I've been teaching some lessons for skillmeonline.com and we were filming the crochet lessons this week. I won't go too far into the wheres and whatevers because you can read about that here and here. Suffice to say it's been bloody hard work but I'm so glad that I did it because it really paid off in the filming!
I'll start on Monday. The lovely June said she could cover the shop and I'm so glad she did because I would not have been ready. I had to nip to Verity's to get her fabulous Orbits dress to dress the mannequin in - as I have a much bigger waist than most mannequins so only a few of my crocheted items would have looked good. She fed me lots!!!! I played with little Alf! I bought some of her hand dyed yarn. It was then that I realised I'd lost my purse!!!!
I bought a new purse at Daphne's Handbag at the same time as I bought some new chairs for the shop:
I actually got the purse for free but I would have paid a lot - look!!!!!
Gorge ey?
I'd left it on the bus on the way to V's and not realised until I came to pay. I rang the bus company and they'd found it but I wasn't going to be able to collect it until 9am the next day but we were getting the train at 7.30am and I needed the cards in it to get the tickets from the machine. ARGH! The lovely lady on the phone arranged for me to meet the very same bus to collect it from the driver but I had to rush rush rush rush to get there. So I did. Obvs I smoked as I ran. Health conscious.
Anyway, the rest of the day went swimmingly - I sorted all of my yarn into suitcases:
Top coated my shiny nice new nails!
I'd got them done on the Saturday before at Jaques in Carrington and they were brill. I really liked my nail technician but I forgot to ask her name.
So, the next day we got up real early - met at the train station at seven. We collected the tickets and walked calmly to the train, got on, sat down, did some make up and read the paper. Not stressful at all! As we got into Leicester there was a poster of Michael Buble who we both really love so that was exciting for us and we got a bit giddy:Lovely Michael. There was loads of good music following us around. Hear'say, Pink and Destiny's Child! Brill!
When we got there we did a fair bit of messing around whilst the boys were working. That was the flavour of the day really...
Until shit got serious:
We did loads of work on the first day but we were still one scene down!!! I must say Masa and I were really pleased to be on the train home with chocolate and a cup of tea. Tired was not the word...
Masa stayed over betwixt the days so that we could make sure to wake up together and on time. We did our make up on the train and balled up some of Verity's yarn that I bought the other day because I wanted to use it in the scarf lesson.
I'll show you that in a few weeks once it's finished because it will be stunning!!!
We were much more focused on the Wednesday, probably because we all knew what we were doing a bit more. We got the rest of the squares done pretty quickly:
But the sewing up and edging lesson took the mick. That was two whole hours to film! TWO HOURS!
After that we had a bit of a rest. Oli and his lovely wife Rehmat fed us super well!!! Pizza on the first day and loads of sanwiches, samosas and flapjacks on the second day. I'm aching for a salad now though - stodge is good to keep you going but now I need some vitamins or something...
Joe, the camera man was lovely. He has a company called On Point Productions and he was dead good, dead professional with all of the equipment and stuff. Snazzy. Towards the end of the day though we realised that the mannequin, Sylvia, had been turned with her back to us for a few scenes - not sure what he was thinking about then... Anyway, here he is:
Looking a little sheepish I think.
Masa did some modelling for the sight towards the end of the day and I did some modelling of my own...
We were trying to show off my mic pack but it looks like some sort of weird glamour model shot apart from the energy drink bottle on the floor...
Getting on for evening now and we were all tired. We decided to do some slow mo shots of the individual stitches that didn't need to have any sound on them so we had a chat... about feminism. I'm not sure the lads knew what hit them seeing as me and Masa are both lawyers with a bit of a chip on our shoulders but they ought to be happy that my sister wasn't there!
This was the setup for the last shot of the day. The sun had well and truly gone down and we were all knackered!!! We tried to get the dress done and did a really good start about how to work out what you need to get before you start on a pattern but by the time it came to actually doing the dress we could barely make any sense between us so we thought it best to pack up and sort that in the next days filming. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get that done in time!
I'm dead proud of what we've done. I think we've covered a hell of a lot of material and for the prices that Oli wants to charge I think it's going to be fantastic value. The patterns are exclusive to the site for one year so you'll have to wait to get your grubby mitts on them - or you could buy the lessons! We really covered a hell of a lot - from how to hold your hook to some really pretty wicked lace. I'm hoping we get some really good photos to show off the projects for you.
Masa was a STAR! She genuinely learned as much crochet in two days as I did in two years - she got tired and stressed in the second day but as soon as the camera was on she was interested and engaged. When I got a bit crabby whilst having to 'sell, sell, sell' for the intro shot she kept me going. I love working with her and haven't for years! Such a good friend!
Oli and Joe were great too, dead impressed with the setup and really grateful for the opportunity. You lot know that I'm a celebrity (local and national and pillar of the community, obvs) but the rest of the world don't. So this is just one more opportunity to get people engaged in my stardom. ;)
Mary, who owned the house, was wonderful. Dead friendly when she needed to be and out of the way for the rest of it. Perfect and a perfect house too.
Phew - I think that's everything. I now need to write the knitting lessons in... two days. Shit.
See you on the other side,
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