Ask around about Kashmiri shawls and you'll hear Kani and Sozni used almost interchangeably, usually under the umbrella term Kashmiri embroidery. Only one of them is embroidery.
Sozni is needlework that is sewn onto already woven fabric. Kani is woven; no stitching is done because the design is incorporated into the cloth on a loom. Both are typically made of pashmina, both employ the same flowers and paisleys, and a good one of either can appear similar from across the room.
Kani is made at the loom. The weaver uses small wooden bobbins called tujis, one for each colour, and passes each one through the threads only where that colour is needed. The motif grows row by row as the cloth does. The pattern is written in a coded notation called the talim, and a master reads it out loud while the weavers work. The craft is centred on Kanihama village in Budgam district. A weaver may finish an inch or so of cloth in a day, and a detailed shawl can stay on the loom for many months, sometimes over a year, often with more than one person working on it. Because the pattern is part of the weave, the back looks much like the front.
The name comes from sozan, the Kashmiri word for needle. The shawl is woven plain first. A designer, called a naqash, draws up the pattern, and the embroiderer stitches it onto the pashmina in very fine, close stitches, usually in silk or fine thread. The work comes in a few styles. Hashidar is embroidery along the borders only. Jaldar spreads a dense network of motifs across the whole shawl. Dorukha is finished so that both sides look the same, and it is the hardest to do. Motifs come from the Valley itself: the paisley (buta), chinar leaves, almond blossom, climbing vines. Fine sozni can take months too, but it is one person with a needle, working freehand, which is why the lines can curve more smoothly than a loom allows.
Both crafts have GI recognition, and both are copied heavily. Machine-made shawls and printed or machine-embroidered imitations are sold under the same names, often at a fraction of the price.
Look for the GI label and ask how the shawl was certified. Turn it over: machine work looks even and flat, while handwork has small irregularities. Ask what the fabric is, because pashmina, pashmina-silk blends and fine wool are all sold as Kani or Sozni, at very different prices. An unusually low price on a Kani shawl should make you suspicious, given how many months of weaving it takes. And ask who made it and where. A good seller will know. To look after it, dry-clean or hand-wash gently, fold it instead of hanging it, and store it in something breathable.
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