{"id":23455,"date":"2019-08-08T06:05:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T20:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/?p=23455"},"modified":"2019-08-08T16:59:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T06:59:11","slug":"interknit-double-the-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/living\/interknit-double-the-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Interknit – Double the finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s never a dull moment at Interknit. Since becoming finalists in two categories in the 2019 Federation Business School Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards it\u2019s become more hectic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DESPITE celebrating eighty years in business, owner of Interknit, Andrew Blaszak, said the Ballarat based company has only recently come into the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve only really been in the public eye for the last few years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no need to advertise back in the days where sales agents would sell to shops and contracts were awarded to Australian made garments over cheap imports. We didn\u2019t even have a shop front until 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focusing on remaining viable has meant improvements in areas they never anticipated. Andrew has worked hard to stay on the forefront of yarn technology, including treatments that have made it possible to both machine wash and tumble dry pure Australian Merino wool yarns.<\/p>\n

This helped the business become a finalist in the Ballarat Technology Park Innovation Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t hand wash anything since having kids,\u201d Andrew said. \u201cAnd the more I looked into it and talked about it, the more I found everyone around me would prefer an easy-care option like this too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Interknit\u2019s easy-care wool is machine washable and you can tumble dry it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision to move to wool that wouldn\u2019t be ruined by a machine wash and tumble dry had an unexpected knock on effect in the local community.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were coming to us upset that their mum or dad\u2019s favourite wool jumper was ruined by being loaded into a machine wash at their care home,\u201d owner Kassie Blaszak said. \u201cBy offering pure Australian Merino wool jumpers that can be safely machine washed and tumble dried, we weren\u2019t just helping busy families wear wool, we were helping the elderly remain comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kassie has been focussing on educating a new generation of wool wearers by both promoting the benefits of the natural fibre on social media and by designing homewares, baby blankets and fashion garments that suit a younger, fresher clientele.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have new ideas all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cWhenever there\u2019s a spare knitting machine I\u2019m onto it, working out something new we can make.\u201d<\/p>\n

As her ideas become reality, they\u2019re knitted out in Andrew\u2019s easy-care yarn and the resulting product range helped to make Interknit finalists in the Federation Business School Creative Industries Business Award.<\/p>\n

Interknit\u2019s achievements are down in big part to its small team and with a retirement last year it became even smaller.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rely so much on the experience and integrity of our staff to produce the standard of quality we are known for,\u201d Kassie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honour to be a finalist in two categories in this year\u2019s Business Awards and the achievement is recognition of our wonderful team at Interknit and the amazing things we make.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s never a dull moment at Interknit. Since becoming finalists in two categories in the 2019 Federation Business School Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards it\u2019s become more hectic. DESPITE celebrating eighty years in business, owner of Interknit, Andrew Blaszak, said the Ballarat based company has only recently come into the spotlight. \u201cWe\u2019ve only really been […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":23456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-23455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInterknit - Double the finalists - Golden Plains Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/living\/interknit-double-the-finalists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interknit - Double the finalists - Golden Plains Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s never a dull moment at Interknit. Since becoming finalists in two categories in the 2019 Federation Business School Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards it\u2019s become more hectic. 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