Faith Owiti has been crocheting sweaters as a hobby since childhood. Back then, she would do it with ‘makuti’ needles and simple yarn to kill idle time.
But little did she know that her hobby would in future turn to be her source of income, despite having graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science from Egerton University, Njoro in 2016.
By August 2016, her internship at one of the local NGOs in Kisumu wound up, giving her more time to do the knitting and crochet art work.
Her father, Jacob Owiti first noticed the skills she had, and so linked her with one of his friends at Winam near Maseno University city campus to sharpen her skills.
The lady had set up a shop, making and selling mats using yarn. From her she learned to make woolen mats. "But my interest was how to knit and crochet yarn items. I started doing online research on YouTube channels and finally found what I was looking for," said the entrepreneur.
By 2017 she had mastered the skills of making various items by knitting and crocheting. "I had started making various kinds of products for my friends and they loved it," she said.
From the online tutorials Ms Owiti learned how to choose and design the patterns, knitting the parts of sweater pieces, adjusting the fit, finishing seaming and blocking.
With the numerous tutorials available online, she quickly perfected making of various yarn products such as hats, sweaters, blankets, swimwear, mats, and shawl among many items.
During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020, Ms Owiti started maximising on the online tutorials and even launched her own YouTube channel named Dream Crochet.
"It was in August 2020 when I started uploading my own tutorial to the world. Today I have 11,000 followers on YouTube," she said.
Today, the entrepreneur knits and does crotchets full time. She does the work at the comfort of her house in Kanyamedha, Kisumu.
Some of the tools the entrepreneur uses include yarn needle, yarn, scissor, tape measure, stitch holders and crochet hooks.
Often the entrepreneur would get yarn or knitting from Nairobi. She says she doesn't mind the local threads, but often they are of low quality and rough.
"Most of the clients prefer warm and soft yarn products. That means I have to go for imported yarn from China and Turkey," she said.
A piece of imported yarn goes for Sh400. On a monthly basis she stocks about 10 pieces to do her knitting job. Usually she starts her work at 8am. The first thing she does is respond to the mails and update the social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and WhatsApp she runs.
In case there are any orders placed by clients, she takes care of them. Most of her customers are drawn from Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret and sometimes from Kisumu.
At around 9am, she starts the knitting, which can take five hours before she takes a lunch break. In the afternoon she goes on knitting till evening.
“I love knitting. It is creative and needs a lot of concentration but it is a peaceful task. Most of the time I do the knitting work while listening to music or watching a movie,” said Ms Owiti.
Depending on the complexity of the design, crocheted items take five to 12 days to complete.
Ms Owiti says knitted wears are a bit complex and take 14 days to a month to complete, depending on the size and design of the wear.
"Most of the time I came up with the design for the products. At times the client brings their designs and patterns but I have to check the original owner to buy it before making the item," said the entrepreneur.
In a month, she can make up to four pieces of yarn. She charges a piece of the knitted wear at a price range of between Sh4,000 to Sh10,000 depending on the pattern and size.
Apart from selling the physical products, Ms Owiti sells the original design and pattern to make knitted and crochet wear via her website dreamcrochets.com.
The price range for each piece of design goes between Sh420 ($3) to Sh1,400 ($10), depending on the size, pattern and how easy it is to make.
Ms Owiti is also running her blog and YouTube channel where she gives tutorials on how to make yarn wears by knitting and crocheting.
Her two top challenges are lack of access to quality yarn for knitting and lack of appreciation of art work. "The market for physical products such as sweaters, hats, swimwear, and blankets is still slow. Most of the time when they hear the price of the products, they don't return," said Ms Owiti.
In the next five years Ms Owiti plans to establish her art shop within Kisumu to sell and train other young people interested in knitting and crocheting.
"I believe in apprenticeship. I would not mind sharing these skills with other young minds who are interested in knitting and crocheting work," said Ms Owiti.
