Stamp of Russia 2013 No 1715 Orenburg shawl

The Orenburg shawl is a Russian knitted lace textile using goat down and stands as one of the classic symbols of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

handicraft, along with Tula

samovar A samovar (, , ) is a metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water. Although originating in Russia, the samovar is well known outside of Russia and has spread through Russian culture to other parts of Eastern Europe, as well as We ...

s, the Matrioshka doll, Khokhloma painting, Gzhel ceramics, the Palekh miniature, Vologda lace, Dymkovo toys, Rostov finift (enamel), and Ural malachite.

Origins

This type of finely

knit Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: ...

, down-hair

lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is split into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...

shawl A shawl (from ''shāl'') is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular piece of Textile, cloth, but can also be Square (geometry), square or tr ...

originated in the Orenburg area about 250 years ago, in the 18th century. The

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

region of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

is famous for its shawls, known as Orenburg shawls/scarves/ "Orenburgskyi Platok" in Russian. 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 is so fine that it can be pulled through a wedding ring.

Composition

The shawls are made from a blend of

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

and indigenous

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

fiber Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often inco ...

, similar to cashmere or

mohair Mohair (pronounced ) originated from the Arabic word �هيرand it is a fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat (not Angora wool from the fur of the Angora rabbit). Both durable and resilient, mohair is lustrous with high shee ...

. Harsh climate and the specific features of the area created perfect conditions for successful breeding of the Guberlinskoy breed that has a light, warm, soft, silky and long-fiber fluff. This particular type of wool is exclusively peculiar to this breed. The goats are brushed each spring to collect the fiber. Each goat gives off about a pound of fiber. The fiber is then handspun using a supported spindle. It is then

plied In the textile arts, plying (from the French verb ''plier'', "to fold", from the Latin verb ''plico'', from the ancient Greek verb .) is a process of twisting one or more strings (called strands or plies) of yarn together to create a stronger yarn ...

against a commercial

thread. The silk helps hold the shape of the lace, preventing it from needing to be blocked as often as it would without the silk. Originally the shawls were made entirely of goat fiber, but this changed. By plying with one silk single and one goat, the price of the shawls decreased, because the labor required to produce a shawl decreased. The silk also increased the strength of the shawl.

Shawls

After the yarn has been spun and plied, the shawl is then knitted before washing the yarn. The yarn and fiber are not washed until the shawl has been knitted and is ready for blocking and sale. The shawls are knitted into a variety of geometric designs. The shawls are made in many shapes: rectangular, square and triangular. The size varies from a 5 ft by 5 ft square shawls to a headscarf-sized ones. Color varies depending on the coloring of the goats. Some shawls contain more than one color.

Qualities

The down hair of Orenburg goats is among the thinnest in the world – 16-18 micrometers (angora rabbit fiber is 14-17 micrometers and muskox quiviut is 11-17 micrometers). Products made of Orenburg down hair are therefore especially soft and fine. The thinness of hair is partly due to the severe snowy winters of the Ural mountain

steppes In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropical gr ...

, along with particular qualities of feed and living conditions. The Orenburg goat breed can be reared only in the Orenburg region. Despite being so fine, the fiber is very durable, more so than wool. The efforts of the French in the 19th century to import Orenburg goats were unsuccessful, as the warm climate of France was not suitable for the development of the fine down hair. Accordingly, Orenburg goats in France degenerated into ordinary goats with rough thick down hair. In the 18th and 19th centuries, France imported tens of thousands of poods (пуд) (an old Russian measure of weight equal to about 36 pounds) of Orenburg goat down hair, which was valued more highly than cashmere. The Orenburg shawl became popular in Europe through an enterprise “Imitation a la Orenburg” organized by an English firm “Lipner”.

20th century

In the 20th century, the wars and the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...

of the Soviet Era cut short the epoch of the worldwide fame of Orenburg’s handicraft. However, it did not mean the end of down-knitting handicraft in the region. One of the innovations introduced at that time was the combined use of down wool of both Orenburg and Volgograd goats. The local knitters realised the down of Volgograd goats was very good for knitting white shawls. Another achievement was the foundation of the Orenburg Downy Shawls Plant. Again, as in the 19th century, Orenburg shawls attracted attention, this time within the limits of the USSR. It was considered inappropriate to return from Orenburg without a downy shawl. Western Europe is still buying large quantities of Orenburg goat down hair.

Variations

The “web” like structure of the shawl endows the fabric with a special grace. Even though the shawl is large in size and weights 250-300 grams, it can be passed through a wedding ring and easily fits into a shell of a goose egg. There are several kinds of Orenburg shawls. The first is the grey (seldom white) thick down hair shawls. These shawls started the tradition of Orenburg down-hair knitting. The second is the quite dense kerchiefs and ''pautinkas''. They are used for everyday wear and they give a similar warmth to shawls. Such pautinkas are knitted in the Orsk region. The third kind of Orenburg shawls is very thin (compared with “spider web” pautinkas and

tippet A tippet is a piece of clothing worn over the shoulders in the shape of a scarf or cape. Tippets evolved in the 1300–1400 in fashion, fourteenth century from long sleeves and typically had one end hanging down to the knees. A tippet (or tapp ...

s). As a rule thin pautinkas have fancy patterns and are used as decoration on special occasions. The best thin pautinkas are knitted in the settlements of Zholtoje and Shushma of Sarakhtash District. Such pautinkas are considered a fine decoration for any style of evening dress. As a warp for pautinkas, knitters use rayon silk thread and for shawls they use cotton thread. Each knitter spins threads of different thickness. In pautinkas there are usually two-thirds of down hair and one-third of rayon silk thread. Beside shawls and kerchiefs, there are also other products that are knitted today from Orenburg down hair: sleeveless jackets, ponchos, downy and very warm sweaters.

Special features

A quality shawl is knitted from hand-spun yarn: the knitter will spin a strong down hair yarn and then ply it with commercially spun silk thread. Such a shawl or kerchief will not look downy when first made. They start to develop a halo when they are worn, and will last for many years. 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 large shawl or a kerchief with a pattern or inscription. Because of the high cost of down hair and yarn, an original hand-made Orenburg shawl or kerchief is an expensive luxury item.

References

External links

Video and Historical background of Orenburg goat down knitted shawlsOrenburg Downy ShawlsBooks about the Orenburg scarfs and Estonian shawls.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orenburg Shawl 18th-century fashion 19th-century fashion Lace Knitted garments Russian inventions Textile arts of Russia