Our founder, Danielle Chiel

After a career as a teacher and earning a PhD in musicology, I turned to my love of knitting and fashion to open a retail knitting store in Brisbane called Threads & More. I engaged people with a passion for hand knitting, worked on the pattern and garment design, then launched my self-named label in 2009.

In 2012 industrial legislation changes made producing our garments in Australia untenable. I sought an off-shore location to set up manufacturing hubs. A colleague introduced me to a contact in India.

I travelled there with a suitcase full of knitting needles and yarn. The first knitting hub began with a group of 10 women, sitting on the floor of a home in a rural village. I didn’t speak Tamil, and they didn’t speak English, but we were determined to communicate with each other to make the business work.

At first, our artisans were hand knitting for my label. As we perfected the training program and saw how stable work and income was impacting the lives of our women and their families, I reached out to other brands to manufacture garments for their labels.

Our goal is to employ more women and reawaken the fashion industry to the human and commercial potential of how hand knitting can change the world.