Tools for Processing Down and Knitting

The history of knitting goes back centuries. Preserved knitted items have come down to us from the 19th century BC. Probably the first knitters used their own fingers to make knitted items. In 1776, the Russian researcher P. I. Rychkov wrote the work "Experiments with Goat Wool" on the historical aspect of the origin of Orenburg shawls.

The tools used to knit them were invented long before this type of folk craft appeared. Let's look at the tools with which a down shawl is born.

To get a fine thread into the craftswoman's hands, goat hair was combed out with a special comb and then spun on spindles. The comb was knocked together from three boards in the shape of an isosceles triangle. At its top, 2 rows of needles were driven in, sticking up with their points. Recently, only about fifty years ago, the comb was replaced by a more modern version called "cheski". Their other names are also unusual and make you smile – "khlopalki", "dralki", "grebenki". These tools looked very much like wooden spatulas and also had several rows of needles made of stiff wire and bent to one side.

Remember the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty"? It was on a spindle that the princess pricked her delicate fingers. Yarn was spun from light down on spindles with a thin tip, about 16–20 cm long. To combine the down thread with the silk or cotton thread, a longer spindle was used – about 30 cm. A little later, spinning wheels appeared. But the thread produced on such a wheel was coarser and thicker. If cotton or silk thread was also added to it, such down items were called "zapryad". Unfortunately, such items did not last very long; the down wore off quickly.

Knitting tools also include a special little bowl for the spindle. The bowl helps the spindle rotate while limiting the area of its rotation. An ordinary cup or a bowl with smooth sides, in which the spindle can turn freely around its axis, can also be adapted.

Of course, special attention should be paid to knitting needles. They come in different diameters, which makes it possible to create items of different knitting density from threads of different thickness. There is a device that helps the knitter – a weight attached to the bottom of the shawl to pull the fabric down. Down thread is rather capricious, so craftswomen use a winding base in the form of a cardboard circle, which allows them to make a ball without tangling the threads while knitting.

Well, the down shawl is ready, and now it must be washed and the finished item stretched on a wooden frame called "pyaltsy" ("pyaly"). After drying, the shawl will take on the correct shape. Special removable fasteners are used to stretch items of different sizes. And yet the main thing is the hands of a true craftswoman, who puts a part of her warmth into the down shawl.