STV's Five Thirty Show, best episode ever!

Got a spare four minutes?

If so, get on over to STV Five Thirty Show Monday 6th October part two and watch a wee segment on Glasgow Knit n Stitch meetup, sponsored by Stitching Time Hamilton!

It's on between 04:09 and 08:26, just after an item about e-books.

Don't we look swell!!! I'm just amazed that after about 1 hour 45 mins filming they distilled it down to four minutes plus, and even more amazed they didn't feature more of the knitted objects we brought. Anyway, not to panic, here's the link.

http://video.stv.tv/bc/catchup-TheFiveThirtyShowPart2-20081006-1743/

Some of what I'm saying doesn't make sense because of they way it has been edited, but some would say, no change there. Plus, I haven't been knitting for 9 months. SRSLY?

I think we all come over well, and even the panning shots round the room are nice.

And I didn't shout at the telly! x K

Dragging myself into the 21st century

Firstly, thank you for the lovely comments on Angora Froth.

Ok, I've gone and invested in a memory stick. What a handy little gadget!

It's amazing the way the technology we used to associate with James Bond is now part of our everyday lives. For instance, accessing the internet from a mobile phone, all this info at your fingertips, was just a dream only a few decades ago.

Anyway, to the case in point, I have been using my new memory stick/pen drive all the time this past fortnight.

Lots of the following post will be absolutely old-hat to some, but you've got to start somewhere, and I am starting here.

One of the main uses I've been putting it to is to prepare Power Point presentations for the pupils. I don't think technology could ever replace a decent teacher, and I believe that a genuinely good teacher could be successful with a stick in the sand or a chalk and a slate, but it is another resource in your toolbox.

So, I've been sitting of an evening making sooper dooper animated presentations, saving them to the memory stick and then using them the next day with the little darlings.

It is a fair bit of time investment to do that of an evening, and fairly cuts into one's knitting time, but as ever in life you have to pick your battles, so I am doing presentations of things which I teach year-in year-out, such as the tenses of verbs, the rooms of the house, housework chores, places aroud your town, school subjects to name some of my recent attempts. And the good thing about the highly visual ones such as the house, can be used for both French and Spanish with a bit of copy and paste and minimal editing.

The other problem is that it entails a fair bit of setting-up at the other end. It would be easy peasy if the equipment were in place all the time, but for the moment it involves a fair amount of planning and set-up. We have been told by our Senior Management Team though that the "Use it or lose it" rule applies to the data projector etc. so it seems a good time to become familiar with the technology.

Some of my colleagues are scratching their heads wondering how I can be bothered with it. Well, for two reasons really. 1) When you have a presentation prepared on French regular -er verbs in the present tense for example you will be able to use it from now until doomsday. 2) When I am happy I am a better teacher, and I am enjoying my new resource.

Does this memory stick have any impact whatsoever on my knitting life? Kind of. I am now essentially sitting in the middle of field, and with the aid of laptop and memory stick I am able to show you my Leaf Lace Shawl being modelled in front of the iconic image of Gai Paris. Yes, we have found the camera!