slowknitter

So I came home from work at 1am last night to find that Stephanie has posted about her trip to L.A.

And also? To find that I had exceeded my bandwidth limit by you have no idea how much. Someone in Steph’s comments said that I had gotten “Harlotted”, which I guess is sort of like getting “dooced” only without the loss of income or health benefits.

Anyway, it was completely worth it. I had a lot of fun.

How did this come to be? Well, when I read that Stephanie was coming to L.A. to shoot Knitty Gritty my inner dork went supernova and I began a campaign to meet Stephanie and to do her hair. I sent a few emails, commented on her site, and made a lame-ass plea on this site for people to put in a good word for me.

For some reason, it worked. I’m pretty sure it had everything to do with Stephanie being overcome with wool fumes from a certain green yarn and a lot of sock knitting. Also, I’ll have to give a big shout out to D.I.Y. for taking their do-it-yourself philosophy to a whole new production low level. “Production” usually never allows civilians guests to “D.I.Y” their own hair or makeup. Or find their own way to the studio when they’re in a strange city/country. It was practically a byo craft service* too. But I digress.

Fortunately for me Stephanie had a late call** so I was able to go into work early and wrestle some wigs into submission before going over to the Knitty Gritty studio to get her ready for her segment.

You would think that the Yarn Harlot would not be afraid of anything these days seeing how she meets up with hundreds of crazy knitbloggers in every city she’s in. But I did find something that might have struck a little fear in her cute Canadian heart:

For the record that is an eyelash curler. And if you’ve never used one I do suppose that having some strange metal contraption coming at your eye might possibly be a little scary. She did fine, by the way. No eyelashes or eyeballs were harmed in the making of Knitty Gritty.

Photos, you say? Yeah, I got a few. They’re not great. I found that trying to knit, watch monitor, last look** Stephanie, and take photos was taking my ability to mulit-task just a little too far.

Here’s a photo of Steph trying to act natural while the sound mixer was messing around with her pants (I was going to say “with her arse” but that would have just been wrong):

Some of these photos are a little blurry. It’s generally a big no-no to take photos with a flash when you’re on set, especially when they’re filming. I usually just turn the flash off when I’m working (I have to take photos for work). But this can sometimes lead to blurriness.

Stephanie and Sonja (her segment producer):

What it looks like from video village****:

This is actually my usual view when I work. I am generally standing behind the director and producers trying to see monitor in order to look for anything that might need to be fixed like a stray hair or smudged make-up. When I see that things are fine I go back to my knitting. Or I did. I can’t knit on the show I’m on now, there is absolutely no time.

Here’s what they call you on TV when they’re trying to be hip:

The blue sock photo op. This photo is just about ten kinds of Meta***** what with me taking the photo of the Knitsters taking a photo of Steph taking a photo of Vickie holding the sock. I thought the whole idea of that was hilarious when I stepped in behind the knitsters. (I have a weird sense of humor, I know)

Vickie checking the photo [which by the way I should have done. The photo of me on Yarn Harlot isn’t the worst photo of me ever taken, but it’s in the top 10. It’s not Stephanie’s fault (mostly) I am not photogenic.]

And? That’s it for the photos. No photos of Cookie, who hung out with us in the dressing room and sat next to me while they taped. I’ll try and get one tonight. I’m meeting Cookie and her husband for dinner. By the way, knitty’s winter issue is up and Cookie has a new sock in the issue that is going to make me break my steadfast toe-up sock rule. The pattern is that heartbreakingly gorgeous. Go. I’ll wait to tell the rest of the evening’s story when you get back

Oh good. You’re back. After the taping we went to dinner. First we were going to do a little yarn shopping and then eat (especially since someone *ahemCookieahem* didn’t bring any knitting with her…) but as we were sitting in traffic I actually felt my blood sugar level bottom out. (normally I just turn into a three headed monster with fangs when that happens, but I was with people I didn’t know well. Plus I was driving.)

I asked the ladies if they minded if we had food first and fortunately we all had the same idea. I even heard the term ” a little yarned out”. Shocker, I know. But considering what the both of them had just been through in order to do their segments this was not at all difficult to understand. Food. Yum. Cheese. YUM.

Three of the most magical words ever: Talleggio, Epoisse, and Cabrales. Especially the Talleggio. Semi-soft, briny, and delicious.

We talked, and laughed, and told stories. Knitting was done(note to self: get pattern for the one skein Seasilk wrap from Lettuce Knit. It’s gorgeous in person.). The attempt to wind a skein of sock yarn that wouldn’t co-operate (especially the attempt in the car!). It was a good time with some amazing and talented women.

I would do it again in a second, though if there is a next time I’ll be sure to up my bandwidth limit.

—————————————————————————————–

Set (and other) terms-

*Craft Service (or Crafty):The people who provide the snacks and also the table on which snacks are provided for cast and crew to munch on throught the day. This may sound decadent, but that table actually steps around the OSHA rule of giving employees 10 minute breaks every 4 to 6 hours. Because you can’t just take a break when the law requires it.
Wikipedia’s definition is this:

“Craft service or Craft services refer to snack food served buffet style on a film or television set. It originally referred to janitorial and other services for the various crafts (i.e., the cast and the rest of the crew) on film, video production and is still used that way.

Originally food set out on a “craft service table” or “craft service cart” was for the craft service workers. Often the same company that provides catering also provides the food for the craft service table and this may be why the food is also eaten by cast and crew. “Craft service table” was misinterpreted as a table provided by craft service leading to the belief that craft service is the provider of food. Likely adding to the confusion is that often the same company provides both catering and janitorial services.”

That sounds about right. To this day, especially on bigger budget shows, craft services provides the snacks (not the caterer. Two different departments) and they also pick up trash and empty trash cans on set.

I have no idea where people got the idea that craft services is “Kraft” or somehow provided by Kraft foods (though I am sure that they would love to be associated with that).That idea is completely NOT TRUE. Problem is, if the only food on the crafty table was provided by Kraft there would be a crew MUTINY. You cannot survive 14 (or more) hours a day every day for months on end on processed crap food. You can’t. If crafty only offered “Kraft” foods on the table they would be fired. There is no K.

(okay. sorry. end rant. I know set terminology can be mystifying. I’m here to help.)

**Call or Call Time: This is the time that you are requested to be at work.

***Last Looks: when the scene is set, everything and everyone is in place the assistant director calls for last looks. This is for hair, makeup and wardrobe to go in and make sure the talent looks the way they are supposed to. A last minute touch up.

****Video Village: Where you will find an entire group of people (director, producers, the gaffer, glam squad etc) watching what is being filmed on small monitors. This might seem silly as what’s being filmed is right there in front of you, but what’s in front of you often looks very different on a monitor. If the director or producers are engaging in some sort of prodcution jackassery the term “village idiots” might come into play.

*****Meta: urbandictionary.com describes it as this:

A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. No. Really.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS