INTERVIEW: Get knitted with Ascension knitwear

Hot off the needles of Southwest England knitters, Ascension’s Head of Design Sury Bagenal tells Greenmystyle.com about the company’s limited edition and oh-so-local knitwear range.

The Ascension Autumn/Winter knitwear range….tell us more!
For 2008, we produced a small knitwear range from a project in Macedonia but unfortunately this supply chain is no longer producing. For this season (A/W 2009), we started by buying some luxury yarns from an Italian wool producer and planned to hunt for a handknitting supplier to produce Ascension own-label clothing.

From our desks in Dorset, we tried to look around the world for a way to produce hand knitted garments with an ethical background, but to no avail.

But we had three cardboard boxes full of industrial size cones of yarn left in our offices so we decided to use these. Working in a small business means we all try to think of ways to directly help the company sales, and equally, we can’t bare wastage, so we needed to make a plan!

How easy was it for Ascension to create its own label knitwear accessories?
One of our own-label team has an expert knitting family, all locally based in Dorset and Somerset, so armed with a knitting pattern found in a local knitting shop and a big box of yarn, we made a few examples, suggested them to the team and agreed to use up a large amount of the yarn on hats and scarves for Ascension accessories.
One member of the family lives in a small Somerset village where there is a high proportion of retired ladies who love the clicking of knitting needles! They are also are keen fundraisers for The Relief Fund for Romania, a charity that helps a wide range of groups including street children, the sick, the elderly and destitute communities.

Around 20 women became involved, with an average age of over 55, so they have a combined amount of years knitting experience at around 1,000 years! Each lady knitted a few pieces for the range and so we can guarantee that each piece has been made with care in cosy Somerset homes, and is both unique and handmade.

These local ladies were not interested in making money out of the project, so anything Ascension gave them for these pieces went directly to the charity. This on average works out at just under 20% of the price, which goes to the Romanian charity they support.

This knitting project therefore has three interesting aspects: using up the spare wool, fundraising for charity; and embracing local production!

What plans do you have for Ascension knitwear in the future?
We would really like to move back into producing garments for next winter and know from working with a number of ethical brands that there are great garments coming out of Nepal, so we’re working hard to develop a supply chain that can bring our new designs to life for next season. Wish us luck!

Ascension is offering Greenmystyle.com readers 20% off all its knitwear from 8 -15th December!