The Russian Old Lady At The Roadside Booth Sold Knitwear On Ins.

If you are lucky enough to visit Russia, you will see many Russian women in the street stalls except the long legged little sister and the unique ice and snow landscape.

These elderly women often haunt the sidewalk corners in various Russian cities and sell manual woven fabrics of only a few rubles to supplement their meager pensions.

But recently, more and more Russian women are saying goodbye to this income roadside booth. The handmade adult and children's knitted garments have also been pferred from the corner of the roadside to a Instagram account named @russiangrannies.

The account was founded by a 27 year old Russian woman, Yulia Aliyeva, and now has more than 5000 fans.

According to the introduction of Yulia Aliyeva, the opportunity to launch this account is a project called Granny's, which aims to change the public's perception of Russian family knitting skills by publicizing "grandma fashion" and to help older women sell their knitted gloves, socks and other items online.

"The fact that grandma can make money online has broken the stereotypes," Aliyeva told Agence France-Presse in an interview. Her 85 year old grandmother is one of the weavers. "If it hadn't been for this project, these old women could not have done it themselves."

As soon as this project was launched, it also attracted many folk weaves from the streets and lanes.

Nina Lozhkova, 58, is one of the participants in the Granny's project.

"I've always wanted to sell my knitwear, but it's a bit humiliating to sell things in the subway," Lozhkova said of Granny's. "Here, I think I am a creator, not a poor man."

She has a six year old grandson, one of the 40 retirees who have joined the Granny's program so far in St Petersburg.

And this project did bring a lot of money to these old women.

The website offers a range of costumes and accessories, some of which are sold for only a few dollars, and some of the more luxurious goods are priced at around $180. The most expensive ones are Merino wool or Peru wool.

Sometimes, these older women will sell their knitted goods directly on the Internet, and set the price by themselves, and if they meet the requirement of knitting customers for specific orders, they will set the price by Aliyeva, buy the necessary raw materials and charge 10% Commission.

Among the women aged between 55 and 87, enterprising people earn $450 to $1000 a month, compared with an average monthly pension of only 200 dollars in Russia.

"By buying our products, you are supporting someone's grandmother."

Aliyeva explains that when the account is released, it will also publish some touching details of the Weaver's life, family and past career.

In fact, behind the project is the pension deficit problem that has broken out in Russia in recent years.

Many Russians have to work beyond the national pension age to get the cost of living. In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to raise the national pension age by five years (that is, the increase of women to 60 years, and men to 65 years old), which aroused great anger among the Russian public.

Yelena Tretyakova is the first pensioner to join Granny's. Although the change in the age of the national pension does not affect her long retirement, the project is still crucial to her stable source of life.

"If you retire, you can hardly find other jobs," Yelena Tretyakova said. "And my situation is more complicated. I can only work at home."

Tretyakova, who is 56 years old, needs to help her daughter raise a disabled son who is 14 years old, but her monthly pension is only about 171 dollars.

With the help of Granny's, today's Tretyakova can earn about $1005 a month through online sales of knitted pullovers and other expensive items, which is a huge sum of money for her.

For Aliyeva, in addition to helping older women, she also hopes that the project will attract public attention to Russian grandmothers who play a sacred role in family life.

"In Russia, grandmothers usually play a very important role - they take care of grandchildren, make delicious food and knit socks," Aliyeva said. "But they have very little pensions, and it is hard for them to find jobs after leaving their jobs.

With the spread of news, some granny from Urals and Northern Russia joined the project.