Champa's hand woven blankets

Champa, among other things, weaves beautiful woollen blankets by hand on her loom. It takes her a few months to complete, depending on the detail, one as every thread is painstakenly and individually woven into the blanket. The pics below are some of her blankets. These blankets are used by women as local traditional clothing. They are wrapped around the body in a particular way to create a 'dress'. Although many of the women dress in punjabi suits now (baggy pants and knee length dress), some women still wear the traditional blanket style and most women will wear this for special occasions like festivals etc. It is also much more commonly used by many women in the winter to keep them warm when the weather is harsh.

This blanket took several months to make due to all the detail. When I first saw Champa's blankets many years ago I couldn't understand when she kept explaining to me that different blankets take different times to make depending on how many flowers they have, as I couldn't see any flowers on her blanket. I eventually understood that flowers meant detail and this blanket obviously has much detail.

A wee idea of the different colours and patterns Champa hand weaves.

Local women, some wearing the blankets.

When we were staying in Goa we met 3 mad Aussie women, Jenny Bhadra and Marg. Jenny and Bhadra came back to India in August and, because we had told them about Vashisht and showed them photos when we were together in Goa, Vashisht was definately on their India travel plans. They arrived 2 weeks ago and are staying at Pritam and Champa's house also. They are mad as a bag as a bag of snakes and Pritam and Champa have become very fond of them. Champa couldn't resist dressing them up in local dress with her blankets.