How and Why Did the "Zapryad" Spinning Method Appear?

It is important to understand that the down-knitting craft went through many different stages on its long path. While at the beginning of the 19th century (until about 1870, according to archival data) no more than 200–300 people in the entire Orenburg Governorate were engaged in the down-knitting craft, later their number began to grow rapidly, and by 1904, according to official data, it reached 12,180 people, and sales of down items exceeded 489 thousand roubles.

Since there were no centralised down artels or even well-organised partnerships at that time, and there is always someone who wants to get their hands on such a profitable business, by the 1910s middlemen, who were rarely honest, had actively joined the process. Taking advantage of the acute shortage of raw material that arose at the same time, they sold it to knitters at exorbitant prices, and often on credit, thus driving them into bonded dependence. Finished items, meanwhile, were bought up at such a low price that at times it did not even cover the cost of the down, let alone the labour of the craftswomen themselves. For example, according to a record made in 1913 in a report of the Orenburg Cossack Host, in the settlement of Novo-Orsky buyers paid craftswomen 1 rouble for a shawl that took 8 to 10 full working days to make.

Since the home craftswomen had to adapt to the price (at that time the market was almost entirely captured by those very middlemen), this inevitably affected the quality of Orenburg down shawls. At first they tried to knit items as small as possible, with sparse knitting and poorly processed down. Then they came up with the nezapryad spinning method (that very "slapdash work"). The result was items that looked quite decent, but in wear they showed themselves at their worst: they shed, prickled and did not stand the test of time at all. This situation led to an "upheaval" on the down shawl market. Truly high-quality down shawls were in acute shortage, and the price of individual pieces exceeded the wholesale price by 10–100 times.

With the appearance of centralised down production, artels and, ultimately, the "Orenburg Shawl Kombinat", the situation eventually normalised. The artel paid decent remuneration and took care of its employees. Over time, a system of incentives, state competitions and awards appeared. The craftswomen's lives returned to normal, and high-quality down items finally returned to the market.

Today, after the decline of the down-knitting craft in the 1990s, the craft is gaining momentum again. A number of organisations, including ours, are engaged in reviving and supporting it, trying to supply truly high-quality items to the market and to provide craftswomen with decent working conditions.