OUR STORY
Nomvula’s (Pronounced: Nom – vuh – lahs)
When the founder of Nomvula’s, Frances Becker, was christened, the heavens opened. The rain that fell that day broke a severe drought. To honour this event, Dinah, the young Xhosa woman who worked for the Becker family, gave Frances the name Nomvula. It is a Xhosa word that means “she who brings the rain.” In Africa, Nomvula is an auspicious name because water is almost always scarce. Grateful to be alive after surviving not only Hodgkin’s Disease but Breast Cancer too, Frances wanted to reach out beyond herself to others. Knitting had helped her through rough times, and she thought it could help her community too.
Nomvula’s was born
OUR BEGINNING
Frances spent 25 years in the United States, and when she returned to St. Francis Bay, Eastern Cape she invited local women to attend a free knitting class.
It was that day Priscilla and Letitia became the first knitters, along with Clifford a local security guard, the first male knitter. By 2012 they had grown to 12 knitters who were full time partners of Nomvula’s.
OUR KNITTERS
Nomvula’s is a small company with a big heart
Employment, just like water, tends to be scarce in Africa. The company offered naturally creative women with a love for colour an opportunity to learn how to knit. These women have grown and shaped Nomvula’s into what it is today–a company of which they own 91%. The ladies now enjoy financial independence.
Nomalizo
Noneka
Zizipho
Nomandla
OUR FOUNDER
My name is Frances Becker. In my life I have been many things; a mother, dancer, choreographer, designer, teacher, and filmmaker, but one of the things I am most proud of is being the founder of Nomvula’s Knitters.
Like the twig of ‘Spekboom’ (Portulacaria afra) that you see in our branding, we give off lots of ‘creative oxygen and opportunities’ to those around us.
My dream for Nomvula’s has always been about creating jobs that supports creativity and ingenuity and where concern for the well-being of the employees and the environment is utmost importance.
OUR CAPABILITIES
Our products are not mass produced, as we work on hand operated, flat-bed, domestic knitting machines imported from England.
We love working with natural yarns like hand-dyed bamboo, organic cottons, mohair, wool and there is a place for good quality acrylics.
Garments are completed by hand, with ribbing or crochet edging and sometimes embellished with gorgeous little flowers depending on the customer’s request. Before leaving our workshop, each item is carefully inspected.
We are happy to attach your label that we ask you to supply, however we prefer that you use our swing tags that honour the knitter who proudly made the items.
We can supply short runs of 10 items and as many as 4,000 garments.
Orders can be generated online or customers can supply their own designs and labels.
Every piece we produce is unique and there will almost always be variations in designs and detailing.
We keep to a tight schedule, respect deadlines, and deliver on time. If we have any issues along the way, we’ll keep you informed with a quick call or email. Click here to learn more
OUR YARNS
South Africa is the world’s largest producer of mohair and the further beneficiation happens in Gqberha (Port Elizabeth), also known as the mohair capital of the world. We source our mohair yarns from there (103 km’s /60 miles away) and our hand-dyed cotton and bamboo come from Cape Town. The hand-dyed yarns are slightly different per lot or batch, so one can expect to see slight variations.
We manufacture our own Recycled yarns and they are called Nomvula’s roving and Nomvula’s lace.
We stock and sell an exquisite and large variety of bamboo, cotton, mohair and wool yarns to knitters and we also have an affordable range of acrylics for charity knitters. Click here to view.
OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
As in nature, nothing goes to waste
We strive towards zero waste; all yarn ends that go unused fill our pillows and we recycle our plastic, glass bottles, tins and paper. Our workshop is close to where the knitters live hence, they can walk to work and save on transport costs.
We use very little electricity and even keep our carbon footprint low by sourcing our yarns locally. Our mohair and wool come from spinning mills in Gqberha (Port Elizabeth), and our hand-dyed cotton and bamboo come from Cape Town
You can even return old sweaters for recycling and we are more than happy to darn and repair them for a small fee.
OUR SPECIAL THANKS
It takes a village to build a business and we are blessed to have a wonderful network of supporters.
Many New Yorker’s donated time and money to get us started including Mimi Calhoun, Mark Jacobson and Louise Becker. Estelle Maree generously provides knitting machine advice and expertise.
Rotary International.
Frances is a proud recipient of a Paul Harris award from Rotary for her work.
Rotary Satellite Club St Francis provides us with business advice and looks over us particularly Tom Roux, Lyn Aitkin and Brain Codling.
Many clubs have donated machinery: Rotary Club of Marr Dyke Valley (Essex,) Rotary Club of Lymington (UK),
Rotary Club of Nimes Arenes (France) and Rotary Club of Poynton & Districts (Manchester) particularly John and Anna Bissell.