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Clarice
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Kay
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Peter
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Rex
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Pat,
Barbara, Jo & Daphne |
| Click on a photo to read
about each of these Pelage People |
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Clarice Scarborough
Clarice Scarborough is the heart of Pelage's
office. You’ll probably meet her on the phone, when
you contact Pelage. Clarice started working for Pelage three
years ago. "I love the products", says Clarice.
"I really love them." She is the accountant and
she liaises with the knitters, sewers, weavers and retailers.
Being with people is one of her favourite things. In her spare
time she likes catching up with her friends and her family,
which originally came from Croatia. Her parents emigrated
to New Zealand in the 1920s, "for a better life of course".
She keeps contact with the Croatian branch of her family,
though she's never been to see them. "I would love to
go", she says. "But I hate flying." She has
been to Hawaii and Australia, but mostly the mother of two
sons enjoys the magnificent view from her home on the beach
at Maraetai, south-east of Auckland, where she is sometimes
forced to listen to Metallica 25 times a day courtesy of her
son, who is a “metalhead” and plays the guitar
really well, as his mother says. She likes music too, buzzing
John Lennon or The Beatles from time to time in the office.
When you meet Clarice there, you can join her for a cup of
tea or a chat.
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Kay Nelson
"There is no place like home." Kay Nelson is a family
person. Her life is based around her property in Swanson,
West Auckland, the part of the city where the Westies live,
as Aucklanders call that special breed of people who love
their fancy cars and their Lion Red beer. Kay doesn´t
mind such clichés. "I´m even proud to be
a Westie," she says and laughs. Kay likes horses more
than cars though and she has three of them. "They are
my passion. There is nothing more beautiful on earth."
Cats, dogs, chickens and goats also enjoy her property in
Swanson. A small zoo! Kay is Pelage´s sewer and she
is a very skilled person. She started knitting when she was
young. "That was the path I´d chosen, I didn´t
think I would be a sewer all my life!" Kay has plans,
too. When she retires, she will go on a trip with some friends.
For at least a year she will travel through Australia (“where
all the snakes are”) in a caravan, leaving her home
and her animals. But not for too long.
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Peter Wood
Peter Wood is first of all the father of Tracy, the founder of
Pelage. He is the one who makes sure that Pelage gets its
high-quality yarn for the blankets, throws and robes. Peter
is an entrenched Wellingtonian with a passion for steam trains
and forestry, and of course big spinning machines. Even though
he is the director of Woolyarns Ltd., which was founded by
his father in 1943, near Lower Hutt, you won't often find
him in his small office behind huge piles of paper. Peter
is a passionate textile engineer and a hard worker. He loves
spending his time with his 80 workers. Eighty percent of his
busy day he is somewhere between yarn, steel and oil, crawling
in and under his beloved machines. "That keeps me fit",
he says. And nobody doubts it, because Peter, at 69, visits
the gym three times a week, showing his younger mates the
benefit of life-long work. When you ask him about retiring
and enjoying sun and sea, all you will get is a wise smile.
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Rex Anderson
Rex Anderson is the man behind the bigger knitting
machines. Somewhere in Onehunga is Rex's well known little company.
He is the kind of guy who spends at least 14 hours a day working.
"I have to do my job", he says. After work he enjoys
a cold beer. He doesn’t have much time for holidays but
when he does, he likes fishing or building. Twenty-three years
ago Rex went to Stuttgart, Germany, to check out some modern
knitting machines. He remembers the trip as one of the greatest
he has ever made. "I would love to go back to Germany,”
he admits, and he is pretty sure that he will do it. He has
been in the knitting business for 26 years now and "I still
learn every day". He got into the textile business with
his father. A pretty serious man but a good teacher. "The
hard way is the best way," Rex has no doubt about that.
That was the way he learned from his rugby coach when he played
as a winger for Mt. Wellington in Auckland. Graham Henry was
his coach. A man famous for later training the Auckland Blues
and the All Blacks. "But I was never really good enough
to join the big teams. Never mind. I love my work."
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| Pat, Barbara,
Jo and Daphne Special products need
special skills, sometimes even magic hands. Jo Bickerstaff,
Daphne Cox, Pat Walker and Barbara Murray have, together,
eight of them. The ladies are the Magic Four of Pelage. Knitting
and stitching even the most complicated things is no problem
for them. “Tracy has got those wonderful ideas, but
often they are quite hard to realise", says Jo. "She
just asks if we can do it. And usually we don´t think
too long. Yes, we can do it, Tracy." Jo has even got
a little museum of different knitting machines. She met Daphne
as she was one of her employees when Daphne still had her
business. Daphne travelled the whole world on ships and planes,
according to the other three. She got her first knitting machine
54 years ago and now she is … well, we won´t tell
you that, will we? For the past five years they have been
working for Pelage, and "it gives us the opportunity
to do things we wouldn’t usually do". Barbara was
a nurse and picked strawberries. Knitting would be a nice
change for her, she thought, "after such a long time
in social welfare". And Pat was a teacher, but then she
got married to a farmer "and you know where that ended,
don´t you", she says and smiles. Pat knitted socks
for the soldiers in the last war. And today all of them are
happy, knitting away to their hearts’ content.
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