and the easiest to wear. Against it the terracotta and blue read as warm rather than loud, which makes this the daytime and bridal piece of the pair — where our black ek rukh is the evening one.

Details

• Ultra-fine hand-spun Kashmiri pashmina
• Handwoven ring shawl — passes through a finger ring when drawn slowly
• Self-patterned white ground with deep ek rukh (single-face) woven end panels and striped edge
• Approx. 40" × 80"
• Dry clean only — pale grounds mark easily, so store folded and away from direct light
• Handwoven in Kashmir

Hand-spun yarn varies slightly along its length; the faint unevenness you can see against the light is the signature of hand work, not a fault.

Ships in Attan's branded box with a thank-you card, ready to gift.