Background and History
This is more information than anyone would want to read, but this is about me.
Broken Harrow Farm in Anson was where I started raising sheep. We found a piece of an old harrow in the field and that’s why we called it that. Not many photos from that era. No digital cameras either.
This was one of our first lambs. Obviously a blue ribbon winner. This was taken in 1976 I think, at the Oxford Fair in Maine. Also the beginning of the 4-H years. This is Boo holding the lamb. I think she was about nine.
I have always loved sewing with wool fabric and knitting with wool yarn. Having yarn made from wool my sheep produced was very satisfying. But how was I going to use it all up? Thus the thought that a knitting machine would use it up faster. Eventually with this amazing tool that did not do anything but allow me to use my hands and creativity on a level I had not imagined, I had found my true calling.
Raising my beloved sheep, shearing their wool, making my own yarn (well, sending it off to be spun) creating designs and patterns to knit it into things that I liked, and teaching other people to knit. I founded a cottage industry sweater knitting business in the 80's where I designed sweaters and published knitting patterns, developed and taught knitters my own production techniques, and sold hundreds of sweaters to many upscale retail establishments nationwide. All the while learning the ropes of business and marketing handmade goods.
Raising my beloved sheep, shearing their wool, making my own yarn (well, sending it off to be spun) creating designs and patterns to knit it into things that I liked, and teaching other people to knit. I founded a cottage industry sweater knitting business in the 80's where I designed sweaters and published knitting patterns, developed and taught knitters my own production techniques, and sold hundreds of sweaters to many upscale retail establishments nationwide. All the while learning the ropes of business and marketing handmade goods.
I was asked to submit patterns for these two sweaters for the premier edition of a knitting machine magazine. Those on the cover were not mine. It was a nicely done magazine.
When Blueberry Woolens/Harrowoolens was first in business, the kids sweaters that I had first made gave way to sweaters for adult sizes. These were featured in the Garnet Hill Catalog. Once these sweaters were on the market, I was "head hunted" by a great company in Boston and worked for them from home on a contract basis for six years.
These are scans of catalog pages showing some of the sweaters I designed during my time at Susan Bristol. These pages were created back in the days of film cameras and for some reason during the time when grainy exposure was trendy. I designed some of these the year before I left Blueberry Woolens to go work at Susan Bristol. I was part of a three person design team for a couple of years at this Boston-based company. Our sweaters were made “off shore” and I took several trips to Hong Kong and other major market cities in the US. In the five or six years I was there Susan Bristol (it was not a person, just a company name) expanded to a huge sales force and team of designers and there were no more contract designer jobs available. So that was the end of that merry-go-round ride. But it was fun. There is a photo of me in Macao with another sweater I made, but not for Susan Bristol.
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These sweater designs were made by Susan Bristol while I still owned Blueberry Woolens. This was a scan of a flyer that introduced them into their line. It was the beginning of several really fun years.
I designed graphed knitting motifs on the screen and photographed them on the monitor until I got a color printer, but spent hours learning typography and graphic design too as it evolved on the Mac during those years.
In the early 90's I managed my own design, business services, and computer consulting company, which also offered computer time rental, training and graphic design. I eventually transitioned out of working for myself into working for a small commercial printer who was just on the verge of adding digital typesetting and design.
I spent hours upon hours making clipping paths around products set on unwanted backgrounds. Using the pen tool in photoshop way back when layers were the new kid on the block. It’s one of my proudest skills. I know, it is hard to believe.
By then I was also the go-to person for software and hardware and all things Mac, including font conflicts, SCSI device problems, networking and trying to work cross platform when it was pretty much impossible. I had started with design and publishing when printing was often still done by photographing hand pasted mechanicals with halftone screens laid over black and white photos, and finished using an xacto knife carving on Rubylith.
I worked on catalogs using digital images that had required hours or days of a photo shoot, hours of looking at a million miles of developed film on a light table, waiting days for the chosen photos to be scanned so I could get them on a CD or Jazz drives. You remember those? Who cares.
Now we can expect to receive elaborate full color printed books with only a PDF file emailed to the printer or created with a few clicks on our computers. That makes me feel old, but it was really only a span of probably less than 15 years.
Then there were the years at the Maine Department of Agriculture. I had a compendium of titles, all of which suited me quite well. It was the perfect job and I loved it. This job brought all my skills and talents to bear, although sometimes it was a struggle to be able to use them.
Odd for me to be working as a civil servant ruled by political wrangling. I always worked late, often the last car out of the parking lot. Most of what I did on the websites I managed could be done at home, but even when I worked at home I was called on it and told I must sit at my desk all day. My desk was in my office with shiny green tiled walls in the building on Blossom Lane that used to be a TB ward in its former life, across the river from the state capital building. This photo was taken with a zoom lens from the parking lot.
Odd for me to be working as a civil servant ruled by political wrangling. I always worked late, often the last car out of the parking lot. Most of what I did on the websites I managed could be done at home, but even when I worked at home I was called on it and told I must sit at my desk all day. My desk was in my office with shiny green tiled walls in the building on Blossom Lane that used to be a TB ward in its former life, across the river from the state capital building. This photo was taken with a zoom lens from the parking lot.
