Pashmina refers to a fine variant of spun cashmere, the animal-hair fibre forming the downy undercoat of the Changthangi goat. In common parlance today, pashmina may refer either to the material or to the variant of the Kashmir shawl that is made from it. It is from the underbelly of this goat that the Pashm is derived, cleaned, sorted, and passed on to a spinner who spins the chunk into long fine threads. These threads are given to a weaver, who weaves the threads over the traditional wooden handloom.