She started with Sh5,000. Six years later, her yarn business has five branches

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

For Joan Aoko Bwire, crochet is more than a business. It is a legacy passed down from her late mother, one she still carries with her even on the most special days of her life.

“I learnt how to crochet from my mother when I was around nine years old. She loved creating beautiful handmade pieces, and I was always fascinated watching her transform a simple ball of yarn into something functional and beautiful. Today, every time I crochet, it feels like I’m carrying a piece of her legacy forward.”

But the journey from a nine-year-old watching her mother crochet to running a growing yarn business in Kenya was not straightforward.

After completing her education at Maseno University with a background in International Relations and Diplomacy, Aoko found herself in a position familiar to many young people: she had a degree, but was not sure she wanted to pursue the career it pointed towards.

Instead, she decided to try something she already loved.

With just Sh5,000, she rented a small space and started selling yarn and other crochet supplies. It seemed like the natural thing to do. But she soon learnt that loving something and running it as a business were two very different things.

The business eventually closed.

In 2019, after her wedding, Aoko found herself at another turning point. A handmade crochet wedding dress she had created for herself had attracted attention and helped change the way some Kenyans viewed crochet. It showed her that there was an audience for the craft beyond the traditional image of knitting and crochet as hobbies associated with older generations.

But attention alone could not keep a business alive. Aoko had to close her small shop, vacate her Sh5,000-a-month space and regroup.

A year later, with the moral and financial support of her husband, she returned with a new idea.

In 2020, Osona Yarns was officially founded.

“I founded Osona Yarns with a simple but powerful vision: to make quality craft supplies accessible while building a thriving creative community where fibre artists can learn, earn, and connect. Over time, that vision has expanded beyond selling yarn.”

Six years later, that small idea has grown into five Osona Yarns branches across Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru, with the business establishing itself as a major supplier of yarn and craft supplies.

But Aoko’s ambition has gone beyond simply selling yarn.

Osona has built a community around fibre arts through its social media platforms, which have nearly 60,000 followers. The team uses its online presence to share crochet lessons, showcase designs and take customers behind the scenes during merchandise launches. It also serves as a first point of contact for customers looking for answers about fibre art.

For Aoko, listening to those customers is an important part of the business.

“Our approach has always been quality first. We spend a lot of time researching manufacturers, testing yarns ourselves, listening to customer feedback, and understanding what different fibre artists actually need. Rather than stocking products simply because they’re available, we carefully curate our collection,” she says.

Osona stocks local brands such as Robin Kenya, Winter King and Butterfly across its branches, alongside premium yarn sourced internationally.

But perhaps the clearest sign of how far Aoko’s business has come is not found on the shelves of her shops. It is in the festival she has built around the community she wanted to serve.

From Yarn to a Festival

When most people think of yarn, crochet or knitting, they may picture ugly sweaters, school uniforms or grandparents sitting with balls of wool.

Aoko wanted to challenge that image. “The first challenge was simply helping people understand the vision. Kenya had never seen a festival dedicated entirely to fibre arts at this scale. This being our second edition, we were still kind of introducing an entirely new concept.”

The Osona Yarns Festival was created to give fibre artists a space to showcase their work, meet one another and challenge some of the stereotypes surrounding the craft.

Not everyone was immediately convinced.

Years of seeing crochet and knitting as niche or old-fashioned activities had left some creatives reluctant to put themselves forward. But those who did began creating space for others, including a growing number of male crochet artists.

The second edition of the Osona Yarns Festival showed what can happen when such a community is nurtured.

Among those who took part was Jeffer Buyuni, founder of 1887 Crochets, who showcased a crochet suit on stage. He described crochet as a relaxing hobby and said he wanted to continue pushing its boundaries for both male and female audiences.

For Jackeline Oluoch, also known as Mich Crochet, the festival was an opportunity to see a three-year crochet journey come to life. As a featured fibre artist, she was able to showcase work in front of a community that understood the time and creativity behind it.

Aoko was also part of the judging panel, where she admitted that choosing winners was both exciting and difficult.

The awards included the People’s Choice Award, Most Creative and Best Fibre Artist of the Year, with both male and female artists recognised across the categories.

“Actually, the male designers stole the show. They are the talk of the town at the moment,” Aoko says.

One of them was Mark Solomon, founder of Uncle Mark Crochet.

Solomon is proud to be a male crochet artist and hopes more men will feel comfortable joining the space.

“The festival reminded me why I love crochet and inspired me to keep pushing my vision forward. One of my goals this year is to bring together male crochet artists and hopefully organise an event for men-in-crochet. I want to create a space where we can connect, support each other, and showcase our work,” he says.

Phoebe Wanjiku, a YouTuber and founder of Angelica Crochet, was equally enthusiastic about the event.

“Anything crochet related, count me in. I wouldn’t miss the Osona Yarns Festival for anything. I also got so motivated and challenged seeing other designers’ work. Oh my, people are so talented out here.”

The festival did not come without its challenges.

Aoko admits that staging the second edition required significant financial investment from Osona Yarns itself. Finding media partners was another challenge, despite partnerships with Robin Kenya, ICEA Lion, Reoprime Limited and the Little Africa Foundation.

But for Aoko, the goal has always been bigger than the festival itself.

“My biggest motivation has always been impact. Yes, I wanted to build a successful business, but more importantly, I wanted to create opportunities that didn’t previously exist. I wanted a young person interested in crochet to have access to quality materials, education, inspiration, and a community that believed in them.”

That ambition is now visible beyond the festival. Osona offers crochet classes through its various branches while continuing to use its online platforms to teach, showcase and connect fibre artists.

And she is not done yet.

She believes Osona Yarns can help take Kenya’s fibre arts scene beyond national recognition, continuing to redefine what the crochet and knitting community can achieve.

From a craft she learnt at nine while watching her mother work with a ball of yarn, Aoko has built a business, a community and a festival around an art form that many people once overlooked.

The Sh5,000 shop was where the journey started. Osona Yarns is where she believes it can go much further.

Reporting originally appeared via Nation Africa. Read the full source for additional context.