TIFFANY'S BLOG .notes.about.pixels.and.stitch.: John Dunsmore Travel Scholarship

A big thank you to Susie Dunsmore who set up this scholarship.

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This is a little summary of my experience in Nepal...

After 4 days in Kathmandu, Rebecca and I took a little plane from Kathmandu to Tumlingtar airport (1 hour), a jeep to Kambari (2 hours), stayed over night and started walking, stopping over to rest for the night and finally reached Bala the next afternoon. (Which might not seem long but it felt ages!) We took a bath in the river and had the rest of the day to settle in.

The next day we met the group of women we were to work with. We started with a little drawing session to get into the swing of things. The women were not too keen on drawing and wanted to get on with making a product.

I had already looked around the craft shops in Kathmandu. Craft shops like Ama Craft, Folk Nepal, etc. The women in Bala had made lots of different nettle products over the years. Belts, hats, bags, table mats, cloth for garment products, sandals, etc. but the product which the majority of women seemed to like to make most were shawls.

I found out the reason being these shawls were knitted and it was easy for them knit while walking, or when they had a few minutes to spare between their many chores and responsibilities. Although the weaving centre was well equipped with looms, weaving was less popular.

Although I had prepared myself for a fair amount of knitters, I was overwhelmed by the number of women who opted for the "knitting group" when we split into 2 groups. The brief of the John Dunsmore Travel Scholarship was to come up with a product using the nettle fiber that was grown locally a few hours away, making it into either for a local, tourist of export product.

The next day, it was time for me to come up with a product. I had a few things to consider:

1. A product suitable for the market (local or export)

2. A product using the skills the women had

3. A product that could be resolved in the next 3 days!

Since knitting was what the women preferred, the product would have to be knitted. With the little amount of time we had together, I knew I couldn't teach them anything too complicated and had to base the design of the product on the knitting skills they already had.

These colourful traditional woven bags (a personal collection of the local women) gave me the idea to make knitted bags.

I thought of using the knitting skills and lace designs the women had been using, incorporating them into the design of the bag.

Nettle fibre although has a lovely natural colour, I though it would be interesting to add a bit of colour. Dyeing was too lengthy a process so I tried putting coloured fabrics behind the lace knits which worked well as it kept the natural colour of the nettle yarn and enhanced the delicate lace patterns.

I liked the woven bamboo straps on the sturdy baskets the Nepalese use to transport items and asked if any of the women could make one using nettle yarn. It was the craft of men and only one woman in the group knew that plaiting method.

She showed us how and it was rather complicated but a few of us had a go, anchoring one end between our toes.

Here is a sample which I put together but cutting up a shawl (already chewed up by rats!), putting a piece of fabric in as lining, and using plaiting technique for the strap.

I thought to knit the bag in a circular knit would save time sewing up the sides so I showed the women the magic cast-on method. We didn't have any proper double pointed knitting needles so we improvised and used a pack of wooden barbeque sticks. One end was already pointed so we just had to sharpen the other end.