About Pyotr Rychkov and His Work "An Essay on Goat Wool"

Orenburg down shawls, as well as light gossamer shawls and stoles have been knitted by experienced down knitters for more than a century. In historical sources you can find information that the founder of the craft was Pyotr Ivanovich Rychkov's wife, Alyona Denisovna. However, no exact data on this fact have been found.

But the name of Pyotr Ivanovich himself is immortalised not only in the history of the whole Orenburg region but also directly in the development of the unique and amazing craft of down knitting. As the first corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a famous historian and researcher, Pyotr Ivanovich Rychkov is rightly honoured with the title "Columbus of the Orenburg Governorate".

He was one of the first scholars to take an interest in the unique properties of the wool and down of Orenburg goats. Studying the properties of this unique material, which has no equivalent anywhere in the world, Pyotr Ivanovich visited herdsmen grazing their flocks in order to study the features of the down of animals living in captivity and in the wild. The researcher also paid attention to the primitive goat wool and down items that goat breeders used in everyday life.

Having summarised the materials collected, Pyotr Rychkov prepared a special report for the Academy of Sciences with an economic proposal to comb goat down for subsequent knitting of various items. The study "An Essay on Goat Wool" was first published in 1766 in the "Proceedings of the Free Economic Society". In this publication, Pyotr Rychkov set out his proposals on the need to organise a new craft – down knitting – in the Orenburg region. In the researcher's opinion, this occupation would bring many benefits to the population of the Orenburg region. Unfortunately, the researcher's works were not given much importance at the time.

However, the Rychkovs continued to develop the craft on their own. In the village of Spasskoye in the Bugulma Uyezd, the Rychkovs' house hospitably opened its doors to everyone who wanted to learn down knitting. Alyona Denisovna gathered local Cossack women in the local historian's house. The training was quite long and troublesome, but Alyona Denisovna's patience and selflessness helped accustom the local population to down knitting.

The joint efforts led to success. And soon the craftswomen began to produce openwork items – gossamer shawls of incredible beauty. The best works were presented to the judgement of the All-Russian Free Economic Society. Needless to say, the items made a huge impression, and in 1770 Rychkov's wife received a gold medal as an award for her work. Perhaps it was this event that gave impetus to the rapid development of down knitting in all the Cossack villages of the Orenburg region.

Every pattern of Orenburg down items is distinctive and unique. Craftswomen keep the secrets of their skill and special working techniques secret and pass them on only from generation to generation. After all, knitting a good shawl is quite difficult. It depends not only on the down knitter's skill, abilities and experience but also directly on the quality of the down. Proper keeping and grazing of goats remains an important condition. At the end of winter – beginning of spring, the process of combing out the long down with combs begins. Then it is passed through sparse and fine combs. This is done to separate the fibres from the clumps as much as possible. But the process does not end there; it only begins. Hair by hair, the craftswomen pick all the fibres out of the down. Only after that does the process of rolling the down into small hanks begin, which are spun on spindles. Then follow the twisting of the threads and winding them into balls.

Only after this can the craftswoman start knitting – creating a new masterpiece of incredible beauty and uniqueness, an openwork stole or a gossamer shawl. On average, an experienced down knitter can knit one shawl in 250 hours. The titanic labour of the craftswomen and the magnificent quality of Orenburg down items are appreciated all over the world, and people admire their unrivalled skill and amazing beauty.