Russian Shawls Popular

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 2

Russian Shawls Popular

The Russian film of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” has started a popular trend for shawls, writes Anatoii Prazdnikov, a Novosti correspondent. After the release of the film in the Soviet Union, letters began to arrive at the town of Penza, in the centre of European Russia. The popularity of the Penza shawl, made of goat down, is more than 100 years old. The shawls are about four feet square, weigh only about four or five ounces, and, when folded, can be pulled through a wedding ring. They are warm, practical, beautiful, and each has a unique pattern.

The small down-knitting factory in the village of Olenevka is the centre of the shawl-making industry, and there they produce about 7000 shawls a year. Ordinary shawls are made by machine, but the best ones are handknitted. Each of about 450 knitters has a preference for certain patterns, but none believe in copying.'

Each knitter makes about 23 or 24 shawls a year, and traditionally the work is passed down through the family. The method for making the shawls is simple. The goat’s down is combed, then spun into a thin thread. Three of these are twisted into a yarn from which the garment is knitted. When it is made, it is washed and stretched on a special frame in the same way it has been done for centuries.