Today I joined the Newbury Bobtails Online Lace Event, held on a Zoom call (presumably a professional subscription as there was no time limit) for three hours. It was organised very much along the lines of a traditional lace day. The 50 attendees, many from Newbury but others from as far away as Penzance and Edinburgh, were welcomed; heard presentations from the three online suppliers; listened to a very interesting presentation by Jen Best of Beaker Buttons on the history of buttonmaking in England and in particular of Dorset buttons; viewed two presentations of lace and craft creations by the Newbury Bobtails group; and we could join various breakout rooms if we wanted to chat in smaller groups or ask a supplier a particular question. Considering the average age of lacemakers, and the fact that the lacemaking world (at least in the UK) hasn't really seemed to embrace the Zoom age, it all went much better than I had expected - with a minimum of 'you're on mute!' and only the occasional monologue from someone who thinks we all need to know about how her Ipad isn't showing her the breakout rooms.
Towards the end, the chat turned towards the greater uptake of online communication over the past year, and how tools such as Zoom are enabling people to attend events that they probably couldn't have made it to physically, the cost saving of not having to pay petrol and accommodation, and the time saved by being able to attend from your own living room. There appeared to be general agreement that even once things get back to some semblance of normal, it would be a shame to give up the newfound technology. It was acknowledged that for some, whether technophobe or with accessibility challenges, online meetings are not the answer. So the way forward might be a hybrid of both approaches. My workplace is thinking along the same lines, and is developing a hybrid working policy for people to combine home and office work, and is even looking at whether being attached to a physical office location has any meaning any longer. Why can't you live in Leicestershire, but be attached to the Cornwall office, or take training from the London office? I suppose it all relies on trust to a certain extent. Certainly the Goldman Sachs CEO is said to be completely rejecting homeworking and labelling the past year as an 'aberration', and is said to want everyone back in the office. I wonder how many of his staff will be looking for new jobs with more realistic employers?
My in-laws have gamely struggled with the new world and over the last few years have learned how to use email and skype, more or less. So we were a bit surprised when they started fiddling with their laptop screen camera in our most recent Skype chat, resulting in a view of just my f-i-l's shiny scalp for the remainder of the call. On enquiry, it turned out that they wanted to see a better angle of the three of us, and they were adjusting their screen view in the belief that it would adjust the camera at our end....
One of the online replacements I've been enjoying is the Lace Suppliers Spotlight group on Facebook, a sort of constantly changing online Lace Fair. Various suppliers can sign up to be the spotlight vendor for 24 hours. I've bought a few things over the past several months, and this pretty pair of bobbins from Margaret Wall arrived today.
I finished the first Autumn hand-painted yarn sock and am a couple of inches into the second sock.
I've spent a fair amount of time this week wrestling with the third and final Bag of the Month pattern, which is for a two-tier bag called 'The Tumbleweed Toiletry Tote' from Blue Calla sewing patterns. It's definitely the most complex bag so far, and the first which seems to be causing more people to have issues. It's not helped by densely formatted PDF instructions which I find hard to keep my place in, and I've been reduced to literally sewing along with the video instructions - which is not typical for me at all. Although labelled as a toiletries bag, people are making it as everything from a handbag to a knitting bag. I've followed the hack to add some extra pockets inside so I can use it as a craft tote. It doesn't look like anything at the moment as I am in the midst of attaching the top compartment to the lower compartment.
Don't forget to fill out the National Census tomorrow!
1 comment:
Tjis new world is interesting, isn't it?! I've certainly been able to "attend" more events online that I'd have been able to in person, mainly because of cost or fitting it in around the Small Person. Although it has meant some of them have taken place with the Small Person sitting on my knee also waving at the camera!
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