I have been in the knitting industry since I was 16 years old.

I started at my uncle’s shop, Jacquard Patterns, in Queens, NY. During my early years in the industry I worked on the large circular knitting machines. At that time I fixed the large circular knitting machines as well as created the knitting programs for them. In the early 1980s all the programming for these machines was done on punch card machines and every stitch needed to be punched out by hand on these special mylar cards. The main brands we worked on were Jimburcas and Wildman machines.

Queens, NY was a hub for the knitting industry. When the knitting industry was strong in NY there were 100’s of factories in the metropolitan area that we serviced. The business expanded and the company purchased flat knitting machines, brands such as, Stoll and Shima Shieki . These brands today are still the largest knitting machine manufacturers in the world.

In the early 1990s the business changed and I did mainly the knitting programs for the flat knitting machines and the circular machines were dying out. I would work with various knit designers, jobbers, knitting mills creating the original samples for the women’s, men’s and children’s markets. Designers would bring me their designs to work from or ask me to create the design. My creativity and drawing skills were the key to making original artwork for the designers. I was able to take my artwork and make it into knittable, wearable art. The company’s niche has always been the ability to turn around samples within a few days sometimes even in a few hours when the need arose.

In 2000, Andrew Materski and I purchased the business and The Sample Place, Inc. was formed. Andy had just as many years of experience as I did and the partnership was great. I excelled in the flat programming and he in the circular. Together we continued to service the knitting industry. 1998-1999 was the time when there was a major shift in the industry to overseas production and many, many of the metropolitan NY area factories closed their doors forever. Over the next few years the decline was at a feverous pace.

I looked to expand our business and market our products to other industries. I started to create photo blankets, first they were plotted by hand all the stitches and as technology advanced I was able to scan in the photos and get a much sharper image to knit into the blanket. The World Trade Center bombing in September,2001 changed our business. I created memorial blankets for people who lost loved ones that day. I did scarves for fundraising events for various organizations. February 2002 my partner Andrew died and my business changed again.

I changed the name of the company to Sample2Sample, Inc. in 2002 and continued to service the knitting industry with samples but started to concentrate on developing this new niche of photo blankets and unique scarves. Baby blankets were the next line added to the collection. Alphabet, train, animal designs and personalized blankets. My son was born in 2003 and the long hours were starting to take its toll. In 2005, my wife and I purchased the building we are currently in now in Greenwood Lake, NY. I live in the community so I can be closer to my family and still dedicate the hours needed to my business. With the purchase of the building, came the creation of the new company Blanket Boss. My main market today is the photo blankets and pillows. I have expanded the business in the last 2 years to include sublimation. Sublimation allows me to print high quality photos on apparel, shoulder bags, mouse pads, and other giftware.

In 2007, I added organic baby blankets to the collection. This year organic throws are the new collection.