A Glimpse of me on TV again

Tonight the Kings Arms Salford knitters were featured on BBC 1 North West Tonight. They had filmed the knitters a couple of months ago but they only aired it tonight. They interviewed Rachael, Jane with her plarn (plastic bags cut into strips to make yarn for knitting bags) Marie and Roger with his crocheting. I did catch a very brief glimpse of myself and Charlie as the camera panned around the room. The Knitted chandelier also featured in the programme. The photos on here are old photos taken at the Kings some time ago.

Today I met up with Sylvia and Kath in Manchester. We went into Abakhan but I was very restrained and only came away with a crochet pattern. Sylvia and Kath bought a selection of wool. We had a lovely meal in Simple on Tib Street. It always makes a lovely change for me to get out and about but my knee lets me down and really pains me. I am so fed up of not being able to walk properly and wanting to sit down all of the time. I have an appointment with the physio tomorrow. I have been doing the exercises that she gave me but if anything my knee is worse than it was before I started doing them. I might be strengthening the leg muscles but they are doing nothing for the pain. Today it was as painful as it has ever been. I had hoped that by now the pain would be diminishing.

I still haven't done much crochet or knitting. Yesterday Julie helped me out by mowing my lawn and I did a pile of ironing. I was shattered later on and fell asleep watching the TV. I am getting so little sleep during the night that it is affecting me in the evenings. I just can't seem to keep awake. I managed to do a few rows of a baby cardigan at Knit Club tonight but nothing that I could photograph. I doubt if I will get much done tomorrow as I will be at the hospital for some of the day.

Sweet Pea Shawl finished and fringed

The sweet pea shawl for Bev is finished and fringed. It has taken 8 x 50 grams Jaeger Cotton DK. I had to try to photograph it in between the rain showers as today is yet another miserable Manchester day so sorry about the quality of the photos today.

Last night's filming at the Kings Arms was a laugh. The BBC film crew were certainly not as good as the ones who filmed the Knitting Noras last week. It was two ladies. A camerawoman and a fluffer (I kid you not that is what she described her job as). The fluffer got to ask the questions and let's just say her job title was very apt. She could not get her head around whether we were knitting or crocheting despite being told knitting has two needles and crochet has a single short stick with a hook. She would start off - "So what are you knitting?" to be told well actually I am crocheting! She got everyones names wrong despite asking first. At the end of the interviews and filming we got told that we will be on North West Tonight for one minute fifty seconds but she didn't know when it was going to air! I wasn't one of the few who were interviewed so if you do happen to see the clip then look out for a flash of blue as that was the colour of my sweater. I would love to know how she got her job as a fluffer as I can think of quite a few people,Charlie for one, who would have made a far more professional job of the interviews than she did.

There is a bit of doubt as to when the "Calendar Girls 10 yrs on " is airing. We had been told a date but Bev has now found out that Ashes to Ashes is showing in the TV slot supposed to be allocated to us. Bev is going to find out when we will be on so I will update you when I find out.

Today I will return to Deb's shawl that I put away when Buster was here. His hair didn't stick to Bev's cotton but would have turned Deb's wool into mohair!

Filmed once again

Tonight I am off to the Kings Arms Salford where a film crew from the BBC are set to film the knitting group for North West Tonight. I am a member of this knitting group as well as the Knitting Noras but I just haven't been down for a few weeks. This time I will be one of the crowd making up the numbers and not being interviewed. It is about Artyarn and the knitting club in general. They will also be filming ArtYarn's new project 'The Knitting Orchestra' on the 27th May. If you would like to know any more about the knitting orchestra then follow the link to Artyarn by clicking on my blog title. I regularly read the blog as it always contains very interesting articles about art and knitting world wide and is not solely about Rachael and Sarah.

I have got to the edging and fringing stage of Bev's shawl but I won't be taking it with me as it is a bit difficult to fringe anything at a knit club. The light in the Kings Arms isn't very bright so I won't be taking Deb's shawl either or I will be faced with a lot of unravelling when I get home. I will have to find another project to start before I go.

Today I have been washing bedding and generally de hairing the house from Buster's visit. He is moulting badly so has left a liberal sprinkling of hair everywhere. Thank goodness my vintage hoover still has a good suction.

Off now to sign some autographs (joking!) and choose something to take with me to work on at the Knit Out.

The Knitting Noras are filmed by BBC1

Yesterday was a very exciting day. Bev picked me up in the afternoon to attend my first photo shoot for the Naked Knitting Calendar. Thanks for the lift Bev as I would have hated to have missed the day's fun. We were being filmed by BBC 1 so that we could be included in the same programme as the famous W.I Calendar Girls. Wow what an honour to be included in a programme with them.

The programme is about the W.I Calendar ladies 10 yrs on and I presume how they started the ball rolling for other ladies to "bare all". From what I could gather from the lady who interviewed us the programme is touching upon the subject of body issues. She asked us how we felt about having photos taken for the calendar without clothes and how we regarded our bodies. Deb and I told her, off camera, that having had major surgeries and sporting quite a few scars between us we wanted to do it for the confidence it would give us as women. For me as an older, overweight lady I would like to look good in a photo so that I could feel womanly, and dare I say it sexy, once more (if only for the moment) as during the last year those feelings have gone out of the window somewhat. Hobbling about stooped like an old lady with a stick, dressed in practical clothes, doesn't exactly conjure up a picture of the woman that I really feel that I am inside. I am getting old and everything is migrating southward so I need to do it now whilst I still have a chance of looking OK. I can always tape the photo to the mirror and pretend that I look like that everyday!

I didn't feel at all nervous about having my photo taken and having the camera crew there was easy to ignore, unless someone asked me a question and then I got tongue tied and a bit nervous.They left lots of sound gaps in the conversation and I didn't know whether I was supposed to chatter on and fill them or stay silent. I felt quite comfortable in the studio and were it not being filmed for the BBC I would have done my naked photo shoot there and then! The studio is in quite a woody aspect at Rivington Bolton and it felt private and intimate enough to shed inhibitions so I think I will be OK when it's my turn to get my kit off for the camera. A bit of Reggae or Salsa music to get me in the mood and I will be very happy.

Laurie Jeffery, Vicky's husband, who is our photographer took the photo of me that you see on here. I think he has managed to make me look good which is a tribute to his expertise as a pro photographer. I would like to assure you that the knitting needles in the hair are for the photo and not something I normally walk the streets wearing (although it could start a trend). Vicky has updated the Naked Knitting blog with more photos that Laurie has taken of us and of the BBC crew and if you click on the blog title then you can share the experience with us.

The BBC crew followed us to the Blundell Arms in the evening for a Knit Out. After they had finished the poor cameraman almost knocked himself out on one of the beams in there. He is a very tall guy and although he ducked under the beam he must not have ducked far enough and gave his head such a whack that he dropped to the floor. He will remember us for a while as I bet he is sporting a huge bump and bruise on his head today that will remind him of the Knitting Noras!

The crochet photo today will be remembered by me as my "famous featured on the TV" sweater. I managed to crochet 2 x 50 grams during the course of the day. At the moment it looks like a tunic as I have not yet made any sleeves.

If you want to see the programme we were told that it should air on Bank Holiday Monday 25th May on BBC 1 at 9pm. The title is The Calendar Girls - 10 years on. The interviewer promised to tell us if the schedule is changed.

It's back to the real world for me now. I shall, of course, be available for signing autographs and personal appearances after it has aired. Well a girl can dream can't she? We are all entitled to our five minutes of fame in our lives.