Blogtober 2021 : Day 27

Hello to you!  It’s been a busy day here as not so small daughter and I have been to the Yarn Lane TV studio, but before I tell you about that, let me first say how lovely it was to read all your comments about yesterday’s post and the Winter Haven KAL.  Thank you!  I’m absolutely thrilled that so many of you are going to join me in your cosy corners and I am so looking forward to it already!  I’ll definitely get that new KAL sock pattern on the needles … and now the next question, do you want spoilers or shall I keep it secret until January? 🙂

Back to today, and not so small daughter was up bright and early (you need to know that this is not a regular occurrence during school holidays so this was a Big Deal!) and we set off for the Yarn Lane TV studio in Redditch, which is near Birmingham.  It’s about a two hour journey from our house and the traffic was busier than I expected for school holiday time but not so busy that it caused us any delays.

I don’t have any new photos of the studio to show you as they’re not keen on me taking any in there, so in case you haven’t seen my blog post about my first visit to there, I’ll show you the photo of what the studio looks from the outside …

where it’s pretty much indistinguishable from the other units on the industrial estate and one of the inside set.

There’s a much longer write up about it all in the earlier post but the studio looks the same as they are still conscious about social distancing.

Not so small daughter is currently interested in a career in TV or film production and after wracking our brains to think of someone that we could ask for advice about qualifications, it suddenly occurred to me that I was going to a TV studio today.  Wow!  How lucky are we to have someone to ask about that kind of career?!

I sent a quick email to ask if my girl could come with me to at least have a peep into the studio when it was quiet, but Rebecca who is Head of Programming as well as a show presenter was really kind and said that she would ask the producers if not so small daughter could sit in the gallery during the show and see how it worked.  The gallery is actually a small room with lots of TV and computer screens in it – I hadn’t been in there before so not so small daughter had one up on me there! – and it’s the nerve centre of the whole programme.  It’s where the remote cameras are controlled from and if you’ve watched Yarn Lane (or Sewing Street, also filmed there) before, you’ll have seen graphics come up on the screen and noticed that the presenters talk both to the guests and to the producers during the show – that all happens from the gallery too.  There’s a lot of high-tech wizardry and it’s full-on for the hour of the programme.  Not so small daughter thought it was brilliant!

Also on today’s show, which was all about the West Yorkshire Spinners Vintage Tinsel yarn, was Anna Nikipirowicz who designs the crochet sock patterns for WYS.  I’ve never met her before but if you’ve seen her on Yarn Lane and thought she looked like a lovely person who would be good fun to chat to, you’d be absolutely right!  She took this photo of us – Anna, me, Rebecca and Vicki (Yarn Lane presenters) – and has kindly said that I can use it in my blog post.  What a smiley crowd we are!

Do you know, if you’d asked me about this in January when I very first went on the show, I would have said that being on TV absolutely wasn’t for me but it’s been such a good experience this year and I am very glad that Rebecca persuaded me that I should give it a go!

After the show, not so small daughter spent some time chatting to Cat and Joe, today’s producers, and has come home buzzing with possibilities for her future.  I must send huge thanks to them (even though they will probably never read this!) as I think that helping to shape a young person’s future is such an important job and their time today has helped more than they probably imagine.

The drive home was considerably slower than the journey there.  The traffic was not so good and we spent a lot of time sitting in queues, but it had definitely been worth the trip!  If you’d like to catch up with today’s show, you can find it on YouTube now as it’s already been uploaded.

There’s a glass of wine with my name on it and I’m going to spend the rest of the evening knitting (I have a knitting belt shawl to finish! 🙂 ) so I’ll say goodnight to you and see you tomorrow! xx