Cambodia Starts to Knit

Good-bye Blogger

2010-04-30T14:38:00.004+07:00

It's time to say good bye to the original home of the Cambodia Knits blog and move into the new home at the CK website. This was my first experience in blogging and it's been a very positive one. We've made a lot of great friends and fans here and I hope all of you keep checking in at our new home to see what we're up too. There is no way to 'follow' us at the new site, but you can subscribe as easy as 1-2-3 for an RSS feed to keep you up-to-date.

Thank you everyone for following us, checking in, writing comments and supporting us so many different ways! We couldn't have done it without you!

There's a new post already waiting for you here. See you there!!

Our New Website!!!

2010-04-27T20:58:00.003+07:00

I can't believe I neglected to blog here about our new website!!

Thanks to the genius of Yumi Ichida, the patience of Yeng and the tweaking of House 32, we're up and running.

Have a look at www.cambodiaknits.com and tell us what you think.

CK on Twitter

2010-04-21T12:12:00.002+07:00

I finally broke down and signed us up for Twitter. Twitter still doesn't make all that much sense to me. I understand how it works, but the idea of being bombarded, on your phone no less, by constant, sometimes banal, updates from around the world, seems odd. I'm still trying to work out the benefit over the annoyance.

To this end, CK is on Twitter. Find us and follow us here.

Help CK Grow!

2010-04-14T12:36:00.002+07:00

We're growing to a new stage and we need your help to get there!

Cambodia Knits is excited to announce that we'll soon be working with Caritas in Toul Sambo to set up a full knitting workshop right in the community. Caritas are building new housing and community spaces, and there is room for a CK workspace! This means we'll now have an on-site dedicated space to assemble our products to completion.

Currently, CK has to purchase unfinished knitted parts from Toul Sambo, then assemble them together in the Phnom Penh office. With the new workspace, knitters will now be able to earn more by making completely finished products!

We're thrilled with this opportunity, so to get the space running we're asking for a small funding infusion.
Our immediate goal is to:

fund the knitters' new training for assembly, and
afford travel to the community during training
purchase equipment and materials to create a safe and healthy work environment

Your donations will also go towards:

setting up a contingency fund for staff; a set reserve that staff can borrow from, with no interest or advance
signage, brochure printing and advertising to raise awareness for and promote CK
business registration fees

Because we're not a registered charity, we can't issue tax receipts — however, donors will receive a heartfelt email of thanks, and a mention on our Donor Wall of gratitude.

Every bit will help CK get through this challenging stage. Please donate today via Paypal by clicking the button on the right hand panel.

Thank you!

Donations are fully secure using the PayPal system.

CK in Australia

2010-04-10T14:12:00.003+07:00

Canberra to be specific.

Last month when we were en route to Sydney, (and nearly missed our flight because we forgot that Singapore was one hour ahead and while happily checking emails using Singapore airport's free wireless service at what we thought was 6:45pm with lots of time until our 8pm flight and Yeng's name got called over the PA and we both immediately realized our mistake and ran, ran, ran to the gate...) I got an email from a woman who runs a baby products store in Canberra, interested in our toys. It was serendipitous because we planning to be in Canberra only a few days later! We managed to meet Emma at Brindabella Baby and are more than happy to supply her shop!

She's just moved her shop to a new location in Canberra, Rodney's Nursery, 24 Beltana Road, Pialligo, and had the opening last week. We didn't get to see the new shop but from the photos below it looks lovely and inviting. Emma has been running the business for a few years, selling eco-friendly, fair trade products for the under 5 kiddies. She started doing this out of her house, but as the business grew and she found more and more great products from around the world, she eventually opened a shop. She focuses on products that are fairly produced and help the communities in which they are produced, a true ethical consumer. You can read more about Brindabella Baby and see more photos here.

More new stuff!

2010-04-08T11:46:00.003+07:00

Since the beginning I have been thinking about how to best display finger puppets for sale. Way back when, I did a search for finger puppet displays and one that looked great was the chopsticks in vase options which we have been using since. It's a cheap, easy option and kinda cute. Not the best for shopping though as they tend to get messed up and it's sometimes hard to have a good look the bunch without tipping the display over.

So for the past few months, I've really wanted to improve on the display and since Phnom Penh is a great place to put idea into practice at any variety of small scale wood, metal, plastic workshops I thought it would be snap. Not so. Well, yes so, but you need to have the right person to do the legwork for you. Luckily, CK has Chariya who is not only a great translator, but a Sherlock Holmes when it comes to tracking down any variety of un-simple requests I have. Thanks to her, in less than three days we have our puppet stands!

New Price tags

2010-04-07T10:42:00.003+07:00

We're getting more and more settled into the new space. Next step is to formalize the retail area in the front, but the knitters recently moved forward from the back of the room because the fan is better there. And I can understand! With the daily temperature hitting above 40C, it's painfully hot! We'll need more fans installed I think.

We're preparing some products to go to Monument Books today and we're debuting our new price tags. These will include the name of the knitter. The knitters were very excited about this. The website is almost ready for (go and have a peak, but there are few tweaks still to be made) public consumption. It's looking fantastic!

The new office

2010-03-30T14:42:00.004+07:00

Oh la la! It's been a long time coming, but finally, here are some photos of our new office/workshop. Apologies for the long absence, but we've been too busy to post anything here until now. That doesn't mean we're not busy at the moment, but I have some time to indulge in the blog.

So the new office is a great space for us to grow into. The knitters are more comfortable, there is more storage space and we can prepare a small retail area at the front. The main purpose of the space remains a workshop and office, but it will be nice to be able to showcase our products to guests, visitors and potential buyers.

The first photo is looking in. This is a standard one and half floor sized Khmer 'pteah laveang'. The room at the bottom is about 4m by 10 meters with a decently sized kitchen/eating area and bathroom in the back. The front portion of this room has a high ceiling and, overall, the room is quite cool even in the hot season. The back half, where you see the CK staff working, will be the work area.

The front area is where we'll set up some displays, photos and information. This is a work in progress and we've got some way to go. Within the next month we'd like to have it ready for visitors though.

A tiny staircase leads up to this small, half room. It's bigger than most of it's kind and works really well for a small office. With only three of us in here, its spacious really. Again, we need to spruce it up and personalize it a bit, but all in due time.

We're all really happy with the space and I'm happy to have a commute to work again that is further than my dining room. I agonized about the colour for a while, but in then end stuck with the colour orange despite all the nays (they thought I was loco). I think it looks great, comfy and friendly!

So if you're in town, come for a visit. We're at House #146D, Street 376 just off street 113 in BKK3.

Australia Bound

2010-03-08T21:38:00.002+07:00

Sorry for the silence the past couple weeks, but its been busy. There is lots to write about, but I'll start with our upcoming trip to Australia.

We'll be flying into Sydney on March 18th, heading to Canberra area for a wedding on the 20th and then finish off the final few days in Sydney. During that time I'll try to do some presentations on Cambodia Knits in Young, Canberra and Sydney so if you are in those areas, stay tuned for more info (or email me for details). And, if you're in Australia and have ever wanted to get your hands on some of our products, send me an email at orders@cambodiaknits.com and I'll send you a catalogue.

Silk making

2010-02-23T08:04:00.008+07:00

As we are hoping at some point in the future to knit with local silk yarn, I 'investigated' the silk making process at the fair in Siem Reap a few weeks ago. There were two booths set up that sold locally produced silk, one which displayed the silk making process and the other, the silk weaving process. Just because it's really interesting, I'm posting the wormy photos here with a brief explanation of what's going on.

First, very little, tiny, tiny worms. So tiny you can't really see them, but I promise they are there.

The worms eat and eat and eat mulberry leaves and get bigger.

They keep gorging and get bigger and juicier. Yum, big juicy silk worms.

After a few weeks of non-stop eating action, the silk worms decide it is time to move onto the next stage in life and hide themselves in a cocoon of beautiful, golden silk.

Unfortunately, for the silk worms, humans love silk and the only way to get it from the cocoon is to boil the unsuspecting worms alive. Silk is not vegan-friendly.

The threads of many cocoons are spun together into a single thread. Slowly each cocoon is unraveled back to its origin, a now expired silk worm, which like anything organic, can be eaten.

And finally, after dying using local natural dyes, from bark, leaves, indigo, the finished product: silk.

Unfortunately, like so many things, silk production was all but decimated under the Pol Pot regime and has yet to recover. There are a couple organizations working to help revive the industry, but it's a slow process. Most silk products sold in Cambodia are made from imported silk which is then dyed and woven in country. If we are ever able to source local silk yarn, it will be in very small quantities and only for exclusive, small lines of products.

Cinderella

2010-02-22T14:29:00.004+07:00

And now, for our fourth and final sales location in Siem Reap: Cinderella. The shop is located near Red Pizza in the Old Market area of the city.

Samneang, our accountant (shared with NETPRO-Cambodia, but I always joke with him that working for us is so much better), is heading to SR this weekend to change all the tags to the updated ones and put kramas on all the animals that used to have bows. This way he gets to meet the store owners, finalize our consignment contracts and answer any questions. And he gets a trip to SR which he is very excited about.

The shop looks really cute! I didn't get a chance to visit when I was in SR, so this is my first look at it too. The multi-tiled wall is lovely and colourful and I like the overall look of it. Will have to drop in next time I'm in SR.

Joe-to-Go Cafe

2010-02-15T16:54:00.002+07:00

Another location where you can find Cambodia Knits products in Siem Reap is at Joe-to-Go Cafe. The cafe is located near the Old Market and serves tasty food and delicious coffee. It's the business of The Global Child, an NGO working with street children in Siem Reap, ensuring they have access to education and a path out of poverty. More about the organization here. Mony with our display in the boutique above the cafe:

Finally, after much delay: the mama monsters!!!

2010-02-14T13:55:00.001+07:00

Soria Moria

2010-02-08T14:02:00.003+07:00

I don't have any photos of our products on display, but the second location where you can find CK in Siem Reap is at Soria Moria. Soria Moria (an unforgettable name) is a boutique hotel with an emphasis on sustainable tourism. It's a lovely, quiet place near a Wat, with nicely appointed rooms and very, very friendly staff. This is likely the result of the very fair treatment staff working here get in terms of training and benefits. It's the kind of hotel you can stay at, knowing that you're giving back to the community. A recent article in the Phnom Penh Post stated that less than 5% of the population in Siem Reap benefit at all from tourism and that despite the millions of annual visitors, Siem Reap remains one of the poorest provinces in the country.

To learn more about Soria Moria visit their website here.

CK at Circle Boutique

2010-02-06T13:02:00.004+07:00

So while in Siem Reap last week, I arranged to have CK products on consignment sales at three locations. The first is Circle Boutique, a recently opened shop on Alley West, an up and coming area of Siem Reap near Pub Street. Circle is the collaborative effort of Lauren Iida and Rachel Faller, two amazing designers, both of whom are using their talents and energy for good. The opening was just a few weeks ago and already the shop is proving to be popular with local expats and tourists.

We're happy to have our products in such a lovely spot.

To learn more about the work of Rachel and Lauren, read and follow the links below.

Circle is a social enterprise which employs young at-risk women from impoverished rural areas of Cambodia. Circle provides a safe and healthy workplace, fair wages, Khmer & English literacy classes, clothing design training, and a variety of ongoing projects promoting self-confidence and creativity. You can read more about the project here.

Keo Kjay is a social enterprise that was established in Cambodia to train and provide jobs for women living with HIV in Phnom Penh through creating handmade items out of their homes. We sell accessories, clothes and gift items, all made of recycled and sustainable materials, and we follow Fair Trade principles in all aspects of our business. More info here.

Kitchener Stitch

2010-02-04T11:51:00.003+07:00

When in Canada over the holidays, my seestor, a knitting whiz, had a close look at our products and made some suggestions/recommendations for improvement. One thing she recommended was to bind off the tops of the monsters using kitchener stitch instead of a three-needle bind off. Kitchener stitch looks seamless so I decided it might be a good thing to teach the knitters. They are always quite keen to learn more, so Rony and MatKeo, who usually work from home came in for a day of training.

It's been a bit of a headache for some. Rofi caught on right away and slowly the others are catching up. I think by the end of the day they'll be semi-pro at it.

We're also going to start knitting the mouths into the monsters instead of gluing on felt mouths. That or we'll start stitching them on. The glued on version is not ideal as quite a few of them end up getting frayed off...

Mama and Baby Monsters

2010-02-03T14:44:00.005+07:00

I realized that I had not yet posted the photos of the completed Mama Monster and Baby Monster monsters that we were asking for advice about in a previous post. So, here they are:

Oh no, the picture is not here. The reason for this is rather long. Smoke came out of my computer today. My lovely Powerbook G4 that has been with me for 5.5 years and that I hoped to keep using for another 5. I don't believe in staying up to date with the brightest, shiniest, fastest, wowest technology and preferred to keep a perfectly good computer out of the landfill for as long as possible. But, as I watched the light wisps of smoke emanating from the computer, that dream slowly died.

Yeng asked/told/commanded me to backup my computer last night. I said, 'nah, let's just watch the movie, I'm tired'... All is not lost as my clever husband regularly sneaks onto my computer and backs it up for me. I'm still going to try the Mac techs at UniYoung and see what can be done. I have not given up hope that I can continue my relationship with the G4 for at least another year. I feel like I am cheating right now using Yeng's MacBook Pro....

Pictures tomorrow, I hope.

Monsters with kramas

2010-02-02T10:56:00.003+07:00

Small-major change of plans is in the works!

I caught up with a friend that I worked with in PP 10 years ago. We did a lot of catching up and when talking about CK, she made a simple suggestion: instead of bows, maybe the monsters can wear kramas. It was a slap-self-in-forehead moment and I've been shaking my head, wondering why I didn't think of it. Thank you Shiela!

I walked around the other booths at the fair to see if anyone can make mini-kramas for us. I bought a few large size ones in 100% cotton to test out different sizes. We cut and sewed some yesterday. This is ok for figuring out the size, but if we can have them woven to size it would be much better as we can get the fringe on both ends.

'What is a krama?' you might ask (if you've never been to Cambodia). Well, a krama is a multi-purpose, checkered cloth used by all and everyone for just about anything and everything. A krama can be used to cover the head, the face, as a skirt, as a towel. It can be used to carry a baby, rice, fruits, goods to and from the market. It can be a table cover, something to sleep under, something to wipe the table with. And now it is used to decorate monsters.

Our booth

2010-02-01T13:25:00.007+07:00

So finally here is a photo of our booth at the AAC Craft Fair from last week:

And another photo to show you how not busy it was:

Now the evenings were somewhat better, but most of the people coming out in the evenings were Cambodians out for an evening stroll. Nothing wrong with that, but for the majority of the businesses and organizations at the fair (all of which paid big bucks for the booth), this does not represent the target market. The organizer's promised 10 000 visitors over the 5 days but I'd be surprised if there was even a quarter of that. I also think they failed to advertise properly since there were no adverts in any of the free local booklets that every tourist to Siem Reap pours over and uses to plan their activities. Sure there were a lot of posters and banners, but posters and banners are not that effective at bringing people in, apparently.

Oh heck, while I'm at it, let me just complain about one final thing: gem dealers at the fair. AAC is the Artisans Association of Cambodia, meant to promote local artisans and especially promote fair trade practices. Gems dealers are the antithesis of this! Gem mining that takes place in Cambodia is environmentally destructive, often uses child labour, is underpaid and often done in conditions that are unsafe to the workers. In the end, what the person who finds a gem gets paid and the price it sells for retail is ridiculous. There is nothing Fair about any of it! There were several booths selling gems at the fair and the organizers said this was because they are Cambodian products. I was very disappointed.

...

And now for something lovely. I asked Mony and Navy to take some monsters and my camera to the temples and get some product shots. At first I was worried there might be something inappropriate about posing monsters against ancient Angkor temples. I also thought they might be embarrassed to wander about with a handful of monsters. Neither of those things were a problem and after a short lesson on the SLR, they went off quite excited and eager. My final worry was that the camera would be too complicated and the photos would be blurry or not so well framed. What they came back with was amazing!!! Have a look:

This one is my favourite:

A look back...

2010-01-31T16:06:00.003+07:00

So, sales have not been good at all, almost completely because of the poor advertising of the fair, bringing in next to no tourists to the site. There are several things I could complain about, but won't right now. It was not only us who suffered these past five days, but just about every other organization that shelled out the high rates for the booths. I think most of us will be lucky to break even and many booths have already closed up.

More on that later. For now, a picture that is an amazing 'fail'. All around Cambodia (and must of Asia) personal vanity is looked upon favourably. All youngsters who can afford it, get dressed up in their funkiest, coolest gear, get all made up, go wild with their hair and subject themselves to hours in front of a camera at the local photo studio to get hot, funky photos of themselves. They pose. They posture. They make love to the camera. The poses are stereotypical. The make-up is extreme. The hair is just fabulous.

After the photo shoot, the best pictures are chosen and photo-shopped for hours. Bodies are cut out and backdrops range from fashion week at Milan to Hello Kitty parlour scenes. To make the photos even cooler, sometimes random phrases in English are added. Unfortunately, no one checks that these make any sense or contain any obscenities. It doesn't matter. Cool doesn't need spell-grammar check.

Samples of the photos are usually hung around the photo shop to entice new customers. The results are often amusing for those in the know of the English language.... have a look:

After discussing this with Yeng, it seems that spell check might be to blame. He thinks they might have been going for 'gentle' and ended up with 'genitals' instead...

Getting ready for Siem Reap

2010-01-25T13:34:00.003+07:00

Things are completely out of control busy right now. Writing this short blog post will be my 'down time' for today...

My amazing friend, regular partner in crime and artist extraordinaire designed this banner for us. She is also the mind behind the logo which is plain and simple, wonderful. For those of you not in-the-know, the hands are in the position of an Apsara dancers hands. More are this in the future when there is more time. For now, admire our banner:

I hope to have some time in the evenings to post photos from the craft fair. Our very cheap (7USD a night) hotel has free Internet so I hope I'll have enough energy to keep in touch....

Photo Shoot

2010-01-22T14:41:00.003+07:00

Yesterday, friend and supporter of Cambodia Knits, the wonderful and talented Ali Sanderson, came by the workshop to take product shots and photos of CK staff in action. We both expected it would only take a couple hours, but she ended up staying with us the whole day and handing over several GBs of data at the end! We had a quick look at the photos and there are some beautiful shots, including one of all the staff in the workroom, fingers full of finger puppets. They need some editing so I'll post them in the coming days once I go through them but here's one photo of Ms. Sanderson in action:

Ali has been working with Alexandra Cousteau (yes, the granddaughter of Jacques) over the past year to highlight water issues around the world. As a member of the good morning beautiful films crew, Ali traveled last year to places like Botswana, Israel, India and the US to document critical water stories and to bring attention to the issue. More about Ali and the expedition if you follow the links.

The workroom is full

2010-01-20T12:57:00.003+07:00

Only a few more days until the the Artisan's Association of Cambodia (AAC) sponsored Craft Fair in Siem Reap. Vyrak and Koun are working with us for the week to make sure we have enough products to display in our booth. Koun has recently bought a moto, which is fantastic because it not only means it's easier for him and Vyrak to come to PP, but because it means he's earning enough to be able to get a moto! What could be a better indication of our success than that? However, Koun is among the knitters who caught on really quickly and who knits incredible amounts each week. There are others who are not as fast and are not earning as much as he is. He also works with his wife and together they make quite the production team. Once we get into more shops, especially in Siem Reap, we'll need to revisit our piece rates and consider other ways to ensure everyone is earning a livable wage.

Back to the sale. It will be held outside the Angkor National Museum on the road to Angkor Wat. We'll have a small booth among 70 others representing other craft producers and artisans from around Cambodia. The organizers are expecting about 10 000 visitors to the fair over the 5 days it is running. Our super designer is working on posters and banners and ideas for making our booth irresistible and we're just planning the logistics of getting there, setting up and spending a week in SR. I've promised staff enough time off to go visit the temples, so I hope there is enough down time during each day for them to do that.

Here are some earless pigs being prepared for next week. They look silly without their ears...

Knitting Advice on Stripes Needed

2010-01-15T08:01:00.006+07:00

So we're starting a new and very wonderful pattern from Danger Studios, a stripey monster with a baby monster, Daphne and Delilah. We've done some stripey things in the past and had a lot of problems getting it right. I studied the tutorial on how to stripe at Tech Knitting (which is excellent and if you knit, it's really helpful) and explained it carefully to the knitters. They always take what I've taught them and within a few hours, do it better than I could ever hope to do it myself. Except for the stripes. I have no idea what we're/they're doing wrong or how to correct this.

So I'm posting some photos here of what they've knit so far. If you're a knitter and can offer any advice on how to improve what you see below, fire away.

The one above is Tyna and I think it's a jog, plain and simple.

Haiti

2010-01-14T07:27:00.004+07:00

As you know, Haiti has been hit by the biggest earthquake in 2 centuries and thousands are feared dead. The living have the immense task of rebuilding after the devastation. And many of us are thinking of ways to help. After the tsunami in 2004, millions of dollars were raised and sent to affected areas, only to be found to have been wasted. When Nargis hit Burma last year, many of my friends were asking, 'who do we support? How can we be sure donations aren't wasted, that they get to the people in need?' These are difficult questions to answer.

In times of emergency, aid is more likely than usual to be diverted away from the people who really need it. Food, medicines, supplies need to be distributed fast and this prevents necessary checks being put in place to ensure support is going to those who need it most. Haiti scores lowest in the annual Corruption Perception Index released each year by Transparency International. This will make it even harder to aid agencies to do their work on the ground without the risk of diversion by the powerful. It's an unfortunate reality.

This does not mean that we shouldn't give Haiti as much support as possible. It just means that you should do your research when giving. Give to organizations that are already established and have a history of operating transparently and effectively in-country. These organizations and their people on the ground have already built relationships and know their way around. They can quickly establish fair channels of distribution and get your donations to where they need to go most.

Personally, I would avoid giving to any UN agency. That's a personal bias, based on my experiences in Cambodia and from anecdotes from elsewhere. UN agencies are large, bureaucratic, slow and already very well funded. They don't need small donations. I'd try to find a locally founded and based organization that focuses on the country, is run by locals but with sustained outside support. One such organization in Haiti is the Restavek Foundation. They are already in place, working directly with schools that they have been working with for years, ready to get assistance to those in need. Go here to read more about their post-quake situation.

The other organization I would donate to in any emergency situation is Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). If anyone knows how to get help to people in emergencies, it's them. They already have clinics set up in Haiti and like Restavek are able to distribute aid through already established channels.

From the early reports it looks like Haiti is going to need a lot of support, immediately and in the coming months. Give what you can, but give where it will help the most.

Ravely Group

2010-01-13T14:27:00.002+07:00

So, it's been suggested in the past that I start a Ravelry Cambodia Knits group. If you don't know what Ravelry is, then it's about 99.9999% likely that you don't knit. If you knit, you'd know the site. Ravelry is kinda like Facebook but the focus is on knitting and crocheting. There are patterns, a place for you to display your finished products, discussion forums, groups, news and more.

So if you are a Rav'er, then come on over to the CK group and join: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/cambodia-knits.

And if you haven't yet, become a fan of Cambodia Knits on Facebook do it now: here. We've got 110 fans so far!

The year that was...

2010-01-12T12:04:00.003+07:00

It's still early enough in the New Year to look back at what 2009 was for Cambodia Knits and what we've accomplished.

Back in June, I was lucky enough to find 5 knitters, two of whom were already very experienced, to start up CK. We had many challenges in translating patterns into Khmer, learning new ways to knit (me English style, they continental style) and finding materials. We found two amazing designers Raynor Gellatly and Rebecca Danger who were willing to let us use their patterns to knit up and sell the finished products locally. We experimented with local acrylic yarn, some cotton yarn brought from the US by a friend and a variety of yarns bought in Bangkok, Thailand.

One of the biggest challenges was finding suppliers willing to sell to us at wholesale prices without expecting orders in the hundreds of kilograms. I must have spent literally hundreds of hours online trying to track down factories that accept small orders for things like safety eyes, yarn and needles. Each time I succeeded was a minor victory! Thanks to the following we can import the small quantity of supplies we need: 8Season-Knitting, Beisica Cashmere and New Li Yen.

Next came finding and training new knitters. After meeting with Davy from City Hall, we decided to work with the Toul Sambo community, which had recently been relocated from Borei Keila in Phnom Penh. Over the course of a month in October and November, we trained 18 knitters (13 women, 5 men) in basic knitting skills and taught them how to make the finger puppets. We were able to do this in large part because of the generosity of sponsors from as far as Sweden, Hawaii, the UK and Canada. One major challenge was finding ways to present patterns for those who could not read and making sure the trainers could, well, train! As of January 12th, 2010, all but one of the people we trained at TS are knitting for us and many more are interested in starting.

Finally, and very importantly, we started to sell our products. We started at Cafe Living Room and expanded to four other locations around the city. We participated in several pre-holiday sales and took orders from Canada. The reactions have been very, very positive! Everyone loves Penelope and the finger puppets always get a great response.

So in summary, we:

- Trained 24 knitters from two communities
- Sell products at five local retail locations
- Currently employ 6 full time staff
- Have 27 piece rate knitters producing our products
- Provided health insurance to our full time staff
- Developed partnerships with other local NGOs and businesses with similar values and models
- Found sponsorships for 19 knitters in training

All this has been possible thanks to the generous support of friends and family and all of you out there who have given advice, words of wisdom, connections and links. We recently received two large yarn donations from the Around the Bay Guild and from a Ravelry member in California. We can use these yarns to experiment with different fibers and needles, colours and see what we can create. We've also received financial donations from generous supporters (both large and small, but always helpful!) which have helped us make sure salaries are paid on time and that we have the resources to do what we do.

All in all, I think we've come pretty far in a short time. Here's to an even better 2010.

Final photos and contest winners!!!

2010-01-11T07:44:00.004+07:00

We should have selected the winners by now, but 40 hours of travel and jet lag have prevented me from doing, well, anything. First,our final two photo entries:

My sister, Malgosia with her orange Penelope (we both love the colour orange, must run in the family).

My nephew Jaxon enjoying his full set of finger puppets.

Ok, I'm headed to the random number generator right now, and with my husband as my witness, I'll select three winners. Drum roll please:

The winners are (#s 6, 12, 16 which represent the following:

1. Helena Barkla
2. Jo-Ey Lee
3. Molly Ball

If you see this before I've emailed you, then send me your mailing address and I'll get the package to you this week.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone for participating!!

Contest extended until Friday!!

2010-01-07T10:19:00.002+07:00

Just in case you haven't heard (or didn't catch it in yesterday's blog post), you now have until Friday evening to join in the competition!

Here are two more lovely entries:

First few photos

2010-01-05T09:45:00.003+07:00

Here are the first few entries in our first ever blog contest. You have a couple more days to get your photos (or comments) in for a chance to win! Don't wait until it's too late! Do it now!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T22:56:00.002+07:00

Happy New Year to all our regular and non-regular readers!! Cambodia Knits wishes you all the best for 2010.

Our blog contest is still rolling and time is running out. Get your entry in ASAP for a chance to win some lovely, lovely prizes. Don't miss it!

A Contest!!!

2009-12-31T23:17:00.004+07:00

Here it is! Our first ever blog contest and a chance for you to win some awesome CK products... Woo Hoo!!

Even better than a contest, is two contests in one!!

The first is for those of you out there who already own any CK products. This is your mission: take a great photo of you, your kids, your friends, pets with your CK monster, finger puppet, kitty or anything and send it to me. I'll post it here and later on, on our satisfied clients web page. We won't ever use your photos for anything else, any promotional material, without asking you first. I'll assign a number to each photo and on the 6th of January, I'll use an online random number generator to pick the winners (see prizes below).

The second contest is for those of you who don't have any of our products but still want a chance to win (no one left behind!). All you need to do is post a comment here or on any of the previous posts on the blog. Just mention that you are 'contest commenting' and I'll give you a number as well for the random draw.

Deadline for photos or comments is January 6th at 6pm Eastern Standard Time. Maximum three photos or three comments per person. Make sure I can contact you by email through your comment to get your mailing address. If you're sending photos, please send to nowaczyk.monika@gmail.com or monika@cambodiaknits.com.

Have a look at our handsome male models below to see what you can win!

Male models, male modeling: the instruction was to 'look bored'

And, of course, tell all your friends!!

Babies, monsters and photos

2009-12-30T02:59:00.004+07:00

We hope everyone had a lovely holiday over Christmas (if that's your thing) or a nice break (if it isn't). We spent the past few days with our in-laws from Ohio who came for a short visit with their little one, Jaxon. Yeng and I had never met our newest nephew, so we were really happy to get to play with him for a few days, as well as catch up with his mom and dad. He is, no arguments thank you, the cutest baby on the planet. He spent a couple days playing with a sample kitty I brought from Cambodia and got a monster all his own under the tree.

It's given me an idea for our first ever CK blog contest. I won't say anything about it until tomorrow, but get your photos ready! We'll be looking for your photos with any CK products. They can be of you, your kids, your pets, random strangers, as long a they include something we've knit, you can enter. Great prizes (all hand knit ;))! Check back tomorrow for more details.

Merry, Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-26T00:01:00.003+07:00

I have been very slack on the blogging front and apologies for that! I'm currently in Canada, home for the holidays and it's been busy, busy since arriving with friends, family and delivering finger puppets for people ordered them for Christmas. I hope all the little ones that got their finger puppets loved them as much as the people who ordered them did! Also the two weeks before leaving Cambodia to come to Canada were absurdly busy and we had almost no time to breathe. Both Yeng and I are enjoying the down time here!

This entry, however, is not to dwell on past busyness, but to wish you all a wonderful holiday season and to thank everyone for their support these past few months since we started Cambodia Knits.

We've gotten much further than we had hoped since hiring our first 5 knitters in July. We trained 18 knitters at Toul Sambo, hired another 2 staff for assembly at our office, sell our products at 3 locations around Phnom Penh and had three great Christmas sales. The future is looking bright as well and we'll need to train more knitters in February and hire another 2 assembly staff to work at our head office. There is a huge outdoor sale in Siem Reap in January and this will give us a chance to find more sales locations in the tourist epicenter of Cambodia. Most excitingly, we'll soon be creating our own designs for children's toys and more!

Here's to a great year!!!

Become a fan on Facebook!

2009-12-08T15:59:00.002+07:00

Cambodia Knits has its own fan page on Facebook. I think you can click here and become a fan (if you've got an account). If that link doesn't work, then search for Cambodia Knits on Facebook and become a fan.

Do it! You know you want to!

Sale at Java

2009-12-07T12:47:00.003+07:00

So, Cambodia Knits jumped on the coat tails of Circle and a clothing sale at Java this past weekend. We had a small selection of finger puppets and monsters which children visiting with their parents very much appreciated. There were many airborne monsters and finger puppet wars, but they all ended well. Laurena and Tanya who organized the sale at Java hope to make it a monthly event so you might very well see us there again in January!

Now, somewhere in Phnom Penh is 50kgs of cotton yarn with my name on it. TNT says the package cleared customs without too much tears and extortion and I hope to have it any moment! I am terribly excited to get my hands on it!

Women's International Group Christmas Sale

2009-11-30T07:51:00.004+07:00

Yesterday was the annual Christmas sale at the Intercontinental organized by the Women's International Group. It's an event all small shops and sellers want to get into and unfortunately we didn't hear about the registration until it was too late. Luckily, a friend of a friend was generous enough to give up 1/4 of her table to us. It was a great chance to sell some products and meet with other vendors who are involved in similar social enterprise projects around Cambodia.

Overall, I think we did quite well and had many, many positive comments about the project and, of course, the products. Children loved the monsters and one 2-year was besides herself with delight over her new Greta the Cat.

I also met two knitters (!) who live in PP. I mentioned that CK will likely start a knitting group (S&B) and possibly lessons for newbies at a local cafe in the new year and they were both keen to get in on the action. We will knit the town in red!

Rambo

2009-11-28T18:41:00.004+07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates this past week, but things have been so busy I just haven't had the time. Tomorrow is the annual Women's International Group Christmas Bazaar at the Intercontinental Hotel and we've been frantically trying to prepare enough stock to sell. Two knitters from Toul Sambo, Vireak and Koun, joined us in the workshop for the week to help out. This was great not only because we needed the extra hands, but because it demonstrated to the trainers how far their students had come.

I had been in contact with Hagar for a few weeks, trying to meet with them to and hire a couple of their students. Hagar is another local organization that uses the social enterprise approach to help women from difficult (often devastating) backgrounds get back on their feet. I met with two of their graduate students and hired them on the spot. They both have training in sewing and work experience in this area, but were keen to try working with knitted items instead. They won't be doing any knitting, focusing on assembly instead.

Finally, I have to write about the latest addition to what is a plethora of massage options in Phnom Penh. One of the greatest things about living here is the availability of cheap, amazing massage. The options are almost limitless. You can go to a fancy spa on the riverside and have a 25$ Swedish massage, go to an arty French-run spa for an Indian head massage for 10$ or, one of my favourites, pay only 5$ for an incredible, stress releasing accupressure massage at Seeing Hands (massage by the blind). There are countless foot massage places, upscale spas and everything in between. There are 5000 riel (1.25$) massage places galore, but they only specialize in massaging a certain part of the male body... And then today I saw this:

I don't really know what to say... Rambo, massage by man. The man himself? Obviously not. Another man that is buff like Rambo? Or is the massage so violent and dangerous that it can only be described as Rambo? Is Rambo massage a new style of massage that will slowly become popular with time? People will walk out and show their cuts, bruises and other abrasions and say, 'it hurt, but man do I ever feel refreshed now that he stopped beating me.'

This, uh, spa, is only only meters away from our apartment. Will it become my new favourite? Will I get to know each and every masseuse and choose a favorite? Will I ever actually have the courage to give it a go?

I think I'll send Yeng first.

Graduation

2009-11-20T09:53:00.003+07:00

Yesterday we had a very informal graduation ceremony to give the TS knitters certificates of participation as well as the completion bonuses from sponsors. Mony gave each knitter a grade based on how well they knit, attendance and attitude and this was marked on their certificates. I also finally had a translator with me, so I'll be able to send out more info on your knitter to all sponsors this weekend.

We had planned on having a small party to celebrate the end of the training, but unfortunately, we received terrible news just as we were leaving town: the community where Tyna and Rofi live was ablaze. They quickly returned home to check on their families. We were too worried to stay at Toul Sambo too long and returned as soon as we could in case there was anything we could or needed to do. The blaze, which went on for most of the morning, destroyed over 200 homes, most of them being wooden. Everyone from CK was lucky, though, and their homes were spared. The houses next door to Rony, who now works from home, was burned down, but hers was not. Relief!

Welcome, 18 new knitters

2009-11-17T14:39:00.003+07:00

Yesterday was our last day of training at Toul Sambo. That's a total of 15 training days spread out over a month and the results are fantastic! Today I went back to the community with Mony to talk to each of the knitters (I finally have a competent translator) and they were all pleased with the training and what they had accomplished. Several of them said they really enjoyed the training because it gave them a chance to sit together in a relaxed atmosphere and talk while learning. Others were, of course, looking forward to earning an income.

The very good news is that Mony accepted over 60 finger puppets that had been knitted during the training. There are more still to be collected but they had not yet been mattress stitched together. Knitters at Toul Sambo will do all the knitting and stitching minus stuffing the head, putting on the eyes and attaching the head to the body. That will be done at the head office for consistency. About 5 of the knitters are still not confident with mattress stitch and Mony, Tyna and Rofi are going back out on Monday for a day of training on this.

On Thursday we'll give each knitter a certificate of completion and have a small party to celebrate the hard work of all the participants.

100 hundred hats

2009-11-14T15:55:00.003+07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. More to come soon, I promise. I'm flat out busy with everything here, but soon...

In place of any local news, I direct your attention to this: http://onehundredhats.blogspot.com/ . It's one woman's quest to knit 100 hundred hats in one year, all to be donated to charity. Her hats are all beautiful and knit with love for those who could use a little extra warmth in the winter.

Finger Puppets for Christmas

2009-11-11T10:28:00.004+07:00

With the training coming to a close at Toul Sambo next week and about half the knitters there ready to start knitting for us, we're ready to take orders for finger puppets! These will make great Christmas, or any occasion, gifts for kids and adults alike. One friend even suggested that they might make good USB drive cozies!

The way to order is to send me an email and I'll send you a PayPal invoice for the total amount, including shipping. Once we've received payment, we'll prepare and ship your order asap.

If you are in Canada, however, and can wait until December, I can ship the puppets to you from Canada at lower cost that shipping from Cambodia. If you're in the GTA we can even get them to you directly. Just send me an email and we'll discuss the options.

Have a look at the order form below (click on the picture to see it in full size).There are three options for shipping as follows:

Regular mail via Cambodia Post: This is the cheapest option, but the slowest. It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months to get to you.
Express Mail Service (EMS): This is much faster but more pricey. Package will arrive within 1 week depending on where you are.
TNT: The fastest and best service similar to FedEx or UPS. You get a tracking code and you can follow your package all the way to your door through their online tracking service. Package arrives in 3-4 days.

Prices are listed below for orders of 1, 2 and 3 or 4 sets of puppets. You may need to click on the jpeg to see the prices more clearly.

Knititng patterns for everyone

2009-11-07T19:19:00.005+07:00

As I wrote earlier, many of the knitters can not read or write. Interestingly, all the male knitters can read, while only a few of the women can. This is a reflection of how wider Cambodian society values women and education. Many, including professionals and those at the Ministry of Education, are quick to say that poor people do not value education and that this is the reason why so few send their children to school or support them past primary level. Others, who've worked with poor communities and in the education sector, know that this is simply not true. Poor people value education very highly and are eager to send their children, all of them, to school. They both understand and value what it can mean for their future to have educated children. However, informal and unofficial costs are prohibitive for the poorest of the poor and they simply don't have enough money to send them to school.

Unfortunately, girls are the ones that get less chances in poor families. If a family can send a child to school, and only one out of a handful, that chance will usually go to a boy. Not because boys are thought to be smarter, but because girls help more at home. They wake up earlier, do more chores and go to bed later. They do the housework, cooking, fetch the water, they feed the animals and take care of the younger children. Why send a girl to school when she has so much to do at home?

So this is why most of the female knitters can not read. One positive change in the community from past to present, is that all the children are going to school. In all the time I have spent there, all school age kids are gone until 11. Both boys and girls, all primary age, are studying and from the brief discussions I've had with community members, they want to keep it that way. I was worried that some families would want to pull children, especially girls, from school to work for us (which we would not allow), but not one family asked to do that.

Since early on, I worried about how illiterate knitters would work without being able to follow patterns. Initially, the trainers, and everyone at the community, said they could get help from others to read and follow the patterns. I was never happy with this. Both Yeng and I recognized that this is a short term solution to a bigger issue. I think the trainers think we're overreacting to the situation, but without being able to complete the work on her own, a knitter just isn't going to be independent. There will always be the risk that someone is not available to read the pattern or that tension in the household means she can't get the support and help she needs. All disempowering.

So, welcome to chart reading 101. I thought we'd try to present the simpler puppet patterns in a chart. There are only 5 symbols, knit, purl, knit2tog, kfb, and the same symbol for cast on and bind off. We started with the hippo pattern and for many of the women, they caught on quickly. A few were still asking again and again what to do next. I encouraged the trainers to keep referring them to the charts (they are too quick to simply give the answer) so they get used to following them. Srey Mao, who I worked with, got it right away and told me when I was trying to help her (with a bit of shut up tone), "I got it." What was nice was to see two knitters who can't read, Thyda and Thy, bent over one of the charts later in the morning, helping each other out.

We'll have to see how they go, but I think this might be the solution!

And for no reason other than it's painfully cute, a picture of Stinky sleeping in a helmet...

First puppets from Toul Sambo

2009-11-06T13:24:00.006+07:00

Yesterday, the trainers went out to the community armed with plastic eyes, tapestry needles and coloured thread. Each knitter got to make up one or more of their finished puppets to keep for themselves or their children. I went this morning and some of them were wonderful! See photos below:

Finally for Lena: your knitter, Touch Chayron with her first monkey.

Ven Thy and Chan Thyda.

Soy Srey Neang.

Sin Soeun and Noun Soka.

Krouch Koun, and the best monkey of the lot.

Our champion knitter, Ven Vireak.

All this is very good as we have a handful of orders for Christmas and will need more knitters soon. Hopefully, we get more orders to we can keep purchasing from the TS knitters and keep them working. I got some of our smaller items into Baitong Restaurant yesterday. They support several other NGOs and social enterprises and have a small shop area at the front of the restaurant to display items such as honey from Mondulkiri, baskets from Battambang and pepper from Kampot. All good projects, all providing jobs.

Oh, and the website looks better organized (www.cambodiaknits.com) but the links are still AWOL and I want to put more information on it over the coming week. I also hope our graphic design guardian angel in Amsterdam gives us some advice...

Website Drama

2009-11-05T12:46:00.003+07:00

Deep sigh. Of frustration, not relief.

We decided a few days ago we need to get he website up and running. Only been thinking about that for months, but of course, there is always something else that needs to be done...

Yeng and I thought that if I did a nice layout in Pages it would easily export to HTML and make a nice start to a website. If only life were so easy. The layout went completely wonk, no links, pictures too small, just all wrong! Why is this so complicated and frustrating!?

This is what it should, and hopefully soon will, look like:

5 days can equal 7 days if you want it to

2009-11-04T22:41:00.003+07:00

A story of misunderstood logic, if you can call it that.

So this morning, Bunda came to the house and gave us an envelope with an announcement of the 7 days ceremony for her aunt's death. She had spent all of Thursday night last week taking care of her aunt, so I assumed that the aunt had then, unfortunately passed away on Friday, later in the day. Bunda had been really tired and fell into a deep sleep and we sent her home to get some rest.

So when I saw the 7 day ceremony flyer, I assumed that the ceremony must be this coming Friday or later since, clearly, her aunt was still alive this time last week, until at least Friday. We were given the flyer as a way to ask for a contribution, which is normal and fine. I was just saying to Yeng that we should give Bunda Friday off and wondered how much cash we needed to give her. He then told me that the 7 day ceremony had been today.

I scratched my head, confused.

"But Bunda was taking care of her aunt on Thursday night..." I say.
"Yes," husband replies.
"So she was alive 7 days ago?" I continue.
"Yes. She died on Friday," the reply
"Um, so shouldn't the 7 day ceremony be on Friday then," say I, utterly dumbfounded.

And then, "they can choose when to hold the 7 day ceremony."

It was one of those I-don't-know-how-to-even-start-to-respond-to-that moments... Why call it a 7 day ceremony if it doesn't actually have to be 7 days after. Why a 7 day ceremony if it canbe 4 days or 9 days???

Anyone out there, reading this, if you are Khmer or have lived here for a long time and understand this, please help me to.

Water Festival at night

2009-11-03T20:35:00.004+07:00

One post about the Water Festival just isn't enough. Below are some photos from last night. During the day, most PP residents opt to watch the races on TV but in the evenings, everyone comes out to the riverside for the festivities. All the streets for several kilometers around the Royal Palace are closed off to traffic and it is one of the few times Cambodians walk. And walk they do! Up and down the riverside are people from all walks of life and from around the country. There are concerts, games, food stalls, vendors, performances, music and fireworks every night.

These boats float up and down the river and each one represents a major institution. There is the crest of the Royal Palace, Ministry of Defense, National Assembly, Phnom Penh municipality and so on. There is one for the Ministry of Justice which we joked should have exclamation points on either side of it... This year there was a new float for the Ministry of Tourism's Kingdom of Wonder campaign, but it was so ugly I couldn't even force myself to take a picture of it. the one pictured here is the Ministry of Defense and has two intertwined Naga's (7 headed snake monsters) spitting out a stream of water.

This afternoon the races ended and all the big wigs, including the King were at the main podium to cheer the winners. Yeng told me there is a special formation at the very end of the races, where all the boats, or all the winning boats, or just a lot of boats, gather in front of the King. This is to depict Jayavaraman's Royal Navy as it entered the ancient Khmer kingdom to win it back for the Khmers. As well as celebrating the changing the of the direction of the river, the festival is also connected to the naval war which put King Jayavaraman VII into power and marked the beginning of the most successful period of the ancient Khmer empire. Bas reliefs at Angkor Wat show the beloved king on the bow of a ship, riding into victory.

If all goes well, I'd love to enter a Cambodia Knits team next year or the following year. There are a few all female teams and I think we'd kick butt!!

Water Festival

2009-11-03T12:32:00.008+07:00

Yesterday, Yeng and I relived our first date which took place during the Water Festival in 2006, since the festival is on again. We did all the things we did on our first date, from lunch at Garden Center, to watching the boat races, getting a Seeing Hands massage and eating Vietnamese noodles near the riverside. So I thought I would write about the amazing Water Festival. For those of you wanting to know more about life in Cambodia, this is is for you.

First a little about the Tonle Sap, on which the festival takes place:

The Tonle Sap is perhaps the most incredible and unique geographical system in the world. Sap in Khmer means fresh. Tonle translates into both river and lake, depending on context. In the case of the Tonle Sap, it means both because the Tonle Sap is a river/lake system, but I will refer to them as lake and river to avoid confusion.

The Tonle Sap Lake is located roughly in the middle of Cambodia and runs, via the Tonle Sap River, into the Mekong River. It is at the confluence of these two rivers, that the city of Phnom Penh, the capital, is located. The Mekong then continues its way into Vietnam, and eventually the South China Sea. Now the mighty Mekong isn't called such for no reason. During the rainy season from mid-May to mid-October, the Mekong river changes level at an incredible rate and to extremes, in some locations, by as much as 30 meters. The Mekong is the fifth longest river in the world and starts in East Tibet. It has many tributaries and before reaching Cambodia, it passes between Burma, Laos and Thailand.

By the time the turbulent waters reach Phnom Penh, the force of the river is so incredibly swollen and strong that it actually forces the Tonle Sap River to flow backwards! In doing so, it also causes the Tonle Sap Lake to flood. Don't think that the Tonle Sap River or Lake are small by any means. A trip along the meandering river to the lake takes about 2 hours by speedboat. During the dry season the Tonle Sap Lake is about 3,000km2 with an average depth of 1 m. During the wet season, it expands to 10,000km2 with an average depth of 12. That's about 2 and half times its original size and many more times the volume. Imagine any lake near you expanding and contracting that much each and every year. Compare and contrast.

The Tonle Sap is largely responsible for the location and success of the ancient Khmer Empire, with Angkor Wat, the most important temple, located about 10 kilometers from it's shores. And today it plays a vital role in the region's economy; the yearly flooding provides water for rice irrigation as well as a spawning area for a variety of fish life. The system also prevents excessive flooding further down along the Mekong, at the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam. If it wasn't for this natural water reservoir, the lands south of Phnom Penh would be much more devastated, and more permanently, by flooding.

It's natural wonder of hydrology and no surprise that the annual change in flow is marked with the largest national festival. Hundreds of thousands, millions even, come into the city for the three day celebration and boat races. Teams from all over the country row long boats manned with up to 60 rowers, from the Japanese Friendship bridge to in front of the Royal Palace, where the King himself sits and watches the races. The total distance is about 1700 meters and takes only several minutes to complete as the boats are propelled by the force of the water flowing back into the Mekong.

This team opted for traditional dress.

These boats just finished their races and were on their way back up river. Here they are just passing the King's viewing podium and saluting his Royal Highness.

Some boats have a woman in traditional dress at the front of the boat. She often has the whistle that signals the rhythm for the rowers.

Trying to capture just how many boats and how colourful the festival is!

I love this festival! Everyone is in a good mood, full of smiles even though the competition for first place is fierce. Fights sometimes do break out between teams as they slowly work their way back up to the starting point, but for the most part there is a lot of hand slapping and camaraderie. Last year there were over 500 boats competing and sadly there are far fewer this year because of the floods after Ketsana. A lot of villages that usually send teams were unable to this year, being preoccupied with rebuilding after the devastation of the typhoon...

Lace Dreams

2009-11-01T18:08:00.006+07:00

Today I started teaching Mony, Tyna and Rofi how to knit lace. They were really interested when they saw me knitting my first lace scarf (Branching Out for you Rav'ers) and were floored when they saw the lace shawl my sister gave me as a wedding present. And when I asked if they wanted to learn lace knitting, the answer was an overwhelming yes. Yesterday we looked at some free Ravelry patterns and they selected the one below. And since I cast on in order to be able demonstrate, I'm going to end up making one as well. In a colour I don't particularly like and in a yarn not really suitable. But once I started, there was no frogging it.

For those interested the free pattern, it's available here. I wonder if my sister is slapping herself in the forehead and shouting at the computer: That's too hard for a first lace project!! I have no idea what is easy to start with or not, but I think this one is doable (too late now...). Things have not gone as smoothly as I thought they would and we barely got through the set up rows without multiple mistakes... I think the knitters are not that good at knitting through yarn overs on the following rows. We'll work on it more on Thursday afternoon.

I wanted Mony, Rofi and Tyna to knit something for themselves. They have been knitting for months and not experiencing the joy of creating something for themselves in all that time. Well Mony has knit herself a couple of sweaters. I honestly don't know where she gets the energy from. Both were her own creations, from pattern to finished product and in the new year I want to work with her and see if we can't write up the pattern and get it up for sale. She has the potential to be a pattern writer because she is so creative and has gone so long without patterns that she can make almost anything just by looking at it.

The other reason I want the three of them to learn lace knitting is that I have a vision! Yes!! Everywhere you look in Cambodia, from the temples at Angkor Wat to certain modern buildings, on the headpieces of Apsara dancers to Buddhist ceremonial umbrellas, you see beautiful, Khmer ornamentation, generally called 'kbach' in Khmer. It's unique, exquisite and organic. Most of the patterns are based on themes from nature like the ones below.

There are many patterns based on leaves and flowers, others on shapes from animals like buffalo and fish teeth and my favourite, pretty little swirls to imitate snail shells. Some are incredibly fine and intricate, others simple. But there is a story and meaning behind all of them.

Now imagine this: 100% Khmer golden silk yarn, knitted into lace shawls of traditional Khmer design. That's the vision! We are a long, long way from that. For one, although Khmer golden silk is considered amongst the most exquisite in the world, production has yet to reach pre-war levels and most raw silk is imported from China and Thailand. As for writing patterns to capture 'kbach', well, I have no idea who's going to be the brains behind that... but I dare to dream that one of my knitters will be able to do it. I am planting the seeds now and hopefully with lots of practice and little encouragement, they can one day transfer the beauty of traditional 'kbach' to knitted fabric.

Mekong Blue

2009-10-31T11:13:00.005+07:00

Today I picked up a sample of the pouch we'll be giving away to anyone who purchases 10 or more finger puppets. These are made out of beautiful silk and sewn at Mekong Blue. Mekong Blue is a great, great non-profit organization that helps communities in Stung Treng. I'd always intended to visit their production center when I lived in Ratanakiri (deep north-east of Cambodia, ST is on the way, almost) but somehow never did. Then a series of small world coincidences resulted in our connecting and working together.

A couple of my friends have bought silk from Mekong Blue in the past and currently a close friend is having her wedding dress made there (actually two, but that is long story). I went with her for one of the fittings and its turns out that the owner's daughter is one of my students! Chantha, who runs the store, and I are also connected through various other people, volunteers and consultants who worked or still work in North-Eastern Cambodia. I also really believe in their project and their work and it seemed perfect to ask them to help with small pouches for the puppets. This way I get to plug Mekong Blue and have a gorgeous little silk bag to give away.

So, now you need to go the Mekong Blue website and check out their online store. Of course you don't really have to, but if you are looking for a stunning Christmas (or other occasion) gift, their silk scarves are gorgeous. The weaving is top quality, the colours are beautiful and well worth the price. The best part, the sale goes directly back into the project and contributes to the support of over 400 women and their families. For those of you who like to purchase items that give back, this is a perfect one for you! The site is here: http://bluesilk.org/home.html

Last day of training before Water Festival

2009-10-29T10:49:00.005+07:00

So yesterday was the 7th day of training and the last before a week long break. Today is a holiday for the 5th year anniversary of the current King's coronation, tomorrow is a holiday for the former King's birthday and Monday-Wednesday are off for the Water Festival. Cambodia has the most national holidays of any country in the world except for Sri Lanka. Not for me though! The knitters have come in for a couple days of sewing together finger puppets are we are way behind!

The training has been going really well. One knitter has quit.... she just could not understand. She tried really hard the first week and I had really hoped she would keep fighting on, but she decided she wouldn't be able to do it. Of the rest of the knitters, about 4 or 5 are exceptionally good and pretty much ready to start making things for us! The rest are doing really well, but still have some problems like rowing out, twisting stitches or not doing the decreases correctly. When we go back next week, we'll focus on those that need to improve their technique and we'll bring some plastic eyes and tapestry needles so everyone can finish what they've made and have some finished products to be proud of. They can give these to their children or as presents or keep or whatever they want. There are also dozens of pairs of booties around and I'm going to contact the national hospital and see if we can't donate them to newborns from poor families.

The last of the sponsored knitter photos... I think. If you're a sponsor and you haven't seen a photo of your knitter, send me an email.

Mao Mun sponsored by Melanie Aswell.

Sok Mei sponsored by Vivian Nguyen.
Leong Ratana sponsored by Lynn Walma.

Ven Thy sponsored by Laurel Dougherty-Seto.

Short and sweet

2009-10-27T13:44:00.003+07:00

Only one knitter photo today, down below. Still having issues finding a translator to come with me! Grr.

I completely forgot to write about the donation we made last week to an orphanage on the outskirts of PP. We had a bag full of toys that were from the first round of knitting in the round and less than perfect, but still lovable and in need of love. One my students (I teach part time at an English school) invited me to join her youth group on an excursion to this orphanage. They were planning on distributing food, clothes and toys. Yeng and I didn't have time to join the activities, but we did hand over all the monsters that we had to pass onto the little ones. It was reported the children were very happy to receive them and we are happy they have a new home.

Sim Soeun sponsored by Carol O'Neil.
He is the son of Kung Pisey who is pictured in an earlier post.

The Dance of the Accounting Fairy

2009-10-25T15:06:00.003+07:00

For those of you enjoying a Sunday off, I envy you. My husband, darling, has been bothering me for weeks to budget and account for everything related to CK. Today he basically forced me to do it. A Sunday afternoon spent going through receipts and trying to understand accounting software is not what I call a good time. At all. However, thanks to the accounting fairy, I now have a better grasp of what is going on and what we can do in the next few months.

I gave most of the sponsored knitters photos of their sponsors on Friday. They were happy to see your faces and learn where you are from. If you haven't sent me a photo yet (you know who you are) do it!

And since there is not much more to report, I give you a slice of life in Cambodia. Below are some photos of the rural Cambodian equivalent of a 7-11. It sells everything from water, laundry detergent, canned sardines, hair accessories to shampoo, snacks and cooking gas. It's not air-conditioned and there are no slurpies, but it's basically the same thing.

One week of training down

2009-10-24T09:20:00.005+07:00

The first week is finished and most of the knitters are already able to make an elephant puppet! I still don't have any more information for you as the translator stood me up yesterday and I wasn't able to collect any stories. Grr.

Chan Thyda sponsored by Kasia Zygadlewicz.

Kut Jan Kosal sponsored by Jocelyn Pederick.

Noun Soka sponsored by Colin Alfred.

Soy Srey Chan sponsored by Lynn Walma.

Sok Srey Pouv sponsored by Jo-Ey Lee.

Krouch Koun and Sok Srey Mao sponsored by Juan and Shelli Mosley.

Yu Tra sponsored by Kylie Mannion.

Find us at Living Room!

2009-10-22T16:32:00.002+07:00

I finally got the act together and put some of our final products on display on Living Room. If you're interested in picking one up, head over there for a delicious coffee and shop away! Some puppets will be there tomorrow as well.

Final training day for the week tomorrow. Sorry I haven't been posting photos, but I haven't had the chance to go out there. Tomorrow I will 100% for sure and with the added bonus of a translator! That means stories and more photos (if the cameras start behaving itself after acting all spazzy today) tomorrow!

Sponsorships call is over!

2009-10-21T10:16:00.002+07:00

We've had more people interested in sponsoring a knitter than we have knitters! While it's great that all participants now have a distant supporter, I'm sorry that some of you won't be able to sponsor a knitter this time around. If all goes well, I hope we can train another group in late December or the new year and then we'll look for more sponsors.

I haven't been able to go to the training at Toul Sambo the past couple days as I've been stuck at the computer doing boring admin type things instead. The trainers get to have all the fun! I'm actually really happy that they can go out there on their own and are more than confident and competent to carry out the training without me. We're taking a very informal approach to the training, no modules or tests, no books or note taking. Most people when they learn from their friends or mama's simply sit nearby and ask lots of questions. Nothing is more important than just practicing and frogging and learning from mistakes. Our approach will need to change somewhat once we're working on the patterns, but that brings up a whole other issue...

Many of the participants are illiterate and we have to find a way for this not to be an obstacle to them. The trainers think that those that can't read can get help from those who can to get through the patterns. I don't think this is ideal because it will create a dependency and a power dynamic that might lead to disempowerment and frustration. While I'd like to think that those who can read the patterns will always be willing to help those that can't, in practice we should be more pragmatic. We can try modified knitting charts. It will just take some time to teach everyone how to understand these. We'll also have to rewrite all the patterns using a whole new system...

Any knitters out there have any suggestions?

Training Day 1

2009-10-19T14:22:00.003+07:00

The first day of training this morning went very well. Three knitters, pictures below, were able to finish knitting a bootee and were eager to start on the second one as we were leaving. I'm sure there will be many more finished tomorrow. Everyone who signed up on Thursday attended, which is great. When I called for a break at 10am, they all told me to basically shut up and let them get on with it. They also wanted us to stay longer as everyone wanted to keep going.

Some photos from today:

Ven Vireak sponsored by Stephen Seto

Kung Pisey sponsored by Ali Sanderson

Heng Srey Neang sponsored by Clairone Delaney

An interesting perspective on globalization

2009-10-18T22:11:00.002+07:00

I just loved reading this so much a few weeks back, I decided to post it here too. This might as well be the story of my family (minus Oxford scholarships) from small Polish potato farm to Polish-Japanese, Polish-Greek, Polish-African and eventually Polish-Cambodian children all over the globe. I'm sure its the story of many readers too...

This is written by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyer, about himself. Published in The Times of India.

In 1992, I wrote a book titled Towards Globalisation. I did not realise at the time that this was going to be the history of my family.

Last week, we celebrated the wedding of my daughter, Pallavi. A brilliant student, she had won scholarships to Oxford University and the London School of Economics. In London, she met Julio, a young man from Spain. The two decided to take up jobs in Beijing, China. Last week, they came over from Beijing to Delhi to get married. The wedding guests included 70 friends from North America, Europe and China.

That may sound totally global, but arguably my elder son Shekhar has gone further. He too won a scholarship to Oxford University, and then taught for a year at a school in Colombo. Next he went to Toronto, Canada, for higher studies. There he met a German girl, Franziska.

They both got jobs with the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, USA. This meant that they constantly travelled on IMF business to disparate countries. Shekhar advised and went on missions to Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Kyrgyzstan and Laos. Franziska went to Rwanda, Tajikistan, and Russia. They interrupted these perambulations to get married in late 2003.

My younger son, Rustam, is only 15. Presumably he will study in Australia, marry a Nigerian girl, and settle in Peru.

Readers might think that my family was born and bred in a jet plane. The truth is more prosaic. Our ancestral home is Kargudi, a humble, obscure village in Tanjore district, Tamil Nadu. My earliest memories of it are as a house with no toilets, running water, or pukka road.

When we visited, we disembarked from the train at Tanjore, and then travelled 45 minutes by bullock cart to reach the ancestral home. My father was one of six children, all of whom produced many children (I myself had three siblings). So, two generations later, the size of the Kargudi extended family (including spouses) is over 200. Of these, only three still live in the village. The rest have moved across India and across the whole world, from China to Arabia to Europe to America.

This one Kargudi house has already produced 50 American citizens. So, dismiss the mutterings of those who claim that globalisation means westernisation. It looks more like Aiyarisation, viewed from Kargudi.

What does this imply for our sense of identity? I cannot speak for the whole Kargudi clan, which ranges from rigid Tamil Brahmins to beef-eating, pizza-guzzling, hip-hop dancers. But for me, the Aiyarisation of the world does not mean Aiyar domination. Nor does it mean Aiyar submergence in a global sea. It means acquiring multiple identities, and moving closer to the ideal of a brotherhood of all humanity. I remain quite at home sitting on the floor of the Kargudi house on a mat of reeds, eating from a banana leaf with my hands. I feel just as much at home eating noodles in China, steak in Spain, teriyaki in Japan and cous-cous in Morocco. I am a Kargudi villager, a Tamilian, a Delhi-wallah, an Indian, a Washington Redskins fan, and a citizen of the world, all at the same time and with no sense of tension or contradiction.

When I see the Brihadeeswara Temple in Tanjore, my heart swells and I say to myself “This is mine.” I feel exactly the same way when I see the Church of Bom Jesus in Goa, or the Jewish synagogue in Cochin, or the Siddi Sayed mosque in Ahmedabad: these too are mine. I have strolled so often through the Parks at Oxford University and along the canal in Washington, DC, that they feel part of me. As my family multiplies and intermarries, I hope one day to look at the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona and Rhine river in Germany and think, “These too are mine.”

We Aiyars have a taken a step toward the vision of John Lennon. Imagine there's no country, It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too.

My father's generation was the first to leave the village, and loosen its regional shackles. My father became a chartered accountant in Lahore, an uncle became a hotel manager in Karachi, and we had an aunt in Rangoon.

My generation loosened the shackles of religion. My elder brother married a Sikh, my younger brother married a Christian, and I married a Parsi. The next generation has gone a step further, marrying across the globe. Globalisation for me is not just the movement of goods and capital, or even of Aiyars. It is a step towards Lennon's vision of no country.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope one day you'll join us. And the world will be one.

Busy Monika

2009-10-16T14:58:00.002+07:00

Sorry for my slackness and not updating more as we head into the first week of training. I really thought that with my thesis out of the way I'd have lots of time, but instead I have been running around all week, catching up on all the things I put off while writing. Finally, some catching up this weekend!

We went to the community on Thursday to hand out information about the training next week and to get a final tally of those interested. The trainers have been doing a great job the few times they have gone there the past few weeks and everyone was eager to show me the swatches they had been working on. There were heaps and heaps!! Some are already onto increasing and decreasing and almost everyone is knitting even, neat rows. A few people had crossed stitches, but still they were even. They're a nice group and my knitters really like working with them and I think everyone is looking forward to having them there, teaching, all week rather than just every few days. Mony especially is really great at forming relationships and making people feel comfortable and relaxed.

I have the final list (although we are quite certain a few people were away on Thursday and might sign up on Monday morning) and will be matching names to knitters this weekend and sending those out to all the sponsors. A big, huge thank you to everyone who offered to sponsor a knitter! We're all full and no longer need any more sponsors for this group. If all goes well, maybe the next training, in another community, will take place next year in February, but nothing certain for now.

Back to running around now. Definitely check in on Monday for news of our first training session and, I hope, our first "Knitter, up-close-and-personal" story ;).

Great news story from India

2009-10-13T16:44:00.002+07:00

Just a quick update: I am free from the shackles of academia! I sent in my final dissertation yesterday afternoon and put away all the study material today. What a relief!!

More tomorrow on CK, but for now take some time to read this article about a young man in India who has taken it on himself to educate the poor young children in his neighbourhood: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8299780.stm

Now he's a true hero!!!

Quick Update

2009-10-08T16:11:00.003+07:00

Things are hectic as I am trying to get the products ready to go to the shops, organize the training at Toul Sambo and complete my MSc. dissertation which is due next Friday but needs to be sent off by Monday afternoon. Most of my focus is on the last one but I try to squeeze in time with the knitters as they work on new patterns, improve their seeming technique and happily knit away. Here is a lovely photo of Tyna, Mony and Rofi with their latest work.. They love love love making these monsters. You would too (go here for your very own pattern).

In other news, we're up to 24 sponsors! A great, big hug and thanks go out to my brother, Kuan-Neng Foo in Milan who is sponsoring 5 knitters!! You're the best brother a girl could never have. You might wonder how it is that I have a brother with a very obviously Chinese name living in Milan, when I am so obviously Polish and living in Cambodia... well it is a long story about our wonderfully globalizing world. For another time! Also a big thank you to the Trandem clan, sponsoring a knitter each (for a total of 4) and of course everyone else too!

Also, I have secured a factory supply of the safety eyes that we need at extremely good rates. And I didn't need to order a minimum of 100 000 pieces either. The order is placed and now just waiting on some documentation from the Cambodian side to process the shipping. By next week, if all goes well (breath deeply held), we should have them. Next task: yarn from Beijing.

Knitting School

2009-10-05T13:13:00.004+07:00

We went back out to the community today to make sure that everyone that is interested has a pair of needles. Quite a few of the people we met on Friday had kept going over the weekend and we saw a few finished pieces of all garter and some stocking stitch! Some of them were amazingly good for beginners. Mony, Tyna and Rofi continued teaching and I asked them to also show the continental style of knitting. Not everyone learns the same, not everyone knits the same and I think that if someone is discouraged with one style, the other might be more suitable for them.

I spent the morning working with a group of women trying to teach/convert them to continental (I confess, I am a continental knitting snob and not only do I prefer it, but generally think it is the superior method... this might offend some of you English style knitters and I am sorry, but whether our knitters choose English style or continental style we will of course support them, but I will try at this early stage to get them on my team ;)). Ooops, long digression there.

Anyway, so knitting school was in full swing today, with about 20 people sitting in small groups giving it their best. I really have to give extra props to the handful of male knitters for joining the training. One of them is learning really fast and could potentially be our best knitter!

In sponsorship news, we have found 14 sponsors so far! I've added a "donate" button onto the right hand panel of the blog to make it easier for interested donors. I can send you a PayPal invoice, but a couple people had trouble responding to it. Or if you are in Canada, direct deposit to RBC is the best way to go other than Interac by email (a new magical thing I only just found out about). Please spread the word and let your friends and family know about the project!

Sponsorship call!

2009-10-02T09:18:00.003+07:00

Sponsor a Knitter – Support a livelihood

You could help a struggling community help itself, stitch by stitch! Cambodia Knits is hoping to find sponsors to support knitters-to-be through a three-week basic knitting training period.

Starting October 19, 2009, Cambodia Knits will be training members of the community at Toul Sambo, Cambodia. Once trained, participants will have the skills — and guaranteed employment — to earn an income and support their families. That means your one-time support will launch a livelihood for years to come.

Who you’re sponsoring

Toul Sambo is located 25 kilometres outside of Phnom Penh, where there’s little access to employment opportunities. The families living here were recently relocated from Phnom Penh and due to the high prevalence of HIV infection among the community, it has received the unfortunate nickname of “the AIDS village”. This relocation made international news and was widely condemned. The stigma of living in the green metal sheds that make up the relocation site, further marginalizes the people there. We hope that through training and gainful employment, Toul Sambo community members can overcome these recent struggles and work towards a brighter future. 33 community members are interested in taking part and we don’t want to deny any of them the opportunity.

How it works

Cambodia Knits is offering training in the community to anyone interested in learning how to knit. Participants will receive a small daily fee in lieu of what they might have been able to earn otherwise during training time. They will also get a bonus on successful completion of training. These stipends are where your funds will be used.

Sponsorship cost

You can sponsor a knitter-in-training for only $30US per participant.

Sponsor as many as you like! Every cent you contribute will go directly to the knitters to support them during the training period. We provide all materials, so no part of your sponsorship goes towards production costs.

About Cambodia Knits

Cambodia Knits was started in June 2009 with five knitters and is still in the early stages of its development. Our goal is to become a sustainable social enterprise, enabling women in poor and marginalized communities access to fair, flexible and rewarding employment. CK knitters produce quality hand knit toys, which we distribute for sale throughout Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We believe our model works for everyone involved:

· Knitters receive training before they begin to work for us and get continued support for skill development afterwards

· Knitters do not need to leave home to produce products, can work on their own schedules, and do not need to invest in materials

· Knitters will have a guaranteed market for the goods they produce, as CK will purchase these directly from them at fair rates

· Profits will fund expansion of the training program to more communities

We feel it’s important to pay learning knitters a training incentive to support them through the training period. Though we would love to provide these incentives ourselves, we’re not yet in a financial position to do so.

As we are not a charity or NGO, we’re not able to provide tax receipts for your donation. However, we’d be happy to provide information about the knitter you sponsor, including photos from the training period.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a knitter, or have any questions, please email monika@cambodiaknits.com.

Thank you for your support!

Monika

Happy happy happy

2009-10-01T12:45:00.006+07:00

Needles galore and mini-yarn balls for Toul Sambo:

Deep sigh of relief.

This morning on the drive out to Toul Sambo I had many worries floating around in my head. Not having enough needles, not being sure how many people would want to sign up for training, the yarn being too thin for teaching, the village leader not having prepared a list of names, not knowing where in the community to set up the training and so on. Today could be potentially messy, I thought.

The morning couldn't have turned out better (well, except for the lack of needles).

When we arrived, the village leader was nowhere to be seen. Another community member had taken on the responsibility of talking to everyone and making a list of interested people. Great initiative and the list was well prepared. Without it, things would not have gone so smoothly. We told everyone the problem with the knitting needles and not having enough and although they were disappointed, they seemed willing to share with one another until we come back on Monday with more.

We met with every interested person, gave them a pair of knitting needles and small ball of yarn and directed them to Rofi, Tyna and Mony, who were ready to teach them casting on and knit stitch. The official training has not started, but we wanted everyone to have a chance to learn, practice and get the hang of the bare basics. This way, when we start the training in a few weeks, the foundation will already be set.

And this is where it gets exciting and 'happy'. I was really worried about Tyna and Rofi and how comfortable they would be. They are young and shy and they had both, along with Mony, expressed concerns about working with HIV positive people. As you can expect, there are a lot of misconceptions about HIV/AIDS here and a lot of fear. They seemed to understand that the disease could not be transmitted easily, but feared that they might be open to other illnesses. Davy, Yeng and I have been reassuring them that we would not ask them to work in a situation that put them at risk and that if they felt really uncomfortable, we would need to talk about it some more.

So today, I really thought they would be nervous working with the community and I had no idea how training that was so unstructured and informal would go. We didn't have a chance to prepare too much or talk it through, I just asked them to cover the basics. I didn't have a chance to give them any support either as Davy and I were busy going through the list, getting names right, trying to learn the situation in each household.

I only found out when we got back in the car how it all went.

Tyna and Rofi are usually very quite, shy, reticent. They don't ever say much unless asked a question and even then only with some encouragement. When they got back in the car today, though, there was no shutting them up! For most of the ride back it was all excited, happy chatter in the back seat. I could only catch the recurrent sabay sabay sabay (happy in Khmer). Turns out everyone was happy. The community members were happy to be learning and my knitters were happy to be teaching them. They even said they would be happy to go there on their own on a moto (they know the next 10 days I'm busy with finishing my MSc) and continue training.

Yeng, my amazing husband, had said something to the knitters the other day about learning new skills. He said, and I paraphrase, when you learn a new skill of any kind, you should never think its just yours to keep. It can only become truly yours when you pass it onto someone else and help them grasp it as well. I don't know if my knitters got that or really internalized it, but I do think they reveled this morning in being able to teach others. It seemed it was fun, exciting, rewarding for them. And it clearly made them happy. There was no need to worry about location either. Although not ideal, a woven mat in the shade of a banyan tree can make a learning space. It's the teachers and students that make it what it is.

For me, it was an emotional morning. When I started this journey, expedition really, to establish Cambodia Knits, it was moments like these that I had hoped and aimed for. Seeing the Toul Sambo (a community whose misfortunes I had only been following in the news until a month ago) people sitting in small groups, smiling and really happy, eager to learn makes it worth all the stress, doubt, minor debt and worry. Oh, and of course hard work. It's moments like this morning that show that it is possible for these families to improve their lives 'stitch by stitch'.

Future Knitters

2009-09-28T12:32:00.007+07:00

I wanted to post this since our visit to the community last week, but didn't have a chance until now.

On Friday Davy and I visited Toul Sambo again to have a short meeting with community members to tell them about Cambodia Knits training, working for CK, training dates and so on. When we arrived, Hope, a health organization (I have tried to look it up, but there are at least a dozen orgs with HOPE somewhere in their names) was there giving basic check-ups, distributing ARVs and holding a short meeting to pass on some health messages.

We introduced CK to everyone there. Some had met us the week before, but most people had been away for Pchum Ben so it was there first time to hear about the training and the possibility of working for us. I showed some of the completed monsters and they were very well received (lots of smiles from the kids). Everyone was very eager to give knitting a try, to see if they could learn how to make the funny creatures.

Surprisingly enough, there are several men who want to try as well! I had presumed that only women would be interested, as knitting is generally considered in the feminine domain (not saying I agree, but really, that is the generalization) perhaps even more so in Cambodia. I had always imagined that the project would be about helping women in these communities, but if men want to join, I can't and won't have any objections. One of the men used to work as a motodup (motorbike taxi driver for those not savvy in the ways of Cambodia) before the relocation. The city is too far for him to travel to from Toul Sambo. He has five children to support on his own and if knitting for CK is going to help him do that, all the power to him!

Some potential points of conflict: another organization, a medium sized international NGO working on various projects around Cambodia, has talked to the community leader and the vice-governor about setting up handicrafts training in the community. Their support, however, will stop at training and not provide any access to markets. Also, the community leader, who encouraged the community members to accept the relocation and who currently lives in PP in an apartment given as thanks for these efforts, is drawing up a proposal to get funding to build a handicrafts center and 20 sewing machines. Ultimately it will be up to the community to decide which is the most advantageous and suitable for them.

That being said, the above two proposals are 'in the air' and no one is certain how or indeed if they will materialize. Its important, however, to be aware of the other things that are in motion in the community and be prepared for any possibility. Again, having the support of Davy, who knows the community well will be invaluable. In the next few weeks, we'll visit the community once a week (myself and three knitters/trainers) to introduce the first steps of knitting, find out who is willing to commit to the training, collect some basic information about each family and start to build relationships. Building relationships based on trust and respect is not something that many businesses aim for with their employees, but for a social enterprise, I don't see how we can have any hope of success without it.

More monsters!

2009-09-24T20:44:00.002+07:00

The monsters are here!!!

2009-09-23T13:33:00.003+07:00

Not much to say except: YAY! We finally got it all together. Here's just a few but there will be many more in the days to come!!

Again, these wonderful monsters are patterns from the brilliant Rebecca Danger. You can find them here if you want to make your own. Or just go and look at her other wonderful patterns.

Small update on post below

2009-09-22T20:58:00.003+07:00

I just got a wonderful email with Davy explaining her handicraft business in more detail. I hadn't realized that she started the business on her own with only 50 USD in 2001 making greeting cards by herself to sell to a few market stalls and built it up over the years into a business that employs over 140 women from the poorest communities. She's diversified into paper flowers and other handicrafts, all of which she taught herself to make! She is truly an amazing woman and I'm very fortunate to have her to learn from.

Davy's Flowers

2009-09-22T10:09:00.005+07:00

So I wrote that I would post about Davy's project and show some photos so here goes:

So Davy works for the Phnom Penh City Hall on their urban poverty alleviation project. It had been supported by UN-Habitat, but once funding ended, she lost all her staff. Now it's just her, with no budget and lots of pressure. She has had her own handicrafts business for some time and involves some of the communities she knows about in PP. She trains women in making flowers out of corn husks, bamboo leaves and other natural materials which are usually found as garbage around markets. I haven't worked out the process, but they dry, cut and paint them. The result: 100% recycled, natural, handmade flowers (not sure what the dye is or how eco-friendly it is, but will find out). Even the leaves are somehow dried and preserved.

She buys all the finished flowers from the women, paying a very fair wage, brings them to her shop and her staff there arrange them for sale. For PP residents, the shop is on Street 106, the double road that runs from the train station to the river, on the north side, close to the river. She also has a stall at the night market which is close to her shop (Fri-Sun nights, 6pm-10pm).

Davy is quite well established and organized, although she is looking to expand her market base. She wants to get in contact with 10 000 villages and if I have time, I'd like to try to help her reach the Internet market. Although we both will have to work out how to ship products from not-Cambodia. The postal system here is too unreliable and slow. I mailed a package of tea to a friend a few years ago. It took, no joke, 18 months before he received it! That is just not consumer friendly. A simple trip across the border to Thailand will eliminate any such silliness as the Thai postal system is very reliable, fast and cheap.

Toul Sambo

2009-09-17T14:33:00.006+07:00

This morning I drove out to the Toul Sambo relocation site with Davy, PhD student Julie who has been doing research at the community even before the eviction, and two knitters, Mony and Rofi. Today's visit was to meet briefly with the community, show them some knitted products and make plans for a meeting next week. A lot of families were away as Pchum Ben (festival of the dead) starts tomorrow and this is one of two times in the year when everyone (who is able to) travels to the provinces.

First some background on evictions in Cambodia in condensed form. Land values in Cambodia and especially in Phnom Penh have skyrocketed over the past few years. Many poor urban communities that have been living in crowded pockets of the city for years or decades, now find themselves occupying prime land. Many of them are eligible for land titles under the current land laws but because rule of law is a fiction here, most of them are facing eviction. Or have already been evicted.

Last week, the government canceled a World Bank project (LMAP) which had been working since 2002 to develop a fair and transparent system of providing land titles. A recent internal study showed that while the project had had some success in rural areas, it had mostly failed to secure land rights for the poor in urban areas. Its attempts to remedy this situation were not taken well by the government and Hun Sen very publicly ended the program, stating in a speech that the WB rules were too complicated and the project came with too many conditions. Those conditions: follow the law and give land titles to those people with rights to them, not to highest bidder.

So evictions continue and the recent forced resettlement of families from Borei Keila to Toul Sambo was particularly condemned locally and internationally. The reason: the majority of the families have at least one member who is HIV positive. In the process of deciding which families would be granted an apartment in the city and which would not, these families were sidelined from the start. By moving them all to a location outside of the city, far from medical care and grouped together into what other locals call "the AIDS village," authorities have made it incredibly difficult for these families to survive. Read more about the background of the community and the eviction here and here and here.

This is the community that Davy suggested I work with and why we drove out there today. The situation is as grim as the newspaper articles tell it. The rooms are small and hot. According to Julie, a rep from Doctors Without Borders who had worked in emergency relief situations said the house construction did not even meet the basic standards of emergency housing. Furthermore, he believes that the structures won't last for more than a couple years of heavy rains as the foundations are not constructed well. There is no running water and inadequate sewage system. Now the residents can collect rainwater but what happens in the dry season? There is nowhere to find work nearby and community members can't even hope to establish small businesses as locals won't buy from them anyway.

Below are some photos of the site. The first two are of the "shelters" where the Borei Keila community is living. Each family shares a room 3.5 x 4.5 meters. The third photo is of the buildings only a few meters away that are being saved for soon-to-be-evicted families from another area of Phnom Penh. These are much larger and of much higher quality.

Relocation sites don't need to be this bad! The municipality of Phnom Penh spent as little money as possible to construct this site (one can only speculate how much was lost at various stages to corruption) and did it quickly with little planning. They moved the families there even before adequate infrastructure was put in.

It's very likely Cambodia Knits will start to work here. Mony and Rofi showed some interested women finger puppets and Bunny Nuggets. They also showed them some basic techniques and how to cast on. A lot of women rushed in to give it a try and according to Davy they are really keen to learn new skills so they can produce something (anything) to provide for their families. The next step will be to organize the training and a few weeks later get them set up with enough materials to be able to start knitting!

BKK Stash o' Yarn

2009-09-16T14:29:00.003+07:00

I am back from Thailand and lugged home over 10 kilograms of yarn with me. The shopping was not as super as I had hoped, but I did bring back some reasonable quality acrylic semi-bulky yarn. I also picked out a sampling of bulky and super bulky yarns for experimentation purposes. The knitters are happily, dare I say somewhat excitedly, knitting up monsters in the new yarns. The bulky yarns are mixes of wool and acrylic and the knitters have never knit with anything other than acrylic and some cotton. They've never experienced anything so bulky either and the monsters will be much bigger than previous ones.

Below is some stash. Yarn-o-philes, have not any envy: its mostly acrylic.

I have a twilight zone story from Bangkok, but I will leave it for tomorrow.

BKK

2009-09-13T13:59:00.002+07:00

I'm off to (one night in) Bangkok for two nights and 2 hectic days of trying to find all the goodies that are lacking in PP. I'm sure I can find most of what we need, it will just be a matter of being sleuth-ful and patient. I'm not taking the camera with me since it's too bulky (curses on the person who stole my Cybershot two years ago) and I don't want to have any more to carry around than I am going to be buying. I'll post photos of the stash when I get back on Tuesday night.

Finally, something about CK

2009-09-09T13:24:00.003+07:00

So I just finished a casual meeting with a woman from City Hall, Davy. She's a project manager with a poverty reduction programme they have, but I didn't hear much about this. She's been involved in UNHABITAT and knows a lot of the poor communities in and around Phnom Penh. She also has been involved in some of the relocation sites and runs a handicraft business in order to provide employment to poor families in those areas. Seems we are on the same page.

She recommended one relocation site where she has met with the families and they are very eager to get some training and work. She doesn't have enough of a market for any more of her products (says she has a surplus now) and wants to introduce me to the community to see if it is possible to start a knitting workshop there. Its great to have someone who knows the people and the situation well and to get introduced that way. I'll visit the site with her sometime next week.

Another option that is still open is to work with women from around the old dump site at Stung Meanchey. Again, I have a friend with a very deep connection to and understanding of the community who is willing to help me in building a strong foundation of trust. This is going to be important because each site will have to be somewhat tailored to the needs of the community. The products will be the same and the expectation of quality will remain high, but how we engage with the knitters and train them will need to be sensitive to local realities.

I'll post some photos of the kinds of products that the women Davy works with produce tomorrow. They make flowers out of corn husks, bamboo leaves and other such waste products and they are really impressive! More on that later.

To end on a very, very sad note, Meow is still missing. Its been almost 3 weeks now and I still have crying spells and minor depression. I've hired a pet detective to look for her and printed hundreds of photos of her to hand out. Today is a very lucky day, or so the Chinese population of Cambodia say, being 090909. I hope it beings us some luck and Meow comes home tonight..... :...(

Still unrelated

2009-09-07T08:09:00.004+07:00

So, there is still nothing new to report on the knitting front so I give you another photo:

This is one of my favourite sites along the road from Phnom Penh to Ratanakiri. Usually, you see three or four motorcycles like this, traveling to the city together. I've been told the reason they do this is to save money on taxes. If all the beds were put onto a lorry and brought into PP that way, a tax would need to be paid. There is no tax for bringing in goods into the city on a moto. Thanks to this, you see dozens of ridiculously overloaded motos everyday.

If you have any doubts about how difficult carrying a king sized bed on the back of a moto might be, stop now. The bed in the photo is not one of those light weight IKEA particle board numbers, but a full fledged wooden bed. We have one at home and it takes two people just to reposition it. To move it, it needs to be disassembled and then each component requires at least two people. These guys who do this everyday are nothing short of amazing!

7 elephants

2009-09-04T14:10:00.003+07:00

So since there is not much to report on the knitting front (we're knitting, we're waiting for plastic eyes; hearing that over and over again is sure to become dull), I've decided to post some random photos of interesting things in and around Phnom Penh. For those of you who live here (or have) this might not be so interesting, but for those of you who haven't, this regular installment could be. So here are the first slices of life in PP:

PP traffic police are well known for their ineptitude and incompetence. When a traffic light goes out and the traffic cops take over, you can expect it to take at least five times as long to get through an intersection. All this changes when a VIP is traveling through. When this happens, these dudes are so swift and professional at stopping all traffic, in every direction, putting hundreds, nay thousands of people to a standstill, its amazing to see them so mobile and active. Until the Big Man zips through at top speed and then they go back to usual sloth like behvaiour.

7 elephants. Don't need to say much about this one except that is a brilliant rip off! Can you count 7 elephants in the logo which is otherwise exactly like a certain chain...

This is just...hmmm. The Gentle Dental Clinic. Its quite new but already it has more clients than the Brutal Dental Clinic just up the street.

One down, two to go...

2009-09-01T13:05:00.002+07:00

My complaining paid off and one package finally arrived; the one from my sister. So I'll keep complaining and hopefully that will enable the release of the second parcel from the PO, the one full of plastic safety eyes. If not, its countdown to my trip to BKK where I can pick them up along with tapestry needles, felt, more yarn samples and other such fun and necessary things. Thanks to AirAsia, I can get to and from BKK for 79USD!

The knitters are following the Ramadan tradition of fasting during the day and I don't know how they do it in this heat! I would go crazy without at least 3 liters of water a day... Not only do they manage it, but they continue knitting like machines, churning out monster after monster. I really look forward to being able to post pictures of the finished monsters (...package....grrr...post office...bleep bleep).

Also, if you have ideas for kids games, go here and enter a blog contest with some lovely prizes.

Deflated monsters

2009-08-28T13:20:00.005+07:00

Deep sigh. Still waiting on Cambodia Post to deliver two parcels. One from Canada from my sister, full of goodies I need to start a sweater for Yeng and a sweater for me. The other, full of plastic eyes so Cambodia Knits can finally get on the road to profitability and out of the red. But alas, alack, no. It makes no sense. Some parcels arrive in reasonable time, others sit somewhere for months on end before they are permitted to surface by PO staff. Why do they release some parcels and hang onto others?

The monsters below are all ready to be stuffed and sewn together, but they lack faces. Without a face, they have to wait as they are, dismembered and deflated. There is nothing we can do for them, but reassure them and ask them to wait a little longer. The knitters are knitting more monsters as I write. Soon, the workroom will be full of faceless monsters, suffering quietly, slowly growing impatient. My dreams will one night turn to nightmares of these faceless beasts. Maybe if they are made to wait to long, they'll gather up their various body parts and make their way, bumping into the walls as they go, into the room where Yeng and I sleep. Then, having no mouths and unable to scream or hurl insults, they'll throw their little knit legs and arms at us or worse....

Cambodia Post! Don't let this happen!! Just deliver my package....

Bunnies!

2009-08-26T12:26:00.003+07:00

So our first project in the round was the Bunny Nuggets recipe from Rebecca Danger and below are some photos of the results. We started on 6 mm needles to get a feel for knitting on DPNs (double pointed needles for non-knitters) and I think with a bit more practice, they'll be ready for the stores. I still need to get the plastic safety eyes, so all stuffing and finishing has been put on hold until someone at the Cambodian post ofice gets around to doing their job and putting my parcel of hundreds of safety eyes into the PO Box or I go to Bangkok and find them there. I'm sure the order has safely arrived in Cambodia its just a matter of the package actually being released from the depths of the postoffice basement to the sorting area.

In other news, and this is very sad indeed, Meow the cat is gone again. She was accidently let out last week and limped her way to freedom. She was not fully recovered from her run in with the Big Black Dog next door and we had planned to never let her out again. At least not without injecting her with a GPS tracking device. But she really, really wanted to go outside and do whatever it is that Meows like her do and got out when the opportunity presented itself. It's been almost a week now and Yeng and I have lost hope she'll come back... I hope I'll help better news later on.

The handsome knitter

2009-08-24T11:46:00.003+07:00

After a mostly hellish week in the provinces (hellish only because of all the travel, not because of the company, the research or anything else), I'm back in PP and back to knitting. This morning I introduced the knitters to knitting in the round. There was a lot of confusion and laughter but in the end everyone worked it out. Our first pattern is the lovely Bunny Nugget, a free pattern from Rebecca Danger. She has lots of lovely critters on there so have a look!

Since Yeng stole my translator and I haven't found a replacement yet, Yeng himself has had to step in and translate a few times. This morning, he decided after so much translating knitting instructions and observation, that he too could knit and decided to give it a try. I can't say this with certainly, but he is likley the only male knitting Cambodian in the world. But Yeng is so cool and comfortable with himself that even this assault on his masculinity leaves him unscathed. And he did not too bad knitting at all. I'm going to try to get him started on a scarf and hope that his 5 minutes of knitting leads to more... but I someone doubt it will.

Not much here to see this week

2009-08-17T21:41:00.002+07:00

I'll be away for most of the week, doing research in "the field" for my MSc project so there won't be any exciting updates here.

I dropped off Mony, the one non-Cham knitter at the village that the other women are from this morning along with lots of yarn, needles, the patterns and half a kilo of tea. The women are going to work there for the week since I can't be here at the apartment to supervise. Their mission is to make as many finger puppets as they can so that we can work out a peice rate that is fair and a good incentive. I met a woman that I want to write about at some point in the near future. She is the mother of one of my current knitters, looks about 75 (although in reality she is more likely in her 50s but has had a hard life), and is still knitting away pretty little sweaters for her grandkids. I'd like to talk to her more and find out where she learned and so on.

The cat came back...

2009-08-15T13:41:00.005+07:00

The start of the week was difficult because our beloved cat, Meow, had disappeared and was gone for 4 days and nights. We found out from neighbours that she had been attacked by a dog on Thursday night and disappeared shortly afterwards. I was despondent and spent most of the weekend crying, thinking about the poor little cat hiding somewhere dark and dirty, all alone, nursing her wounds and unable to move. Somehow on Monday night she managed to crawl back home, completely dehydrated, limping and with telltale signs of the dog attack. We even managed some CSI style deductions from the hairs underneath her nails to determine exactly which dog it was.

After nursing, two visits to the vet and lot of loving, the cat is almost back to normal. She'll continue limping for a few more weeks as her dislocated hip heals. Despite this, she still wants to go outside and has been sitting starting at the door for the past twenty minutes, as if willing it to open. No way, little cat. You're never going outside again! Your pitiful, begging eyes have no effect on me!

You may think this is unrelated to the topic of this blog, but that is not the case. Meow plays a big role at Cambodia Knits, whether she's attacking knitting needles, chewing on yarn or entertaining the knitters by falling asleep in a plastic amongst them, she fulfills an important role.

I also managed to finish knitting a bed for Meow a couple days after her return.

A troop of monkeys

2009-08-12T14:25:00.003+07:00

Today I read a news story about a man who was caught with a 1000 images of child pornography on his computer. He blamed his cat, claiming that the cat had walked on the keyboard when he left the room and had initiated the download. Yeah right! Now, if you had a well trained monkey, like the ones below, I could see this excuse almost working, but to blame your kitty is just a tad ridiculous.

I digress. We're knitting away and I've been to visit the village where four of the knitters live. It is a very poor village, with most of the houses made of scrap wood and corrugated iron roofs, on stilts at the edge of the Tonle Sap. They had told me that there were 8 women in their village who already knew how to knit who wanted to join CK and another 10-15 younger women who wanted to learn how to knit. I initially thought that we'd first work with the women who already know how to knit and also give them training on how to share their skills with others.

It was not to be.

It turned out that the eight experienced knitters were from a different community, 2 kilometers north of where my current four knitters are from. This shouldn't be an issue except that they are much more well off and, well, were quite snooty towards my knitters. Cambodia is a very hierarchical society and the poorer you are, the lower you are on the ladder. I had planned for the current knitters to act as mentors to the new group, but with the disparity in living standards between the two groups, I could tell that the new group would not be able to tolerate learning from women they consider lower than them. I later confirmed this with my husband, who did the translating with me, and my fifth knitter, who is from a different community altogether and observant and insightful.

Also, the new group of knitters informed us that they would not need any training (we were thinking at least two weeks to learn the techniques correctly) and could start working right away. One of the women told us she could learn everything in 1 hour and refused to participate in the training as she could use the time to do other things. Also, they are already working for someone else knitting hats and earning a fair wage.

Putting it all together, thinking it over, I decided that to work with the 10-15 untrained young women in the poorer village is more in line with the overall goals and vision of Cambodia Knits: to help women in marginalized communities gain flexible and fair employment. Even though it means training knitters from the beginning rather than starting with experienced knitters, it will be more beneficial than working with women who already have a good thing going on.

I later told my current group the plan and they agreed to talk to the women in community and make a list of the women interested in joining the training. They came back the next day and told me that a new factory opened nearby and that all the women in their village had gotten jobs there. No willing knitters in the village.

Back to square one.

Photo time!

2009-08-06T11:05:00.006+07:00

Some pictures for you to enjoy (sorry about the poor quality, don't what's going on...). This time of all the knitters and all of the finger puppets. We have elephants and monkeys, dogs and cats, giraffes and lions and pigs too. The knitters also developed their own version of a Cambodian cow. For those not in the know, Cambodian cows are very different from what we call a cow in North America and Europe. Cows aren't of the black and white variety, but a pale grey or white, with very long faces, pointy horns and skin that looks as though it is loosely draped over their thin frames. This morning (and they are almost done), they've been working on a water buffalo which I'll post pictures of tomorrow.

You can see the Cambodian cow finger puppet below. In the picture of Rofi (the lone knitter picture), the cow is the one between the pig and the monkey on her right hand. Its a darker colour of yarn than the actual cow but its quite appropriately Cambodian-cow shaped... don't you think?

We're getting stuffed!

2009-08-05T10:03:00.004+07:00

I finally located some material suitable for stuffing. Well, I always knew about it but was hesitant to use it for our stuffed toys because I'm not sure how 'fluffy' it stays over time or how it will wash. I originally wanted to use polyester toy stuffing, but its impossible to get new here. What we're using now is 100% natural fibre that comes from the seed pod of the majestic kapok tree. Read more about the kapok tree and its uses here. It really is an amazing one!

The kapok (the fluff has the same name as the tree) is called gko in Khmer, another one of those words that if pronounced even slightly incorrectly can have a completely different meaning. In this case, I usually end up saying either throat or cow and everyone has a good laugh. Below is a picture of a bag of the stuff, retailing for 4USD and a close up to give you a better look. I'm amazed at how soft it is even though it comes from a tree.

Finger puppets

2009-07-29T09:40:00.004+07:00

Here are some photos of finger puppets that we are practising to make right now. The patterns are from etsy designer Raynor Gellatly who designs very cute amigurumi with a finger puppet option for the body. The knitters are very happy to be working up the designs and enjoy watching the little critters slowly come to life in their hands.

The knitters are getting very proficient and confident at reading the patterns. Now we need to work more on improving the finishing, quality and consistency. I still need to find suitable stuffing. I might have mentioned before that basically NOTHING is available in Cambodia and I've had to order in most everything we need. The safety eyes are on their way from the US and I'll need to take a two day trip to Bangkok to find the stuffing and more tapestry needles.

So have a look at the pics, but know that these are just the start...

More pictures

2009-07-28T15:16:00.003+07:00

My mother requested more pictures of the knitty knitters knitting. So here they are along with our lovely stash of yarn recently arrived from the USA. A big, big thank you to Ame for lugging it all back with her! Also, a picture of Meow being her usual weird self.

Birds birds birds

2009-07-24T12:09:00.004+07:00

We are at the end of the second week of knitting. We've come far and here is a photo of some knitted birds made as part of pattern practice. The pattern comes from Claire Montgomery's book Easy Baby Knits, a wonderful book of simple patterns for 0-3 year-olds that I highly recommend for new or experienced knitters alike. Thyda is hard at work translating more patterns into Khmer so next week, I'll have even more to show you soon.

More exciting is that the yarn from the US arrives on Monday and we can start producing some things for actual sale! This will be very useful as we are a business and selling things contributes significantly to our success ;).

Knitting pattern in Khmer

2009-07-19T16:09:00.004+07:00

Its been a long, tiring, but fun week. First of all, I present to you what might possibly be the very first ever knitting pattern in Khmer. I can not confirm that this is indeed the first (and perhaps that is rather unlikely) pattern to ever be written in the Khmer language. It is entirely possible that before the Khmer Rouge period there were books or booklets of patterns available at the markets. The history of knitting and crocheting in Cambodia is murky, but who knows what we'll discover on this journey. Still, none of the women working with me now have ever followed a pattern, let alone seen one.

A big challenge has been teaching them how to read and follow a pattern. An even bigger challenge has been figuring out how to write one! The knitters don't have language for all the terms that come up in knitting (things like garter stitch and moss stitch have no names, and terms for things like KFB, sl1k1psso are unknown). A knit stitch is referred to as stitch up and a purl, as a stitch down. Pretty much everything else we've been making up as we go along. When I say we, I don't actually mean me, except in the role of facilitator, encouraging the women to develop language that they can work with. For example, I explained that seed stitch is called so because it resembles seeds (or moss, if you call it that). In Polish is it referred to as rice stitch, again because of the resemblance. In the end, the knitters decided to refer to it using a Khmer word to describe a certain rice seed!

This is all very challenging, yes, but even more than that, its exciting! Exciting to be a small part in the process of creating a vernacular that can later be shared and passed on. Its possible that in the next few months, as we meet more knitters and hear more stories about how people learned to knit, that we'll come across some old pattern books or rediscover the lost language of Khmer knitting. If we do, we'll revert to using what is already there. Until then, we'll keep being creative and playing with stitches and words.

In the beginning there were four...

2009-07-13T12:23:00.005+07:00

Just a quick one to post the photo of the first four knitters, hard at work learning combination style knitting.

it all starts on Monday...

2009-07-10T11:59:00.004+07:00

So Monday is the day that we begin to knit, knit, knit. Up until now its been all about trying to find things and people. Now I have sufficient amounts of both to get Cambodia Knits on the road to actual production. The knitters are experienced in knitting but not in reading patterns, so that will on the top of the list of things that need to be learned. The knitting needles and yarn are all from the local markets and of very poor quality. OK enough to practice and play with, but not good enough to make anything for sale. Luckily, a friend has returned to the US for a couple of weeks and I've put in an order for several kilos of yarn that she can bring back. And I finally found a factory supplier in Beijing willing to sell in smaller quantities so the next order can be larger, cheaper and put our importing skills to the test.

It's very exciting to finally be at this stage! I'm looking forward to my living room being full of knitty chatter and experimentation. The apartment is going to be rearranged this weekend to make the space more "work-like" and comfortable for all of us. Finally, the full space of the apartment will be utilized (our flat is spacious to say the least). When we're ready to expand to more knitters and need a bigger office, we can move. For now, Cambodia Knits lives with me.

a long week...

2009-07-04T12:26:00.002+07:00

The search for yarn continues. Thyda contacted all the garment factories in Cambodia that produce knitted products. Of the 16 I found listed, only one was willing to talk to us about buying extra stock of yarn that they might have laying around. I had visions of cones of multiple colours, wool, cotton, bamboo, all of suitable thickness that would be waiting for us to rescue them from the factory waste bins. I imagined getting a great deal on yarn we could practice knitting our products on, getting a feel for different textures before making a decision on what kind of yarn to go with.

There was no such luck... what I did learn and what I perhaps should have/could have figured out beforehand, was that factories that produce knit products do so with the thinest possible yarn, on machines, and that they rarely work with anything above a fingering weight yarn. The manager was very helpful and after looking at the samples I brought along, he called a few other knitting factories and the answer was the same at each: we have no such thing.

So its back to ordering from either US sites like Peaches and Creme or KnitPicks and asking some soon to arrive American visitors to stash as much as their baggage allowance will allow. The idea of importing several kilograms from China is all but dashed since all the factories I got into contact with have minimum orders of several hundreds of kilos... per colour!

Knitters found!

2009-06-30T12:18:00.003+07:00

The radio ads, which have only been on for two days, have paid off. This morning I met with our first two knitters, sister's-in-law, who are happy to join our team. They come from a Cham community north of the city and are going to introduce me to other family members who also know how to knit, keeping things in the family is common in Cambodia and it will be good to hire knitters from the same community at the start of the project. I had a look at the samples that they brought and they are quite skilled and with a bit of training I'm certain we can start creating amazing things.

I found out that both of them had made handknit products for sale. One woman worked at a Chinese factory making handknit sweaters for 40 USD a month and the other woman had knit baby items for sale to a person who then sold them at the local markets. What was shocking was how much she was paid per item! For a pair of standard baby bootees, she earned 200 Cambodian riel. In USD thats 5 cents. 5 cents for at least 2 hours work!! The bootees were then sold at the market for 75 cents. The yarn was poor quality, but this is irrelevant. Thyda, my translator and right hand woman, told me there are a lot of 'business people' taking advantage of cheap labour in this way. The women who end up doing the work have no choice and feel that any income, however small, is better than none at all.

I hope we can provide decent and fair opportunities to more women like this in the future... bring it on!

searching and talking

2009-06-25T17:13:00.002+07:00

Deep sigh.

This week, which is still a day and half (Saturday mornings are spent training Yeng's staff at NETPRO) away from being over, has been all about looking for things and people and about talking about things with people. I've driven around the city to all the markets, looking for someone who will import some worsted weight yarn for me. It seems not many market vendors are interested in doing anything other than what they are doing now, regardless of the opportunity for profit. This is interesting! I even told one vendor I would buy over a hundred pairs of bamboo knitting needles if he would source them for me. He yawned and waved me off.

I think I have a lot to learn about doing business in Cambodia...

I've spent countless hours online trying to find distributors in China (a major source of good quality yarn) but all I can get to are the factories and they need orders to be in the tonnes of yarn and I'm not quite ready for that yet.

Stitch by stitch

2009-06-19T13:30:00.003+07:00

I guess at this early life stage of this blog it might be pertinent to explain why I am throwing caution to the wind and armed with only my enthusiasm and high expectations, starting a knitting co-op type social enterprise in Cambodia.

It all started when I was in Austria, a 6 year old child of a refugee family fleeing Communist Poland for a better life in Canada. Being so young, I didn’t fully understand the situation we were in, just that we weren’t home and were never going back. When my mother and sister started knitting hats and sweaters, I knew I had to get in on the action. I demanded to be instructed in the fine art of crochet and armed with a crochet hook and a string of yarn, I made my first chain. I was so proud of my creation, I wore it as a necklace and sometimes as a headband. Was my love of all things yarnish born then? Probably not, but I do remember the fascination and awe that stitch by stitch, a new entity was slowly created by my own two hands.

Stitch by stitch. That is what appeals to me most about knitting. It is a slow and laborious process, sometimes monotonous, always meditative, that results in an end product completely unlike what one starts with: two sticks and some yarn. Now, stitch by stitch I hope that I can help women in Cambodia improve their situations through fair, flexible and rewarding employment. Throughout the ages, women have clothed their families and kept them warm in winter, stitch by stitch, and now I hope that Cambodian women will have the chance to help their families (not with warmth, that’s not needed here), stitch by stitch.

Last month, I reentered the world of knit madness when I returned home for my father’s funeral. It was a difficult time, both sad and reflective. Getting back into knitting somehow helped me stay afloat in the emotional tsunami that lands shortly after the initial shock. It was a constant, a comfort, a connection to others. My sister, a knitting wizard, introduced me to Ravelry and the obsessive monster awoke, demanding to be fed more and more yarn, more patterns. It wanted to create, to clothe, to make things!

In the endless hours spent on the Internet looking at knitty things, I stumbled across an article about a woman who set up a small business in Bangladesh making high quality toys and baby knits for export. She’d started with $500 and four years later employs almost 3000 women. I was inspired and saw no reason holding me back from attempting something similar in Cambodia. I’ve never wanted to run my own business as making money was never something I was interested in. My driving force has always been ‘helping people’ at least trying to. I didn’t always know how to apply myself effectively to do that, nor am I a completely selfless do-gooder Mother Theresa type either.

I worked in NGOs for the past few years here in Cambodia and while that experience was rewarding, I’m hooked on the idea that social enterprise has the potential to reach more people, more directly with less strings (and reports) attached. Billions of dollars of aid have poured into Cambodia over the past decade and yet still the majority of the population lives on less than a dollar a day with limited access to clean water, health services, or education. Creating jobs for people, helping them earn a decent salary in order to be able to access those things and aim for more… I’m betting its an effective way to ‘help people’ help themselves.

Which is key. Aid is often too much about handouts not enough about sustainability. (I’m reading Easterly’s The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good). So many well intentioned NGO projects have a life span of months or a few years. This is not enough to build anything long lasting and once the project support is pulled, the cracks begin to appear. NGOs should still have a large part to play, especially in advocacy, but I am less enthusiastic then in the past about how effective they can be in a country basically overrun by NGOs. (I could say so much more here, but maybe another installment).

So there will be no Knitting Unlimited, Cambodian Human Rights and Knitting Association or Knit for Peace. Not even UNKNIT. Instead Cambodia Knits will aim to become a profitable business not through grants or donations, but by creating and producing high quality products for sale locally, electronically and through worldwide distribution. I hope along the way we can add on things like preschools at the knit centers, scholarships, or even use profits to build wells, buy chickens or goats, seeds or whatever the women feel their communities need. The ultimate goal is not to enrich some far away investors who provide cash for returns but to enrich the lives of the women we work with.

Getting started

2009-06-16T16:06:00.002+07:00

This first thing I need to do before anything else, is get a good translator to help me. My Khmer is very basic and although I can get by at the market and around town, its not enough for talking to people in government offices or making inquiries at factories.

So the search for a translator begins!

I decided that it would be best, most appropriate really, to hire a female translator since I'd like the person involved to take up knitting in order to be able to translate patterns later on. Doing that will be impossible without knowing how to work with two sticks and a string and I really don't think there are too many Cambodian men willing to assault their masculinity by learning to knit. I was quite clear in the ad, stating that we are looking for a part-time female translator. Despite this, no less than 5 men have applied asking "is it ok that I am male?"

Hmmm?

Through the interview process I met a lot of interesting women, some with great English but most already working full time and hoping that the part time position could be done in the evenings and weekends. I was almost in despair when I finally interviewed the perfect candidate. Great English, free during the week and genuinely more interested in part time work in order to be able to spend more time with her son and who really understood what I was trying to do. As an added bonus, she is a hibernating knitter. Not for long!