The African Knitting Revolution, Hand Carved Knitting Needles & a Goat wearing a Sweater Options

[Game Warden]

Thirty eight year old Tina Freeman (Mama Tina) tells her us about her two visits to Yamba, a small village in Tanzania which is supported by www.villageafrica.org.uk and how she took some knitting needles & some wool to teach the ladies a bit...

In April 2007 I set off to Tanzania, East Africa to fulfil a dream to teach in a rural African school. I would never of imagined that by taking a small bag of needles and wool that I would start what has been called by other volunteers ‘The Yamba Knitting Revolution’.

I did not expect that with the little skills I had the ladies would learn enough to put hats, socks and sweaters on their children, or that ladies who didn’t receive knitting needles would carve their own out of wood! I had no idea how grateful they would be either - I was told by a grateful bibi (grandma) that before I came her grandchildren were baridi sana (very cold) and now the ladies have been able to knit warm clothes for their watoto (children) – she said she thanks God for me coming. The ladies even thanked we with a gift of a goat – wearing a sweater!

I hadn’t imagined it was possible to teach abroad as I wasn’t a qualified teacher in England, but assured that I would receive sufficient TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training I was very excited at the prospect.

Before I left I collected a few things that I thought could be useful teaching aids and I was also given a knitting bag with about 14 pairs of knitting needles and a few odd balls of wool. As I was reading up about the placement, project and environment before my visit I was shocked to learn how cold it gets in the mountains – where I would be living and teaching. I heard how children with only the holey clothes on their backs would jump up and down to try and get warm before trying to go to sleep. So I thought with the wool and needles maybe I could show a few of the ladies in Yamba how to knit little squares and to sew them together to make blankets.

I thought, that even though I hadn’t knitted anything since I was very young (except a failed attempt to knit my son a scarf) I could manage to teach them how to knit a simple square: knit, knit, knit and maybe even purl.

After my cultural, health & safety and TEFL training I spoke to Caroline (the project leader) about my thoughts; she agreed it was a good idea since knitting needles are very hard to get in Tanzania and so announced it in Church. We suggested an initial group of 7 (so we could have 2 groups). It raised a lot of interest – even ladies from a village called Milingano wanted to come, a village at the bottom of the mountain, a 4 hour walk from somewhere that considerably warmer than Yamba.

The ladies were very keen to learn and hollered in gratitude in the ‘ai-ai-ai’ way when I gave each of them a pair of needles and a small ball of wool to practise with. The next week ladies who didn’t receive needles had carved their own, smooth, perfect sized wooden needles. They very soon learnt knit and purl, and it was at this time I realised I had forgotten how to cast off. As the squares took size and shape I had to remember – fast! (I later realised that it wasn’t the best way – but it worked).

The lessons were given weekly after school and I was only going to be in the village for 7 weeks. After about the 2nd lesson I heard that for some reason, they thought I was going to show them how to make a hat … a hat!! OK – I like a challenge. I thought – rib to start should be OK to teach, but a hat! I had brought a few knitted jumpers and cardigans with me, so I looked at those, had a few attempts and finally success! (Of sorts – it was sort of pixie styled – all pointy)

So, next lesson I showed them an example and they were very happy, knit 1, purl 1: rib, K1 row, P1 row, K2 tog (together), K … and they were away – I wrote a very simple pattern out 14 times (translated into Swahili) and by the next lesson I was presented with a sea of multi-coloured hats – not just completed, but stripy as well. By this time we were buying wool for them from town (Tanga 5 hrs away) to keep up.

And what did I hear they wanted to make next? – A sweater! A V-neck raglan sweater. I thought I could send them a pattern from the UK, maybe simplified, even translated, but it seemed that they really wanted to be shown. I made no promises, but looked at the examples I had brought and attempted to make a sweater myself, before attempting to teach them anything.

All I managed to show them before I had to leave was the V neck shape and roughly how to achieve it, if you had walked in on the lesson you would of thought I was teaching them how to knit a woollen bikini top! They now knew how to increase, decrease and pickup stitches and cast off, so I left them with a colour coded picture of a sweater in 4 parts, with v basic instructions on what part to join to what.

My example sweater was ‘finished’ in my little beach banda in Dar es Salaam on my last day in Tanzania 2007 and Caroline took it back to the village when she returned.

I heard, via email, long after my departure from Yamba that the ladies were still knitting and on a rather quiet Christmas Eve I received another email – this time with attachments – photos – of Yamba ladies and their children and their multi-coloured stripy V neck raglan sweaters. Tears came to my eyes – as they are now writing this.

This year in January I was fortunate to be able to return to Yamba – I learnt that they now have over 50 in their group and one of the original members is selling a little wool from her home. They still love to knit and one mother has even knitted trousers for her child.

They were keen to learn more and other ‘nearby’ villages had asked for teachers. I taught the ladies of Kwembalasi (3/4 hr walk down the mountain & ˝ hr by car) – guess what – they also wanted to learn how to make a sweater! Now, as well as sweaters, they know how to make hats and socks of sorts - I can’t follow patterns and we haven’t tackled ‘tension’, and they don’t speak English so we made it up as we went along and made the translator very tired.

Just before I left we held a knitting seminar to discuss the knitting in Yamba, what progress had been made and what had hampered progress and what else the ladies wanted to do with their new craft. They were already selling to one another, and had a small ‘shop’; a committee was formed at that meeting to be the voice of the group. Keen for development and with very little encouragement by the time I left they had made woollen fashion bags and sold them to some of the volunteers. We discussed with them the idea of forming a co-operative assisted by the committee enabling the co-operative to identify any needs they cannot meet themselves and to present them to the charity for discussion – such as getting other knitting / craft volunteers. They are very keen to be able to work on community projects funded by the work of the co-operative; they will now sell knitwear in the shop as well as wool.

They were so grateful and enthusiastic about the little I could show them; at the volunteers welcome party they even thanked me (Mama Tina to them) with dance and songs after the school, churches and local band had performed, and after that they presented me with a goat – wearing a sweater!

They would love a chance to learn more – preferably from someone who knows how to knit – properly! Or darn – or sew… And I would love to see them gain a little independence by being able to develop their skills, their shop and potentially their co-operative to help them alleviate the poverty in the village.

To read Safaritalk's interview with Caroline Johnston of Village Africa click here.

[Game Warden]

Thirty eight year old Tina Freeman (Mama Tina) tells her us about her two visits to Yamba, a small village in Tanzania which is supported by www.villageafrica.org.uk and how she took some knitting needles & some wool to teach the ladies a bit...

In April 2007 I set off to Tanzania, East Africa to fulfil a dream to teach in a rural African school. I would never of imagined that by taking a small bag of needles and wool that I would start what has been called by other volunteers ‘The Yamba Knitting Revolution’.

I did not expect that with the little skills I had the ladies would learn enough to put hats, socks and sweaters on their children, or that ladies who didn’t receive knitting needles would carve their own out of wood! I had no idea how grateful they would be either - I was told by a grateful bibi (grandma) that before I came her grandchildren were baridi sana (very cold) and now the ladies have been able to knit warm clothes for their watoto (children) – she said she thanks God for me coming. The ladies even thanked we with a gift of a goat – wearing a sweater!

I hadn’t imagined it was possible to teach abroad as I wasn’t a qualified teacher in England, but assured that I would receive sufficient TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training I was very excited at the prospect.

Before I left I collected a few things that I thought could be useful teaching aids and I was also given a knitting bag with about 14 pairs of knitting needles and a few odd balls of wool. As I was reading up about the placement, project and environment before my visit I was shocked to learn how cold it gets in the mountains – where I would be living and teaching. I heard how children with only the holey clothes on their backs would jump up and down to try and get warm before trying to go to sleep. So I thought with the wool and needles maybe I could show a few of the ladies in Yamba how to knit little squares and to sew them together to make blankets.

I thought, that even though I hadn’t knitted anything since I was very young (except a failed attempt to knit my son a scarf) I could manage to teach them how to knit a simple square: knit, knit, knit and maybe even purl.

After my cultural, health & safety and TEFL training I spoke to Caroline (the project leader) about my thoughts; she agreed it was a good idea since knitting needles are very hard to get in Tanzania and so announced it in Church. We suggested an initial group of 7 (so we could have 2 groups). It raised a lot of interest – even ladies from a village called Milingano wanted to come, a village at the bottom of the mountain, a 4 hour walk from somewhere that considerably warmer than Yamba.

The ladies were very keen to learn and hollered in gratitude in the ‘ai-ai-ai’ way when I gave each of them a pair of needles and a small ball of wool to practise with. The next week ladies who didn’t receive needles had carved their own, smooth, perfect sized wooden needles. They very soon learnt knit and purl, and it was at this time I realised I had forgotten how to cast off. As the squares took size and shape I had to remember – fast! (I later realised that it wasn’t the best way – but it worked).

The lessons were given weekly after school and I was only going to be in the village for 7 weeks. After about the 2nd lesson I heard that for some reason, they thought I was going to show them how to make a hat … a hat!! OK – I like a challenge. I thought – rib to start should be OK to teach, but a hat! I had brought a few knitted jumpers and cardigans with me, so I looked at those, had a few attempts and finally success! (Of sorts – it was sort of pixie styled – all pointy)

So, next lesson I showed them an example and they were very happy, knit 1, purl 1: rib, K1 row, P1 row, K2 tog (together), K … and they were away – I wrote a very simple pattern out 14 times (translated into Swahili) and by the next lesson I was presented with a sea of multi-coloured hats – not just completed, but stripy as well. By this time we were buying wool for them from town (Tanga 5 hrs away) to keep up.

And what did I hear they wanted to make next? – A sweater! A V-neck raglan sweater. I thought I could send them a pattern from the UK, maybe simplified, even translated, but it seemed that they really wanted to be shown. I made no promises, but looked at the examples I had brought and attempted to make a sweater myself, before attempting to teach them anything.

All I managed to show them before I had to leave was the V neck shape and roughly how to achieve it, if you had walked in on the lesson you would of thought I was teaching them how to knit a woollen bikini top! They now knew how to increase, decrease and pickup stitches and cast off, so I left them with a colour coded picture of a sweater in 4 parts, with v basic instructions on what part to join to what.

My example sweater was ‘finished’ in my little beach banda in Dar es Salaam on my last day in Tanzania 2007 and Caroline took it back to the village when she returned.

I heard, via email, long after my departure from Yamba that the ladies were still knitting and on a rather quiet Christmas Eve I received another email – this time with attachments – photos – of Yamba ladies and their children and their multi-coloured stripy V neck raglan sweaters. Tears came to my eyes – as they are now writing this.

This year in January I was fortunate to be able to return to Yamba – I learnt that they now have over 50 in their group and one of the original members is selling a little wool from her home. They still love to knit and one mother has even knitted trousers for her child.

They were keen to learn more and other ‘nearby’ villages had asked for teachers. I taught the ladies of Kwembalasi (3/4 hr walk down the mountain & ˝ hr by car) – guess what – they also wanted to learn how to make a sweater! Now, as well as sweaters, they know how to make hats and socks of sorts - I can’t follow patterns and we haven’t tackled ‘tension’, and they don’t speak English so we made it up as we went along and made the translator very tired.

Just before I left we held a knitting seminar to discuss the knitting in Yamba, what progress had been made and what had hampered progress and what else the ladies wanted to do with their new craft. They were already selling to one another, and had a small ‘shop’; a committee was formed at that meeting to be the voice of the group. Keen for development and with very little encouragement by the time I left they had made woollen fashion bags and sold them to some of the volunteers. We discussed with them the idea of forming a co-operative assisted by the committee enabling the co-operative to identify any needs they cannot meet themselves and to present them to the charity for discussion – such as getting other knitting / craft volunteers. They are very keen to be able to work on community projects funded by the work of the co-operative; they will now sell knitwear in the shop as well as wool.

They were so grateful and enthusiastic about the little I could show them; at the volunteers welcome party they even thanked me (Mama Tina to them) with dance and songs after the school, churches and local band had performed, and after that they presented me with a goat – wearing a sweater!

They would love a chance to learn more – preferably from someone who knows how to knit – properly! Or darn – or sew… And I would love to see them gain a little independence by being able to develop their skills, their shop and potentially their co-operative to help them alleviate the poverty in the village.

To read Safaritalk's interview with Caroline Johnston of Village Africa click here.

[Nyamera]

I’ve always known that I sooner or later would come to regret not taking textile handicraft seriously at school.

[Game Warden]

Tina has sent me further photographs:

The ladies involved are, from Tina's email:

Bisura - she helped me teach the ladies how to the make the bags - as I didn't know & she is very shy.

Aloisia who is a disabled seemstress who lives close to Caro.

Renata who is holding baby Caroline Makihyio

Melania who is Mum to Baby Doug (so named after a recent Volunteer) - the cutest, though very small baby you have ever seen & who volunteers just fall in love with.

All of whom I met on my visit last year & whom I have taught.

The picture of the lady with the pink striped bloomer style knitted pants / shorts is Tansilia, she designed these herself. I think she looks stunning in her bright african orange colours.

The friendship blanket is being held up by me & some of the ever growing knitting / crotchet group (with all the faces mentioned above in there somewhere).

The very young girl on her own (taken outside) is Leah, she lives in Schule also, and is always about with her bright smile.

[loriann]

Hello! I am new to this site and I am so glad I found it! I love this news story, I think these women have been given so much more than learning a new skill!(wonderful Tina!) The smiles on everyones faces, the sense of accomplishment these lovely ladies must feel will hopefully spill over(and grow)into other areas of their lives. i am a knitter too and i've always felt that i've gotten way more out of it than i've put into it. Since this has been such a blessing in my life, i'm so happy when I can show someone else how to have this lifelong pleasure too. I wish I could be the next teacher!

Peace + Love + Lori