Rahesh Joshi-Production Manager of Woolen Products

Nepal is a country where women are primarily perceived to work as house wives and take care of the family and farms. Generally, the men are the breadwinners of a household. Rahesh Joshi, our production manager for all woolen products, wanted to change this perspective. Coming from an established Newari family, he wanted to bring the untapped skills of women weavers and knitters to the market.

As a kid, he saw his mother knit beautiful woolen sweaters for him and his siblings. He further says: “Buying a machine made sweater was a luxury back in the day. All we had to put up with was the hand knitted sweaters or gloves made locally. We did not feel so good about them. We were more into dreaming about wearing machine made woolen products. But now, we realize we were wrong. The amount of time, love, dedication and passion you put into making anything with hand can never be replicated by a machine. The machine knit sweater can never be as warm and cozy as a hand knit sweater”.

With this realization, Rahesh started to explore the deepest alleys of Patan, an ancient city adjoining Kathmandu. There he found many women knitters who would bring out their ball of wool in the sun along with friends and neighbors, all chatting up and knitting various woolen products. Knitting is so much fun when it is accompanied by chats and laughter. Rahesh spoke to many women knitters asking them to produce woolen products for him. He provided designs and patterns, necessary wool and kits, advance money and there it all started, by the end of the week, he had finished products flowing in.

Empowerment comes from motivation and inspiration. He did just that. He inspired the women knitters to come forth with their talents and assured that he will promote their products across the globe through NepaCrafts. Now we have a huge collection of Woolen Socks, Woolen Legwarmers, Woolen Gloves & Mittens, Woolen Handwarmers, Woolen Headbands, Woolen Caps, Woolen Beanies, Woolen Mufflers, Woolen Cardigans & Sweaters along with bags, purses and more.

We are very proud to bring to you the most authentic hand knit woolen products that Rahesh Joshi and his team of empowered women create. Our wool is imported from New Zealand and Australia and dyed using SWISS CLARIANT PROCESS.