Articles About Bell's Knitwear
A career with the needles
A Paraparaumu woman who has knitted nearly every day for more than 60 years had turned pro, writes Jill Wild.Little girls who turn eight years old need to know how to knit and make pastry and scones – they were the rules, according to Lois McInnes’ mum.
Sexist? Old-fashioned? Call it what you like, but Mrs McInnes’s childhood lesson has now become a business.
Today, Lois McInnes, better known as Bell, runs a steady little business in Paraparaumu knitting anything for anybody of any size, under a name she has been known by since a kid.
“Well, when I was little, I wore a pixie hat with a bell on it and my big brothers used to call me Bell. Somehow the name stuck,” says the effervescent mother and grandmother.
At a time when many companies are retrenching and fighting for survival, Mrs McInnes has boldly opened for business. In October last year she launched
Bell’s Knitwear from a main-road shop at Paraparaumu Beach and business and work demands have spiraled upwards ever since.
“We will knit anything, whatever you want, and I think many like the fact that we will make to measure, so it doesn’t matter what your size is, we will knit it. We just put the tape measure around a client, listen to what they have in mind and then make up a pattern,” says Mrs McInnes.
The interview is interrupted by a customer who rushes in, desperate for a solution to her knitting problem.
“I have just finished a top for my granddaughter and I don’t think it’s wide enough to go over her head. What should I do?”
Mrs McInnes questions the woman and calmly explains options, even drawing a sketch of her solution. The client decides it’s all too hard and opts for Mrs McInnes’s offer to drop off the garment and have her fix the problem.
“I get that all the time. I don’t know what it is, but lots of people start knitting a garment and then run out of time or it gets too hard and we finish it off for them. We even have men – I had one recently who dropped something off for me to finish. He said he had run out of time.
“There are plenty of men who knit. I even know one in his 80s. Then I get men who bring in something their wife was knitting, and the wife has died, and they just want it finished. It’s nice to be able to help in that way.”
Mrs McInnes hesitates to estimate how many things she has knitted in the last 61 years but says she doubts there have been many days she hasn’t spent time knitting.
“I love it, I really do love it. I love casting on stitches and then eventually casting off to see the article finished. I suppose you could say I knit non-stop. In the past few years I have been starting at about six in the morning because I have so many people wanting things, but normally I don’t start till about nine when I open the shop. Then I knit all day and at night when I watch TV or read a book.”
Mrs McInnes has knitted one garment with two-ply wool, the finest wool available, but says it’s an experience she won't repeat because it took too long. These days she restricts herself to four-ply and thicker, and will knit with any combination of wool and synthetic fibres.
“The range is enormous now – angora, mohair, pure wool, ostrich feathers, wool and alpaca mix, cashmere, silk, brushed wool – there is such a range. People can either buy the wool and bring it in and tell us what they have in mind or we can supply the wool. Either way we are happy.”
Mrs McInnes reckons there is nothing she couldn’t knit up and over the years she has had plenty of diverse requests. She knits lots of men’s zip-front jackets, ponchos, hats, scarves, ordinary jerseys through to babies’ clothing and even tiny garments for premature babies.
“There are too many premature babies these days. I really notice how many young mums come in wanting small sizes.”
It is obvious Bell McInnes is much more than a knitter and store owner. She doesn’t hesitate to offer advice when she thinks a young mother lacks knowledge.
“I had a mum in here the other day and she had her baby with her, dressed in jeans and a jean jacket with no hat and nothing on its feet. I asked the mum how old the baby was and she told me three days old. It was pouring with rain and the mum had a hat and scarf on, so I told her to get her baby home. I mean if it was good enough for the mother to have warm clothing, then she should have had more on her baby.”
Mrs McInnes is sufficiently busy to use contractors to cope with the workload, one of whom is aged 92. They are women who approached her and when they are not knitting to order, they knit garments of their own choice.
“I have one lady who specialises in clothes for prem babies – anything from matinée jackets to beanies, mittens to booties.”
Mrs McInnes will stock and sell only quality hand-knitted garments and says it is easy to spot a good knitter.
“They have to knit with an even tension, and then they have to sew the garment up well and present it nicely. I can look at a garment and tell whether it’s been done well, straight away.”
The Bell’s Knitwear shop is open six days a week and on the seventh day, Mrs McInnes heads to the market at Otaki with a rack of garments and three bins full. But it is her new website that she says is proving highly successful, with people who are stuck at home able to order or converse online.
“I have people from Tauranga, Palmerston North, Levin and Wellington, let alone the locals. My 92-year-old is knitting a garment ordered by email. It makes things a lot easier for some people.”
Mrs McInnes has just had cataracts removed from both eyes and is now enjoying her new lease of life, no longer requiring glasses for long-distance vision.
“I don’t need glasses to knit because I don’t need to look at what I am doing, only if I need to read a pattern.”
But the multitasking doesn’t stop there. This professional hand knitter will have five garments on the go at any one time, easily transitioning from one to another without needing to refer to a pattern or written instruction.
“Well, it would be too boring to knit up one thing at a time; it adds variety to change. Right now I am knitting a men’s zip-front jacket, a lady’s black poncho, a red hat, a kid’s jacket and a hat and scarf set.”
The order book shows the next five or six garments required and Mrs McInnes says the more imaginative the client, the more fun the knit.
“As long as my fingers work, I will keep knitting. I love it. I learned well as an eight-year-old, didn’t I?”
For more information, phone (04) 904 5150 or contact Bell’s Knitwear here.
PENCIL SKETCH
Name: Lois “Bell” McInnes
Inspired By: Her mother
Favourite Movie: "Halloween"
Favourite Artist: Charley Pride
Favourite Quote: “Never let things get you down.”
Favourite Website: www.bellsknitwear.co.nz
Favourite Food: My own cheese and onion sandwich.
Bell's a pearl in the knitting world
Horowhenua Chronicle, Friday 14 May 2010
Frankie Web
Bell McInnes has got the needle, two in fact, knitting needles.
While some people are struggling to retain jobs, the Paraparaumu woman is using her passion for knitting to create jobs in Levin.
You can only knit so many things for friends and family, so when Bell ran out of things to knit, she turned professional.
"I love knitting and have done so since my mother taught me when I was eight years old," Bell said.
"Not so many people can truly boast they absolutely love their job, but I do - every single day."
Business grew and demand was such that she began to take on knitters.
"I opened a shop in Paraparaumu five years ago," she explained.
She closed it a few months ago with the intention of setting up in Levin - if she can find the right place at the right price.
"I have a number of knitters in Levin so it made sense to move my business here," she said, putting the finishing touches on a made-to-measure possum merino jersey created for a Levin customer.
"Years ago I used to come up with my knitting to a shop - Tumbleweeds - in Levin Mall," Bell recalled.
"There's nowhere like that in Levin now."
Such is her passion for knitting, the only time Bell can be found without a set of needles in her hands is when she is asleep.
"I knit anything, any size, any shape. I love a challenge. I had a gentleman in with a jersey his late wife had started knitting but never got to complete. I was happy to cast on where she'd left off and finish the job."
The 60-something grandmother is happy to share her skills with anyone keen to learn and south paws are welcome.
"I give knitting lessons, $20 for a course of five," Bell said.
"I'm ambidextrous, a case of having to be. I was left handed but when I went to school you got the cane if you used your left hand."
"If anyone has a knitting problem I'm here to help and happy to."
In the corner is a cardboard box with odd balls of wool.
"That's my scrap box," Bell said.
"Any volunteer knitters making things for the community like baby hats for Plunket, that sort of thing, is welcome to help themselves to the wool there. I just put my scraps and odd balls in there."
Working on commissioned pieces all week you might think Sunday would be a knit free day for Bell but you'd be wrong.
"If the weather's nice I go to the Otaki market, take a few things to sell," Bell said, "... and catch up on a bit of knitting."
"I would love to hear from anyone in Levin who has a space that would suit me so I could spend the other six days there."
Bell can be contacted by phone 021 232 867 or www.bellsknitwear.co.nz
BELL'S KNITWEAR
16 Maclean Street, Paraparaumu Beach
Phone: (04) 904-5150 <