All Mix Blog

Winding Up 'There were other things that contributed to the decision to close. Many of our staff were in their 50s and 60s, very skilled, but a lot of them wanted to slow down, especially on the knitting side. Also, the company that made the knitting machines in Italy closed down last year (2009). We would end up waiting on spares, sometimes for six weeks. Another reason for closing was with the yarn suppliers. British sheep give quite coarse wool. However, demands of late have been for softer Merino wools. We would get wool from France, Austria and Italy. Most suppliers were doing a stock service so we would put in a bulk order for the raw material and during the season would call in whatever colours we wanted. Hardly any of the spinners now do a stock service so we could end up waiting for six weeks for delivery. With the limited season it is very difficult from getting orders to waiting six weeks for the materials to come in. We always thought we were better at manufacturing for...

Joseph and the 80s 'In 1980 we were approached by Joseph and were very close with them, producing nearly all of the Joseph Tricot range. This was the period of our highest production. We were doing about 15,000 garments a season, with two seasons a year. During this time we opened another factory unit in Stevenage that concentrated on finer knits. At the same time we were still producing schoolwear for Harrods and in particular Hill House School in Knightsbridge. We also produced officers sweaters for the Royal Artillery and the tank regiment, if they wanted something a bit different from the normal olive drab uniform. We also did sweaters for the Admiral's Cup teams; both the UK and the USA. When Joseph was sold, production started to drop off. We were competing with the Far East. They (brands) weren't particularly interested in the hand framed knitwear that you see in the video . A lot of what we were doing was still on the hand framed machines. So for this season (wi...

Excerpts from an interview with Paul Pinkstone (MD of Stevenage Knitting Company) conducted over the phone (December 2010) and in person (January 2011): The Early Days 'The factory started in 1926 and it was just supplying local shops in North Hertfordshire . Mainly childrenswear, hockey jumpers and the like. It was amalgamated during for the war effort so the factory was actually closed down during this period. Then after the war my father took it over. He'd been in the knitting industry in Nottingham before the war. He liked the area and knew the person who owned the factory so took it over from him. My father concentrated on oiled wool sailing sweaters. He sailed himself and supplied country stores with fishermen's knits. He also supplied people like Lillywhites and Harrods with skiwear... and Lilley and Skinner, those old names. We also used to make for Marks & Spencer in the 1960s, when nearly everything of theirs was made in England. There was quite a lot of e...

M&I spent a fascinating morning at (the now closed) Stevenage Knitting Co. Expect a full write up soon but, in the meantime, feel free to see more on our Facebook page .

We have been looking forward to sharing this video with our audience since discovering it a couple of months ago. Many thanks to Mr. Sam Pinkstone for allowing this to happen.