What fluff are used for making Orenburg shawls. Down knitting. Types of down products
The Orenburg region has always been famous for knitting down scarves. To this day, it remains a symbol and a visiting card not only of the Orenburg region, the Urals, but also of the whole of Russia. Knitted goat down shawls are an ancient craft that originated in the Orenburg region 250 years ago. Handmade scarves, knitted by the hands of craftswomen, light as a feather, and warm as the palm of a mother. The fluff of the Orenburg goats is the thinnest in the world. Therefore, products made of Orenburg down - shawls and cobweb - are especially delicate and soft. At the same time, this down is very durable - stronger than wool.
Orenburg shawls are of three types: just a downy shawl (shawl) - gray (rarely white) thick warm downy shawls; "Gossamer" - thin openwork scarves; tippet - thin scarf, cape.
Orenburg downy shawls are unmatched in the subtlety of work, originality of the pattern, beauty of the finish and the ability to keep warm. Openwork scarves, the so-called "cobwebs", are distinguished by their special grace. Despite its large size, the "cobweb" can be easily laid in the shell of a goose egg or passed through a wedding ring
The work of down knitters is laborious and painstaking. A good craftswoman can knit two medium-sized "cobwebs" or three stoles in a month.
It takes a month or more to make a large scarf or a scarf with a pattern. Craftswomen, in order to make a handkerchief by hand, it is necessary to do a number of sequential operations: clean the fluff from the hair, comb it three times on the comb, straighten it on a spindle into a thread, tie a downy thread with a thread of natural silk, wind it into balls and, finally, clean the finished shawl ...
The yarn stretches from loop to loop: "snowflakes", "herringbone", "berries", "ray", "snake", "cat's paws", "checkers". And a unique, original shawl is born, which keeps in itself not only the gentle warmth of fluff, but also love for the native land, a sense of beauty, the charm of the soul of a craftswoman. The Orenburg downy shawl demonstrates diversity, beauty and mystery. Grace ... Despite the great difficulties in knitting, the shawl is of high artistic quality. Knitters work with inspiration, they put a lot of love, taste, creativity and initiative into the business.
Such a scarf - "spider web" or shawl - does not initially look fluffy. The product begins to frizz while being worn. Such a scarf is worn for a very long time.
Orenburg downy shawl is grace, elegance, sophistication, beauty. It will decorate any costume. It will set off the charm of youth and emphasize the nobility of maturity. It will give the female appearance a unique originality and mystery. This is the same miracle as a Gzhel vase or Vologda lace.
Downy shawls live a long time and are passed from generation to generation, warming their ancestors with their warmth and accumulated energy.
In the Orenburg region they knit not only by hand, but also by machines. Machine-made products are beautiful and less expensive, but cannot be compared to handmade scarves. Machines when knitting "cut the fluff" and the product becomes coarser
The Orenburg downy shawl is as much an integral part of the Russian soul as the Russian troika or the Russian song.
This is the history of Russian culture, rituals and traditions, this is the memory of human hearts.
Orenburg downy shawl ", from Orenburg, demonstrates the diversity, beauty and mystery of shawls, which have long become the hallmark of not only the Orenburg region, but all of Russia.
This is the same miracle as a Gzhel vase or Vologda lace, Khokhloma painting or Dymkovo toy. This is as much an integral part of the Russian soul as a Russian troika or a Russian song. The Orenburg downy shawl is the history of Russian culture, rituals and traditions, it is the memory of the human heart.
The yarn stretches from loop to loop: "snowflakes", "berries", "rays", "cat paws" ... And a unique kind of shawl is born, which stores not only the tender warmth of fluff, but also love for the native land, feeling beauty, charm of the soul of a craftswoman ...
Content
Due to its unique qualities and characteristics, the Orenburg shawl has become very popular. The property of this fluff is known not only to Russian people. The whole world has heard a lot about what an Orenburg shawl is. Down is the result of a purely folk craft. There is no such, even an approximate production in the world, which creates something like that.
According to history, exclusively local goat down is used to create the Orenburg shawl. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is the thinnest in the whole world.
It is these features that allow you to get a product as light as a cloud, but at the same time, very warm. In addition, such fluff can be obtained from a goat that is grown in the Orenburg region. The secret of the story is that the animal is in certain climatic conditions. The same can be said for the diet. Therefore, the fluff turns out to be unique.
The Orenburg region has such a cold climate that goats have to get used to these conditions. Adapt and generate warm yet light down.
The story tells that once the French decided to breed this breed of animals at home. But all actions were crowned with ashes. The fact is that after purchasing a whole batch of goats, finding themselves in a warm climate, they began to produce thick fluff. Unlike Orenburg raw materials, this down did not have any distinctive features and uniqueness.
Origin history
According to history, in 1766, people learned from the geographer and local historian Pyotr Rychkov that there are such goats in the Orenburg region. They give a thin, but very warm fluff. From which you can create down products. He even managed to describe the technology for the production of shawls and the production of fluff. In fact, the locals have been doing this craft for a long time, as the history says, it was their traditional occupation.
The demand for downy Orenburg shawls increased after they learned about them in big cities. Thus, the economic situation in this area began to improve. After all, the production and sale of downy shawls brought good profit to the residents of this area. They began to earn decent money. But the highest recognition for the Orenburg shawl came in the 19th century. All over the world they began to learn about this original and unique product. Paris and then London. European companies began to purchase large quantities of goat down from Russia. And in England they even set up the production of non-natural products from down. At the same time, no one hid that it was a fake.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Europeans stopped buying goat down products from Orenburg, according to history. Production ceased, but supplies overseas stopped. These unique products have been replaced by Kashmiri fluff. But its qualities were not so unique in comparison with the Orenburg shawl. And today the masters continue the story and create down products from the Orenburg yarn. But there are some peculiarities of this process. First, goat down cannot be used on a knitting machine. It loses all its unique qualities, ceases to be soft, and its characteristics decrease. Precisely because all products are created by the hands of real masters, Orenburg shawls are in great demand. Of course, based on this, the cost of a goat down scarf is higher. You, too, can join the real masters, and on your own.
The origins of
There are several stories among the people according to which the Orenburg downy shawl was born.
- At one time the people called "Shepherds" were engaged in breeding goats. But they didn’t do it for the sake of fluff in order to get milk, meat and wool. The animals were so filthy that the Cossacks, as settlers, offered their help. Namely, combing out goats. When the shepherds realized what the secret was, they themselves began to comb the goats and exchange the fluff for food and money. And the Cossacks began to breed their goats.
- According to the second story, pastoralists themselves figured out how to use goat down for making clothes. At first, the Cossacks could not understand how they could walk in a severe frost, while dressed very lightly. But then they looked closely and realized that they were warmed by scarves and quilted jackets made of goat down, which are worn under outerwear. These things performed only one important function - they kept the warmth of their owner, in severe frosts, warmed him.
Those down products that have remained in history are very far from modern ones that young ladies wear on their shoulders for beauty. And again, the Cossacks learned that goat down was used for the products. They started their own subsidiary farm.
- There is another story of the origin of fluff. The first openwork scarves appeared thanks to the Cossacks. They were not engaged in agriculture, did not perform ancillary economic work. Goat down has unique qualities and characteristics, thanks to which the idea was born to create only a female element of clothing. For the fair sex. Goat down is so thin and soft that it could not be compared with any other materials, not suitable, even linen and wool. Thanks to these properties, incredibly beautiful patterns on products made of down were obtained.
Features of knitted goat down craft
According to history, Kazakhs did not know how to create products from goat down. Therefore, they sold combed wool to neighboring villages. There, this fluff was used to create warm and soft shawls. This is easy to explain. The local population, which raised goats, was engaged not only in animals, but also in agriculture. They simply did not have free time to also make goat down scarves. And the families of the Cossacks, on the contrary, did not work on the land. Their duty was military service.
The Orenburg downy shawl is widely known for its unique qualities. This is a primordially Russian product of folk craft, which is known not only within our country, but also abroad. Nowhere in the world have they produced such products that could be compared in their properties with shawls and shawls of knitters in Orenburg.
It is believed that the Orenburg shawl is a shawl knitted exclusively from local goat down. It is unique in that it is very thin (there is no thinner in the world). Its thickness is 16-18 microns. For example, the thickness of angora wool or mohair is 22-24 microns. It is because of this subtlety of down that it is possible to obtain thin and light products, which are very warm at the same time.
But it is worth noting that such fluff is obtained only from goats, which are bred in the Orenburg region and nowhere else. It is believed that the "reason" for the uniqueness of the fluff lies in the local climate, as well as in the special diet. The harsh weather conditions in Orenburg force local goats to adapt and develop warm fluff. At one time, the French tried to start breeding Orenburg goats on their territory, for which a batch of animals was purchased. However, once in a territory with a warm climate, the goats turned into "ordinary" ones, while the fluff, having become thicker, lost its peculiarity and uniqueness.
The history of the creation of the Orenburg downy shawl begins in 1766. It was then (after one of the expeditions) that Pyotr Rychkov, a geographer and a well-known local historian of that time, spoke about the unique properties of the down of Orenburg goats and was able to describe the methods of making scarves from it. Although they began to knit much earlier, because it was a traditional occupation of local residents.
After Moscow, St. Petersburg, and then the whole of Russia learned about the existence of unique Orenburg shawls, the demand for them increased hundreds of times. This contributed to good economic development in the region, since such production made it possible to earn good money. World fame overtook the Orenburg shawl in the middle of the 19th century. He received recognition and main awards first in 1857 in Paris, and then in London at an exhibition in 1862. Tens of thousands of poods of goat down, as well as products from it, were purchased in Russia for Europe. In England, the production of fake downy shawls was even established. The products were in demand, although the manufacturers did not hide the fact that these scarves were "Imitation for Orenburg".
The collapse that occurred and the emergence of the Soviet Union led to the termination of large deliveries of Orenburg products from down. No, they did not stop knitting shawls, but they did not enter the world market. Goat down from the Orenburg region was replaced by Kashmir down, which was somewhat inferior to Russian down in its properties.
Downy shawls in Orenburg are knitted to this day. But down has one feature: machine knitting is contraindicated for it, during which softness is lost and quality decreases. Therefore, all products continue to be knitted by hand. In this regard, the prices for them are quite high, but the Orenburg downy shawl is worth it.
Lyudmila Orenburgskaya, administrator of the Wool Store, an online downy shop, told Woman's Day about how she managed to continue the family business, how her craftswomen go through their everyday life and how to distinguish a fake from the original.
Our family has been doing down knitting for a very long time, for several generations. My grandmothers were from the village of Zheltoye, and there they teach children about down-knitting from early childhood, they even teach in schools. In the market in the village, along with their mothers and grandmothers, you can often meet little girls selling their own products. My mother was once among them. It was she who taught me all the art. Today, the Orenburg region has its own system of patterns and ornamental composition of shawls, therefore, even in appearance, one can distinguish an Orenburg downy shawl from others. In our family, so-called five-circular shawls are most often knitted, which differs from others in that there are five rhombuses in its center: one in the middle and four on the sides. There are also single-circle shawls and solid-center shawls.
Currently, about 10 craftswomen work for us, they are homeworkers. They knit products at home, and every week I stop by for ready-made scarves. They do not need any kind of training, they knit scarves all their lives, like many women from the villages and villages of the Orenburg region.
Sometimes we are written by unfamiliar powder flasks with a request to take their goods for sale. If their shawl is of good quality, made by hand from real Orenburg down, then we agree. This is how the younger generation began to cooperate with us - some of the graduates of the Orenburg Regional College of Culture and Arts (they teach there in the specialty "down knitting").
Thanks to social networks (VKontakte and Instagram), people from large cities began to learn about us. Some time ago (for the greater convenience of buyers), we decided to create our own website, which, in addition to the catalog of our products, contains all the necessary accompanying information (how to properly care for down products, where you can buy them, etc.). Moreover, this autumn, together with the Petersburg Parents Foundation, we took part in a charity event to help orphans.
The plans are to enter the international market. We have already had sales abroad, but I would also like to cooperate with stores located outside of Russia. China is one of the main targets.
How the Orenburg shawl is made
1. First, we visit local agricultural producers we get fluff, which is combed out by hand before selling. Then our craftswomen also manually rework the down, removing various impurities from it. Then the fluff is combed a few more times on a comb or comb in order to even more thoroughly clean it of small debris and gently straighten it.
2 ... The next step is spinning down... With the help of a spindle, a down-flap from already processed down prepares the thread for knitting a scarf. The thread is fixed at the base of the tool and twisted on it with rotational movements. The prepared downy thread from the spindle and the base - natural silk - are wound on a twisting spindle, on which the yarn is twisted (twisted). After that, the twisted thread is wound into a ball. As a rule, the finished shawl contains about 80% down and about 20% of the base. Only after that the craftswoman starts working with knitting needles.
3. Before start knitting, a downy tray is always determined with the pattern and dimensions of its future product. Despite the fact that the Orenburg region has developed its own system of patterns and ornamental composition of scarves, the craftswomen make some of their own changes and additions to decorative solutions, which gives each product an exclusivity. You will never come across two identical scarves, even if they were made by the same master. A ready-made Orenburg downy shawl consists of several parts: a middle, a lattice (located along the perimeter of the middle part) and a border with teeth. Only one element is knitted separately - the first tape with teeth, located at the bottom of the product. Everything else is made as one canvas.
4. When a scarf is tied, it is necessary twice wash in warm water. First, the scarf is soaked in soapy water for 20 minutes, then the product is gently squeezed out without twisting and the water is changed. When washing, it is advisable not to use washing powder, but to use liquid soap or shampoo; there are also special products for products made of down. Within 5 minutes, the scarf is lowered and removed from the washing solution. Then they also gently squeeze out and change the water. The second wash is no different from the first, only now they take less detergent. After that, rinse the product twice in warm water. Fluff bleaches can be used if needed.
5. After washing the handkerchief is dried on the hoop... It is pulled over the carnations of the hoop on the threads pre-threaded into the teeth. In this form, the scarf is kept all day, only in this case the shape of the product is preserved.
Did you know that on average, it takes about two weeks for a large downy shawl for experienced craftswomen, but the period may increase depending on its composition. It takes about 10 days to make an openwork stole for downy holders. One large shawl requires two balls of ready-to-spin down.
Against counterfeits!
There are a number of distinguishing features that can be used to determine the authenticity of a scarf. Very often, machine-knitted products are sold on the market, passing them off as manual work. However, a knitted product is easy to recognize.
1. Machine-knitted shawls have perfectly straight, tight cut, the product seems to be tougher to the touch. A handmade scarf is individual, you will not find exactly the same product: each hand-knitted loop is different from each other, and the scarf itself becomes soft and light.
2. Another distinctive feature of this handmade scarf is its lightness. An openwork stole weighs on average about 100 grams, and a warm shawl - only 300 grams.
3. In shops you can find colored down products. And this is also a clear sign of a fake (such scarves, as a rule, are produced in Uzbekistan and have nothing to do with genuine Orenburg products). Real Orenburg powder-flies knit shawls only in natural colors: white and gray, without the use of various rhinestones, beads and other things.
4. The price is also important. A handmade scarf cannot be cheap because it takes a lot of time and effort to make.
A bit of history
The down-knitting craft in Russia gained its popularity back in the 18th century. In the XIV century, European countries became interested in Orenburg products. France bought local down and made shawls at its factories, and the British company Linner organized an enterprise for the production of downy shawls of the Imitation for Orenburg series, despite the fact that the procurement and transportation of down was very expensive. Initially, downy shawls were knitted for themselves to keep warm from the cold steppe winters, reaching -40 degrees.
By and large, the knitting technology has not changed to this day, so now our products will be able to warm in such a frost. And since scarves also look beautiful, they can often be seen on the shoulders of not only ours, but also Hollywood celebrities. For example, at different times Madonna, Sean Young and Catherine Deneuve, Montserrat Caballe were published in down products from Orenburg ...
The Orenburg downy shawl, along with the Tula samovar, matryoshka, Khokhloma painting, Gzhel, Palekh, Vologda lace, Dymkovo toy, Rostov enamel, Ural malachite, is one of the symbols of Russia. Down knitting originated in the Orenburg region about 250 years ago, back in the 18th century. According to other sources, the indigenous population of these places already knitted down shawls from goat down before the formation of the Orenburg province. Its origins were not only the needlewomen, but also scientists, researchers, art enthusiasts. The first to turn his attention to the Orenburg downy shawls was P.I. Rychkov. In 1766 P.I. Rychkov published a study "Experience of goat hair", proposing to organize a down-knitting fishery in the region. Subsequently, academician P. P. Pekarsky, compiled a description of Rychkov's life, called him "the creator of that handicraft in the Orenburg Cossack army, which feeds more than one thousand people for the second century."
Outside of Orenburg, downy shawls became widely known after the meeting of the Free Economic Society on January 20, 1770. At this meeting, A. D. Rychkova was awarded a gold medal "in gratitude for her diligence towards society by collecting products from goat down."
Orenburg downy shawls abroad were first presented at the Paris International Exhibition in 1857. Thus, the Orenburg shawl reached the international level and received recognition there. In 1862, at the London exhibition, the Orenburg Cossack MN Uskova received a medal "For shawls from goat down."
The down of Orenburg goats is the thinnest in the world: the thickness of the down of Orenburg goats is 16-18 microns, of Angora goats (mohair) - 22-24 microns. Therefore, products made from Orenburg down - shawls and cobwebs - are especially delicate and soft. Severe frosty winters with snow and Orenburg blizzards - blizzards, as well as the feeding habits of the Orenburg goats - the vegetation of the mountain steppes of the Urals - are the main reasons why the breed of Orenburg goats has such a thin down. At the same time, this down is very durable - stronger than wool. The most surprising thing is that Orenburg goats are bred only in the Orenburg region. Attempts by the French in the 19th century to take the Orenburg goat out of the Volga region failed: goats need thin down to keep warm, and the mild climate of France did not contribute to this. Orenburg goats in France have degenerated into ordinary goats with coarse thick down. In the 18th-19th centuries, France exported tens of thousands of poods of Orenburg down, which was valued above the Kashmir down. Western Europe still buys a lot of Orenburg down.
The peak of popularity of the Orenburg cobwebs reached at the end of the development of the Russian Empire. At this time in England, products with the mark "Imitation for Orenburg" began to be made. But in our time, abroad, not only many notes and articles are published in foreign media, but whole books are also published about the history of fishing and knitting of Orenburg down products.
Orenburg shawls are of several types:
simple downy shawl (shawl) - gray (rarely white) thick warm downy shawls. It was with the manufacture of shawls that the Orenburg down-knitting trade began. The warmest kind of shawl. These scarves are used for everyday wear.
cobweb - an openwork product made of finely spun goat down and silk. Not used for everyday wear. It is used in solemn, festive occasions, since knitting patterns and techniques are much more complicated than a simple downy shawl. Usually, a cleaner and softer wool is used, which increases the cost of the product.
tippet - a thin scarf / cape, the knitting method and application is similar to a cobweb.
The cobweb and stole are very thin, like a cobweb, scarves. Thin cobwebs, as a rule, have a complex pattern and are used as decoration. The best thin cobwebs are knitted in the villages of Yellow and Shishma in the Saraktash region. Such a spider web will decorate any dress, regardless of the style. The fineness of the product is often determined by 2 parameters: whether the product passes through the ring and is placed in a goose egg. However, not every good product necessarily meets these conditions, since each craftswoman spins a thread of different thickness, sometimes preferring a thicker thread to a thin one. Silk (less often - viscose or cotton) thread is used as the basis for cobwebs, cotton (less often - lavsan) thread is used for shawls. In cobwebs, usually two-thirds of the fluff and one-third of the silk.
A good handmade scarf is knitted from twisted yarn: the craftswoman first spins a dense thread from goat down, and then strains it onto a silk (cotton) thread-base. Such a scarf - a spider web or shawl - does not initially look fluffy. The products begin to fluff during the process of wearing. Such a scarf is worn for a very long time.
A good craftswoman can knit two medium-sized cobwebs or three stoles in a month. It takes a month or more to make a large scarf or a scarf with a pattern or inscription. Each scarf is an original piece of art, into which a lot of creative work and patience of the down-knitters have been invested.
In the Orenburg region they knit not only by hand, but also by machines. Machine-made products are beautiful and less expensive, but cannot be compared to handmade scarves. When knitting, the machine "chops" the fluff, and the product becomes coarser. This shawl looks more like a very soft wool shawl. However, the middle of the scarf is knitted by some craftswomen on a typewriter, since in this case the middle of the product turns out to be smoother, but manual work is also valued higher in this case.
The largest collection of shawls is presented in the Museum of the History of the Orenburg Down Shawl, which is a branch of the Orenburg Regional Museum of Fine Arts.
According to one of the legends, the first Russian settlers who arrived in the Urals were surprised at the light dress of Kalmyk and Kazakh horsemen galloping across the endless steppes of the former Kirghiz-Kaisak Horde. The secret of resisting the fierce Ural frosts turned out to be unusual: as a lining for their light clothes, they used scarves knitted from goat down.
The scarves were sewn without any patterns, fulfilling only a utilitarian function: to keep their owner warm.
This approach to knitting downy shawls changed when Russian Cossack women got down to business, who began to apply patterns on downy products. Quite quickly, such an innovation became more and more widespread, and Orenburg downy shawls became known outside the region. The extraordinary down of the Orenburg goats, together with amazing patterns, won new admirers.
The real glory to the Orenburg downy shawl came in the 19th century. Village needlewomen began to receive international awards. Interest in the region increased so much that overseas merchants came to the distant Russian province for the fluff of famous goats.
Foreign companies tried to establish production in Europe and even South America. Goats were taken thousands of kilometers away, but it was surprising that already 2-3 years after the resettlement, the goats lost their best properties and brought down fluff, not much different from the fluff of ordinary goats. Only the frosty Ural climate was good for the Orenburg goats.
Desperate to get the Orenburg goats, foreigners began to buy down from Orenburg. The products were so famous that one of the English companies producing downy shawls made the mark "imitation for Orenburg" on them.
In the XX century, wars and the Iron Curtain of the Soviet era meant the end of the era of world fame for the Orenburg region. However, this did not mean the end of the development of the down-knitting trade. One of the innovations was the use of the down of both Orenburg and Volgograd goats. The down of Volgograd goats was well suited for knitting white shawls, which was appreciated by local needlewomen.
Another change was the founding of the Orenburg downy shawl factory. The craftswomen of the famous down-knitting regions became the masters of the workshop.
Saraktash craftswomen rightfully occupied a prominent place in the Factory. The use of machines opened up ample opportunities for experimentation: the ability to apply virtually any pattern to down products in a short time opened up room for imagination. The middle of the scarf was knitted even better than by hand.
Once again, as in the 19th century, the Orenburg downy shawl was in the spotlight, this time within the USSR. Coming from Orenburg without a downy shawl was considered disrespectful. Those leaving for Orenburg invariably received the same task: to bring the famous product home.
The factory received a large number of letters with the same request, but it almost always had to be refused with regret: the factory was not able to meet the demand even in the Orenburg region, there could be no talk of other regions. The Orenburg downy shawl has become a luxury.
Changes in the political and economic course of the country in the early 90s brought changes to the down knitting industry. The shortage of Orenburg products in other regions led to the fact that entrepreneurs began to transport downy shawls to remote regions of Russia, where the population's demand for Orenburg products was high even during the economic downturn.
However, it would be wrong to talk about the development of the fishery in the last 15 years. In addition to the deteriorating economic situation of the fishery, a new problem has emerged: counterfeits that have flooded the Russian markets. "A real Orenburg downy shawl", from which only cotton threads remain in a month, conquered the markets much faster than real products, spoiling the name of Orenburg.
On "real products from the Orenburg factory" the same "real" labels are glued. There is no need to talk about manual work: even in Orenburg, it is difficult for a layman to distinguish high-quality knitting.
The hope for the development of the fishery is sales to other regions and countries, because the products continue to amaze. Online shopping has become one of such opportunities.
It's nice when there is confidence that any resident of the country can find a place where he can buy down products, the origin of which is beyond doubt. Palantin.ru has become such an online store, presenting products from the famous Factory of Orenburg downy shawls and high-quality Orenburg downy shawls and handmade cobwebs.
What was considered a luxury until quite recently has become available to everyone. We hope that the Orenburg downy shawl has a great future ahead - a future based on centuries-old traditions.