Knitting a livelihood: This design studio helps women become self reliant

Sunita Tiwari of Uttarakhand used to work with a pharmaceutical company counting medicines bottles, day in and day out. It was not something that interested her particularly but an economic necessity: the sheer pressure of supporting her family . But Tiwari sought opportunities that both earned her an income  and also gave her job satisfaction.

Amazingly, the solution was something that she had never considered a vocation: the job of a knitter with a design studio in Almora, Uttarakhand. Like all women who have grown up in the hill areas, Sunita was taught knitting when she was a little girl and had been knitting for long, but for her family. What was a chore became a vocation for her. 

There are many like her in Almora, who are unaware of the monetary potential of their skill. And, that is what Peoli — a design studio that produces handmade, hand knitted, hand-sewn garments from Almora — is trying to bridge. An initiative of two textile designers, Abhinav Dhoundiyal and Vasanthi Veluri, the studio has been working with women in the hill town, upskilling them, and helping them earn a livelihood. 

The name Peoli stems from a Kumaoni folktale. Peoli was a young maiden who lived in the forest. She spent her days tending to the plants and trees of the forest with whom she shared a deep bond of love. One day, a prince who came to the forest for hunting, saw her and fell in love with the li (girl, in local language). They got married and she left the forest to live with him in the palace. Life at the palace, away from nature gradually made li sick and she eventually died. She was buried at a spot from where a plant with yellow flowers sprouted (Peo: Yellow). The spring-yellow coloured flower was named Peoli, in memory of the girl.

“The philosophy at Peoli has emerged from this love for nature. A strong belief in celebrating indigenous textile traditions forms the basis of our work approach. Simple, functional and aesthetic products have been derived from the local craft vocabulary using natural materials and dyes, for consumers who are sensitive about the resources used in the making of the item they purchase,” says 31-year-old Veluri. 

Veluri and Dhoundiyal were in the northeast in 2013, documenting craft, textile and natural dye traditions there when they had epiphany. “There was a sense of reviving what’s lost in time,” says Veluri. Dhoundiyal, being from Almora, was familiar with the people and market. “There was also this realisation that such traditional set ups require less infrastructural investment,” Veluri adds. That the women in hills were already knitting and earning a little through their sales, helped Veluri and Dhoundiyal to bring them on board. 

However, setting up a studio in a hill town has its own set of challenges. The weather can hinder the process of natural dyeing. Accessibility can be cumbersome and can cause delays in shipping orders or sourcing materials from outside the town. Getting women out of their homes and into the discipline of a workplace was another major challenge. “It took us a year to discipline them, make them understand uniformity in size and colour,” says Veluri adding, “often, families would just call them back home on the pretext of guests, etc.”

What started with two to three women working together in the workshop, now has over 30 working women. Their earnings range from Rs 3,500-Rs 11,000 a month depending on the number of hours and amount of work they put in. While it makes Veluri happy that their studio is able to provide an opportunity to earn, there have been times when they have had to refuse work for lack of space.

Proposing a locally fuelled model of sustainable development, Peoli sources indigenous raw materials like Harsil wool, Tibetan wool, nettle, and hemp from local farming communities. Ethically sourced materials like Eri silk, organic Kala cotton, Nagaland hill cotton and Merino wool imported from New Zealand are combined with indigenous materials to enhance their comfort and aesthetic appeal.

“Every activity at Peoli is a conscious effort towards conservation of natural resources and leaving a light carbon footprint in the process,” says Veluri. For instance, harvested rain water heated with solar energy is used for natural dyeing. Hand done processes like hand stitching, hand spinning, etc are used wherever possible to utilise the unlimited human energy and reduce dependence upon machines and non-renewable sources of energy. Earth-friendly chemicals and materials are used for the processing of textile materials.

Through Peoli, Veluri and Dhoundiyal are hoping to give maximum work to people, build a roadmap for naturally-dyed, handcrafted products and also make people mindful and conscious about how and what they produce. “We are not in the chase for fashion trends. We are only looking at promoting these slow processes,” says Veluri.