Saturday was a huge day for me, as Marie and I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show to help out on the Knitting and Crochet Guild stand. I had planned to use the occasion to try out the new Twitter video app, Periscope, which broadcasts live videos live as users make them. So, it was to be adventure!
I admit, it was scary, and I had to talk myself into doing it with the wisdom that the videos would be far from perfect, and that I would learn through doing them. It was an ideal opportunity to experiment with Periscope as there would be people and things at the show that would be of interest to my Twitter followers, most of whom are knitters. I knew fellow designer and friend Susan Crawford would be there, and was pretty sure she would be willing to be interviewed on video, and I also hoped to interview somebody at the Knitting and Crochet Guild stand. This was an opportunity I must not waste. Begone fear!
In order to not be totally inept when doing the interviews, I tried the app out with a little broadcast from the car on the way to the show. I was stunned to see from my phone that people were viewing the broadcast, and posting little messages to us in the app! Rather embarrassing as all I was flming was the back of the car in front, and my very camera-shy sister! Nevertheless, it was good practice, and meant we at least now knew how to start a broadcast.
Alas, we were runnng low on phone juice, and hadn’t taken a power pack with us, so were only able to do two broadcasts from the show, both of which are embedded to the right. The first was with John Freer, a long-time member of the Leeds KCG group, and a very accomplished knitter, with a passion for lace knitting, especially Shetland lace shawls. He’s a classic Yorkshireman, adorable and down-to-earth with a teasing humour. There were breaks in the video, possibly due to poor signal. Nevertheless there was plenty of excellent content retained in the interview. We chat about ganseys, lace shawls, Sanquhar and Yorkshire gloves, and how to hold your knitting!
The other broadcast was with Susan Crawford, who is currently finishing ‘The Vintage Shetland Project’, researching and reproducing 27 historic garments from the Shetland Museum archive for a fabulous book she is going to publish in February. She had some of the reproduction garments with her at the show, and we had a VERY interesting discussion about them. This was the biggest highlight of the day for me, getting into an in-depth discussion about the history, characteristics, and techniques of fair isle knitting. Because, when all’s said and done, I’m a knitting geek!
