One for my Tuesday night knit group

Nanyuki Spinners and Weavers Project:

Established in 1976, by six determined local Kenyan women, to help other women in the region. Over the past 37 years, the project has grown to well over 100 women, who came to the center to receive training in wool crafts. Many of them have children so, after receiving training, they can work from their homes with the permission of the director.

This is an impressive oasis, with several open, airy buildings full of light, each for a different process. Women walk calmly across the campus between the buildings and the kitchen garden, chatting and laughing. Clearly something has gone right here. I immediately felt the camaraderie of women working together.

The women do everything from carding to spinning to plying to cleaning to dying to weaving the merino wool that is purchased from herders in the region. The director (a dignified, elderly woman by the name of Annah Waruteri) has developed a strong international market for the products made through the center. Prices are clearly fair trade, and 75% of the profits go to the woman who made the product, with the remaining 25% going back into the co-operative, for maintenance and development. The current board (3 people from the community, 3 from the Presbyterian church, and 3 from the municipality) is pressuring Annah to give a percentage of the profits to them as well, but she is digging in her heels and pointing to the original agreement, stating that the land and program was intended for the benefit of local women participating in the project. She worries what will happen after she is gone, and if the new director will be able to stand up to the board.

The women working at the project seemed genuinely content with what they do, and they make a fair wage that allows them to live a decent life. I imagine there are many such projects, but this is the first I have seen in action, that appears to be benefiting its members holistically. And Wow! It was started and is maintained by the women themselves; not an NGO, not a church, but by the local women themselves. And the products are quite lovely, and well made. Bravo!

The spinning wheels come from New Zealand, as do the table looms. All the other equipment is made locally

Making 2 ply
Skein making before washing. The skeins are washing in 4 stages, without chemicals. The white is truly white, and quite soft for merino

Hand dying with natural sources and alum as mordant. The pale aqua comes from….something surprising, I can’t remember what! Maybe someone in the knit group knows? The cactus with the white fuzzy stuff – the cochineal is in the white coating…
The compound is about 8 acres, with an open, light filled, airy building for each part of the process, a kitchen garden, and strong women doing so etching they enjoy for a living wage.

Director Annah