There is one chapter of The Little Hat Company story that has yet to be hit upon in our original "storylog", it is the story of Debbie Knowlton and how she came to be a little hatter as Cathie McCoomb affectionately has named us all. Apparently when Sue and I had first opened the store on Lower Main street in South Berwick, Deb had her eyes on us. Little did we know.
I remember Allison coming into the store and introducing herself and showing me her beautiful key rings - which I loved and we sold out of, had to take orders....Allison also made me write down a name of someone local who loved to sew and I should meet. At that time I pretty much dismissed it because I couldn't even think of how I would make payroll to bring someone in from the outside to make hats for us. Well as Deb tells the story she stalked us with phone calls for about six months - I must have been in a zombie state of mind because I have no memory of the phone calls or the stalking as Deb refers to it.
Deb came on board under another local stitcher and the rest is history. Since then she has designed countless hats for all ages and is still sewing for us and now part owner while we rebuild and restrategize the direction of the company. We were hit pretty hard by the economy and almost lost the ship but the group of us remaining standing have refused to give up and even without pay are making it all happen again - this time on the Internet as being our main focus. We have also begun doing juried craft shows to pay down the debt and who would have thought that it would be working? NEVER give up when what you do makes you laugh, you don't get nauseau thinking about doing it, you working with people you care about, and most importantly you have a product that people are have sought out - making that extra effort to find what you produce.
Deb Knowlton is an amazing asset to the company and another piece that makes us complete. She knows what she is doing and has such a high level of respect for her craft that it makes our hats all the better. She is known for answering her door in her fuzzy pants (if she's sewing) aren't we all?
I have never had so much fun and felt as proud about what I am doing as I do now with The Little Hat Company and the amazing team working together to build an empire...an empire of hats. How ridiculous does that sound until you stop and think that LL Bean did it with a boot, Ben & Jerry's did it with a dish of ice cream, Breathe Right did it with a nasal strip (band aid for the outside of your nose, and Stonewall did it with a jar of jam. The Little Hat Company is doing it with a hat...say that three times fast and please forgive the late night blogging dialects.
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