Spike Knitting Mills

If you ever walk down Dharapuram Road in Tirupur, you’ll find us over at the Thangam Complex. Spike Knitting Mills is tucked into units 262 and 263. It’s a noisy spot because of all the knitting machines going at once. The air inside always smells a bit like raw cotton and machine oil. We have stacks of fabric piled up against the walls, mostly in different shades of grey and white before they go off to be dyed. The light isn’t great in the back corners, but the workers know their way around every needle and bolt. It gets really hot in the afternoons, especially during the summer months here in Tamil Nadu. We usually keep the big shutters open to get a bit of a breeze from the street, but it mostly just lets in the sound of traffic from Knp Colony. There isn't much space for a proper lunchroom, so we usually just sit where we can find a spot between the rolls of cloth. Sometimes the power goes out, and everything goes quiet for a minute until the backup kicks in. It's a bit of a mess sometimes with threads tangled on the floor, but we sweep up at the end of the shift. Nobody wears uniforms here; we just wear whatever is comfortable for moving around heavy rolls. It’s just regular work for us, day in and day out, and we like the routine of it.