Orenburg state university

Orenburg downy shawls

The Orenburg down shawls are the landmarks of the Orenburg region and symbols of Russia. In the English-speaking world they are often called "wedding ring shawls" because although the shawls are quite large, a shawl knit in the traditional fashion can be pulled through a wedding ring because the knitting is so fine.

According to a legend, the first Russian migrants who arrived in the Urals about 300 years ago were astonished with the light warm clothes of the local Kalmyk and Kazakh people that helped them to withstand severe winters in the boundless steppes. The secret was that they used special backing under their light clothes — it was a shawl without any pattern sewed from goat fur.

Real glory to the Orenburg downy shawl arrived in the XIX century when rural needle women began to work with different patterns and turned this craft into a real art. Some pieces of work obtained international rewards and the overseas merchants arrived to the distant Russian province for the down of these famous goats. Foreign companies attempted to create production in Europe and even South America. The goats were taken thousands of kilometers away, but after 2-3 years the goats lost their specialty. It turned out that only frosty Ural climate was good for the Orenburg goats.

After not being able to obtain and maintain Orenburg goats, the foreigners started to decrease their spending from Orenburg.

There are several kinds of Orenburg shawls. The firsts are the grey (seldom white) thick down hair shawls. It was these shawls that gave start to Orenburg down-hair knitting. Secondly, there are also quite dense kerchiefs and pautinkas. They are used for every day wear and they give similar warmth as the shawls. The third kind of Orenburg kerchiefs are very thin as "spider line" — pautinkas and tippets. As a rule thin pautinkas have fancy patterns and are used as decorations for any evening dress of whatever style.

Pautinka knitters use rayon silk thread and for shawls they use cotton thread. A good knitter can knit two kerchiefs — pautinkas ("spider lines") of medium size or three tippets a month. It will take a month or more to knit a shawl of a large size, or a kerchief with pattern or inscription. Having in mind the high cost of down hair and yarn it should be noted that an original hand-made Orenburg shawl or kerchief cannot be cheap. Each shawl or kerchief — pautinka is an original piece of art which needed much work and patience of down-hair knitters. Each knitter has her own secrets and patterns. At the heart of the traditional pattern of the Orenburg shawl there are many ancient magic symbols. Each shawl presents a picture of the universe the way every knitter imagines it.

The foundation of the Orenburg factory of downy shawls in 1960 became another step in the shawls production. The use of machines revealed great possibilities for experimenting and the possibility to bring any pattern to the downy shawl in a shorter amount of time. Besides shawls and kerchiefs, there are also other products that are knitted today from Orenburg down hair such as: sleeveless jackets, ponchos, downy and very warm sweaters.