About Lyn

I'm a fun-loving granny, mother of 3 and granny of 5. I have a teaching background of 30 years and having nurtured little ones, I love to nurture bigger people - helping them to grow in confidence and grow their businesses. I help raise their visibility and brand awareness with social media and out of the box thinking. I am known as the #Golivegranny as I have been live streaming on a regular basis since August 2016 when - I live-streamed the Ryde Carnival on a completely blank page on facebook. My son, Tristan taught me how and helped me to get in front of 1000 viewers on that first broadcast. I now Livestream as many Isle of Wight events as I can on https://facebook.com/isleofwight.live and I have a regularly broadcast at 10 pm on https://facebook.com/golivegranny and the audiences both are growing on an almost daily basis. The #golivegranny community has become an amazing group of people - a friendly and supportive group. I will add to the blog about what happens and what is achieved through this group. You will learn about some amazing things achieved.

Bank holiday – time to knit & chill

Bank holiday and its time to knit and chill

I don’t know about you but as it is a Bank Holiday here in the UK, I am going to knit and chill. I find knitting very therapeutic. I totally relax when I have those knitting needles click-clacking away in my hands. I am not big into knitting cardigans and big garments. I just love creating smaller fun things.

Little pink bras - raising awareness for cancer charity fundraising

Little pink bras – raising awareness for cancer charity fundraising

One of my commissions was for some little pink bras to be hung as bunting in a shop window that was fundraising for a breast cancer awareness charity. It certainly raised a smile as well as lots of much-needed funds.

Mr & Mrs Noah

The rainbow and Mr & Mrs Noah are part of the Noahs ark – a present I have chosen to knit for my youngest grandaughter. As an ex-primary school teacher, I absolutely love using primary colours. I am using Sarah Keen’s books Knitted Noahs Ark 

 

Sandown yarnbombing

Recently, The #Golivegranny community took part in the Sandown Yarn bombing to brighten up the town. Sandown was entered in Britain in Bloom and Jackie, who set up the Sandown Yarnbombers appealed for knitters to partake. I shared the news into my 10 pm broadcasts and flowers started arriving by the box full. It was a bit like Interflora on steroids. My community never disappoint. My job was to create beautiful display boards as well as making some flowers myself. My community never pass up the opportunity to knit.

I knitted Mary Mary Quite Contrary and her silver bells and cockle shells and was able to add a few beautiful flowers from #golivegranny community member Carol Potts.

Spaceship

Another project my viewers have embraced was something my daughter asked for help with. She has recently started working in a school serving some very deprived children – children who don’t own any books and there are no books in their homes. She asked me if I would make some finger puppets to aid their learning. Again I shared it with the community in my broadcasts and the result is many story sacks containing props to help illustrate the stories and rhymes. The spaceship is for the song :_

5 little men in a flying saucer
Flew round the world one day
They look left and right
But they didn’t like the sight
So one man flew away

4 little men in a flying saucer etc

It was one of the bigger slightly bigger things I chose to knit

 

They have also supplied aliensaliens

 

taken from the Mini Knitted Cosmos

 

 

We are very lucky as many people gift us wool and needles for our projects – most of which go on to various charities.

My viewers love to learn about all things knitting and so I decided to become an affiliate for some of the knitting businesses.

Deramores is a popular site and offers a range of yarns as well as patterns and needles and hooks and accessories You can also get 15% off your first order

 

The Knitting Network is another site popular with knitters.

2020-08-lucky-bag-half-banner-min

It is always worth checking out to stay up to date with current trends and offers. There are some great value packs worth investigating.

 

It has been a very long time since I updated this blog but as it is Bank holiday I am now off to knit and chill.

Lyn Knitting in Toby and Cheryls garden

 

This post contains some affiliate links. This means I will receive a small commission but the purchaser will not pay any more for their goodies. The purpose of the commission is to purchase more items to entertain the #golivegranny community via the broadcasts be it in the #golivegranny community garden or from the #golivegranny studio. My mission is to inspire, educate and entertain. Have a great day and if you have enjoyed this then please share. #sharingiscaring

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chariknitty – why I am knitting for charity

So what, you might ask is the chariknitty? Well, it was the phrase coined by my wonderful friend Tina Hyde, when I was looking for a name for my Facebook page that was promoting my charity knitting. In the end, I went for Lyns and needles (suggested by Dave Baker, one of the regular viewers to my Facebook live streams) as a page title as I felt it was easier to get people to remember that. I loved the title Tina came up with and so decided to use in my blog.

I learnt to knit many many years ago as a child. I can’t remember who taught me and recently I asked my 93-year-old mum if it was her or my grandma and she seems to think it was her although we’re not quite sure. No matter, the fact is that I learnt to knit when I was very young, a skill that I have treasured all my life. When my children were young, I used to make them toys and jumpers and then I had a lull in my knitting. However I recently decided to pick up my knitting needles and get click clacking for charity. I have decided to support as many Isle of Wight charities as I can. I’m currently writing this blog in a new coffee shop in Pyle Street in Newport- Comicoffee. I know the owner, Matt and decided to knit him (The superhero) as a good luck charm. I am delighted to see him sitting on the shelf, that is the superhero not Matt!

Over the weekend I became an award-winning knitter when I was presented with three gold medal certificates at the Isle of Wight County show.

The big wicker cup was lent to me by Kevars cafe in Ryde. I decorated it up and filled it with stuffing with a felt top to look like the tea and then knitted biscuits to go on the top. I called it “Elevenses to dunk not to dunk?” And entered it in time for Tea section. The second one was called with “Apologies to Carmen Maranda” and was a hat laden with fruit and veg which I entered into the fruit and veg section. I didn’t want to do a trug of fruit and veg as I like to be a little bit more out of the ordinary. Well, it paid off and it was a lot of fun doing it. The third entry was “Mary Mary quite contrary”  which was entered into the “In Bloom” category. It was very much a last minute knit. I had ordered the knitting book with nursery rhymes in it and was heading off to London for a few days just before the County show. The book was due to arrive on the Friday as I got back but arrived on the day I went. When I spotted Mary Mary in the book,  I just had to knit it for the show so I put it to my luggage and soon the needles were click clacking the silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row.

My prime reason for entering my work for the Articulture tent, was to put the knitting on display as I sell it for charity if I haven’t given it away as gifts.  Therefore more people would get to know about it so basically it was an awareness raiser. Imagine my delight then to receive the three gold medal certificates. I have won awards  before but not for my knitting so I can now add that to my portfolio.

I knit everywhere and anywhere I can. I don’t have a car so travel on the bus and do much of my knitting in my NET time i.e. no extra time. It has led to some very interesting conversations and even to the sale of knitted cupcakes on the bus to a local councillor raising funds, on that occasion for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

I am just waiting for a friend to join me in Comicoffee before I head off to Easy Weigh, A lovely shop a few doors along in Pyle Street, that sells all sorts of things from coconut oil to herbs and spices all sorts of different flours to eco-friendly cleaning items etc. Suzy will be hosting a cupcake sale on Thursday to raise money for the breast cancer charity. Not only have I knitted  some cupcakes for her window display but also some little pink bras.

I have now got myself a nice little pink shiny orderbook as I am getting so many orders,  that I need to keep a list. I have orders for sunflowers, footballs, sheep, different breeds of dog, ponies and much more. I never know what the next challenge will be but I love it. I’m having so much fun and I find it so therapeutic. Even better it’s raising much-needed funds for Isle of Wight charities. Long may I have strength in my hands to make my needles click clack.

I really must update my blog.

I have been very remiss about keeping my blog up to date. I love live stream and I do live stream most evenings with an update of the shenanigans in my life. However, it occurred to me that some people might prefer to read rather than view although personally, I am an audio-visual learner.

I have a 30-year teaching background and really loved my teaching career. That is until the end, the last year was not much fun. A job that I had joined as a vocation, became merely a way of paying the bills. To me, that was very sad and that is why I threw in the towel before retirement age. During my 30 years of teaching, I ran my own nursery school for 21 years. I have some very fond memories of those 21 years and the many children that passed through. We had such fun. They were like little sponges lapping up knowledge daily. We also used to produce two shows a year and when I live stream on a regular basis, many of those memories come flooding back and I recount them to my audience. Just the other day, and one of my 10 pm Broadcasts, I recounted how I dressed as a ragdoll when we put on a performance of “When the clock strikes midnight” (it was the story of the toys coming to life)

Although I say I had a 30-year teaching career, I have not actually stopped teaching. However, my pupils are no longer little people. I now help bigger people to raise awareness of their businesses, their events or the charities.

 

I have learned so much from my youngest son, Tristan and I am so glad that I didn’t squash that entrepreneurial spirit that he showed at age 12. I had chosen to send him to a private school and he saw a gap in the market. I think it was the sum of 5 pounds that set up his tuck shop. His headmaster was less than impressed and I got summoned to his office. Tristan reminds me that I’m leaving the premise he’s headmaster was less than impressed and I got summoned to his office. Tristan reminds me that I’m leaving The headmasters office, even before we got out of the school grounds, I turned to Tristan and said: “you are going to do it again aren’t you?” To which he had no hesitation in assuring me that he had no intention of closing his business. My answer was “just don’t get caught next time” How different our lives would have been if I had chastised him and put an end to that entrepreneurial spirit. As a 67-year-old, I am loving sitting in the digital space and learning and upskilling every day. I live stream daily, I manage social media accounts for local businesses and I help to raise the visibility of events and local charities as well as my beautiful Isle of Wight. I want to share it with the world. After all, how can I help the local businesses if the tourists don’t come?

And now I am going to attempt to blog regularly. Thanks to Tristan, this has become a much more manageable task as he has taught me to use voice to text. I am part of the social media Mentors Global group that he runs under his brand it’s Nomad9 . I pop in and out of that group on a regular basis as part of my upskilling but also lap up

podcasts and YouTube videos to make sure I don’t miss any vital information. I also run a network group, wightbuzz which I set up in 2010. I never set out to make money from it. It was more about connecting people together and networking that would help my home-based businesses. I did have a small membership fee back then but have now dispensed with that. For me, it is more about connecting the community with the businesses for the greater good. So my network meetings are open to local business owners, local event organizers, charity fundraisers and Charity organisers  and just for good measure anyone else who wants to join in and know what is going on in the community. There is one rule. You have to be nice. I added that rule because sadly in the past I had people within the group who tried to pull me down. Little did they know I was made of sterner stuff and although I might’ve been bashed along the way I’m like a Weeble, I wobble but I don’t fall down.

So, these days I like to inspire educate and entertain. I have my dad’s wicked sense of humour and I am sure he watches down on me with mild amusement. He would be proud of my live streams. He encouraged me and my siblings to learn public speaking at an early age. This is something I have passed on to Tristan who now speaks at many events, passing on his fount of knowledge.

At an age when I should have long since retired, I’m having way too much fun to sit in my rocking chair knitting. Although I do have a recliner and I do a lot of knitting as I now knit for charity. I love knitting the fun stuff like apples and pears and some flowers and pizzas and hotdogs etc. currently I am busy click clicking away with the needles as I am putting some entries into the new Arcticulture tent at the county show. The theme is fruit and veg, time for tea, and in bloom. It gives me plenty of scope for something I love. However, my ambitions are way beyond the time I have to finalize my entries. Once the show is over, all the entries will be sold for charity. They will support different charities on the island and in fact, some people have already ordered some of the items that will actually be seen in the county show. They are aware that they will have to wait until after 8 July. I have a very understanding audience. Which is just as well when things go wrong like they did last night. I was doing my usual 10 PM broadcast and I moved the camera to show my Computer screen and for some reason, it went a little bit Crazy. And when I put it down it had turned me on its side. Unable to correct it while I was broadcasting, I did the broadcast lying on my side on my desk much to the amusement of my audience. Mission accomplished as I always try to entertain. I had some wonderful compliments. One viewer nearly ran out of tissues. She assured me it was through laughter and not tears of sadness. Someone else came and said they had a wonderful evening and another viewer said I had really cheered him up. I am just so glad that I ignored the criticism of a naysayer years ago, who told me I was the laughing stock. What he didn’t realize these people are laughing with me and not at me. Together we are building a wonderful community of supportive people. They help me as much as I help them and so I’m not going to stop live-streaming or clowning about anytime soon. Now I must get back to the click-clacking of the knitting needles as time is of the essence.

The Island Radio on Sunday afternoon

On a Sunday afternoon I love listening to my dear friend Tina Hyde on The Island Radio . She hosts the Easy Listening Show. Her guest on this show is another good friend of mine – dear Donna Jones MBE  – do join with me for some easy listening. Donna talks about how she missed going to listen to the Wight Hot Pipes and ended up bashed and bruise. She has such a wicked sense of humour – so this is well worth a listen. Find out why what she calls her dogs and why they are banished. Hear too what happened to her bacon sandwich. Such fun :)

My own business.

Minding my own business

Ever since I was 27 ( and quite likely for years before that!) I’ve been minding my own business! (althought my siblings might bed to differ. ) There there have been several businesses over that time. At 27 I opened my own nursery school and became self-employed. Although I have been employed for a few years as a teacher most of that time has been in self-employment. Firstly it was running Park View Nursery school for 21 years and by accident I became a bookseller as well,  eventually giving up the teaching in order to sell children’s books full time. That was a job I  enjoyed very much but gave it up when the goalposts got moved. Since then I opened up a networking group called Wightbuzz on the Isle of Wight where I live, and also started a business with my son Tristan, a business mentoring group also teaching productivity hacks called Allthingsnetworking.com

Six years ago I became an Independent Phoenix Trader, a network marketing opportunity but kept it on the back burner during that period while I gave much more focus to the other businesses. I feel the time is right to grow this now and when I decided , between Christmas and New Year to take that course of action, my attitude was right and  I immediately recruited to new team members. When I was selling children’s books I grew a very large team and I love to work with them and help them achieve the businesses that they want. Now I look forward to helping my Phoenix traders growing their businesses and to find new people who are looking for an opportunity to run a business that fits in with the rest of their life.so while I mind my business but  I also help others find the opportunity to mind their own business. There are certain perks along the way for those would like to join the team. One such perk runs out tonight.

Golden ticket

I have a golden ticket for anyone who would like to become an independent Phoenix Trader and is willing to sign up before 12 o’clock midnight. There are three entry points with three different packages and three different price points but which ever one The lucky recipient of the golden ticket chooses, their starter pack will be enhanced with extra free product. So are you that person would like this golden ticket.  Message me or check out cardsromlyn.co.uk I have been minding my own business for years would you like to start minding yours?

Christmas is coming

Shssss did you know Christmas is coming?

Chrismas is coming

I run several businesses. My main two are  1) Wightbuzz   – a network group I set up  to connect businesses on the Isle of Wight in 2010 when I failed to find a group that fitted my needs and 2) Allthingsnetworking.com which my son and I run from opposite sides of the world – he in Sydney and me in the UK – the Isle of Wight to be precise. However, I have long since been a fan of networking marketing. I have run several networking marketing businesses working with and helping team members to grow their own businesses. For 7 years, I ran a children’s book business and enjoyed considerable success – earning many incentives along the way. 5 foreign holidays in 6 years wasn’t to be sneezed at and I have many fond memories of those days when I was called the book lady!. They were happy days but came to an end when the company moved the goal posts. However, I loved the business model and some years ago, I joined Phoenix Trading  as an Independent Phoenix Trader . I love the fact that no-one hassels me to make great sales and meet targets. I love the products, cards, ribbons, wrapping paper,

pink tissue and ribbon

beautiful stationery, bookmarks, colouring posters, games

farmyards dominoes

etc. Gone are the days when I set up big stands at shows or ran book parties (which are still options for anyone wanting to run their business that way) I prefer to run my business with catalogue sales and online sales and the opportunity to help charities with fundraising. (and for more information on this please contact me as I love helping to raise charity funds. )

Where did the time go?

Oh goodness gracious me it’s July already and I haven’t blogged since January 17. It’s time to put that right and get into a good habit of blogging regularly.  I can’t believe that half the year has gone already so now to get into  better habits, so let me tell you about recent exciting events.  As you might expect I have done much networkingrecently.  I went to the County Showground to participate in the  “inspiring tomorrow’s workforce event”. Pupils and businesses came together and businesses were able to showcase what is available and answer students questions.
It was a very lively event and I was able to inform students that there was a career in social media which some of them hadn’t realised. With my son, Tristan, I run Allthingsnetworking.com
They were very good presentations on the day and students have gone away with a lot of thought provoking ideas. I also made some excellent connections for the  future.
Two days later,  I attended two networking meetings.  First of all,  I went to Cross Print at the invitation of the chamber of commerce and we were shown round the print factory then enjoyed a networking opportunity over tea and cake. I then was lucky enough to get a lift from that networking event to the next networking event. I was extremely grateful for the lift as it had been pouring all day and I had got soaked going for the bus
The second networking event was held at Endeavour which is a B and B in Cowes.  There was a very good turnout for this Cowes Business association meeting and excellent networking opportunities as well as a wonderful display of food and drink.  Again new connections were made but of course my networking won’t be any good unless I do the follow-up.  On Thursday evening I had a Wightbuzz networking meeting of my own at Artyshakes in Shanklin which was very successful and then an early start on Friday morning with another networking event.  This time breakfast at The Garlic Farm.  The Chamber of Commerce hold a breakfastmeeting on the first Friday of every month and I rarely miss them as they are excellent opportunities for making new connections and starting to build new relationships.  Friday was no different.  I satnext to a couple of new chamber members who I had met previously and I was delighted to be able to  connect one of them with some people he’d hoped to meet and even more delighted with the compliments he paid me for doing so.  It has been an awesome week and one which I have been delighted to record on my social media.  I strive to keep my social media up-to-date especially as social media is something I teach through Allthingsnetworking.com I have been using Facebook and Twitter for years but now have profiles on Snapchat Pinterest LinkedIn Instagram and Google plus and have upskilled  my knowledge on most of these so that I can keep members of allthingsnetworking.com up to date on how to use them I also continue to upskill on a daily basis so that I could help members of both Wightbuzz and allthingsnetworking.com on all things marketing it is now my intention to become a regular blogger and feel very positive about this since I have found a way to speed it up so I hope you will keep watching and reading as I bring you lots more news and information about white bars all things networking.com and my life in general in and out of the digital world so it’s definitely time to get blogging. Where did the time go?

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Periscope

So do you use Periscope? I discovered periscope and live streaming soon after periscope was launced and was introduced by my son, Tristan, who is also my business partner in Allthingsnetworking.com I love the new platform and can see the benefits of using this for business.

In September, Tristan, who lives in Sydney, joined me on an exhibition stand at the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce business expo . Whilst there, he connected again with one of his college tutors (having trained as a chef at the Isle of Wight college years earlier) At the time, he suggested that the College should embrace live streaming.

Today, I had been in Newport for the Bus Users meeting and was just leaving when I got a notification on my phone showing me the College had gone live on periscope . Now being the proud owner of an “all you can eat data” plan – I was able to jump straight on the broadcast . I was delighted to connect with the same tutor who was actually cooking – long story short – there was a college open day and free lunch was being given . Now who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? I saw it as a golden opportunity to go and periscope the event which you can see here below

 

I was delighted to meet Aaron – the social media manager for the college and had quite a long chat with him and he was delighted when I shared with  him that he could save the periscopes via katch.me . I now looking forward to catching all their scopes either live or on replay. If I can embrace periscope at the ripe old age of 65 then I am sure anyone can. I’m now teaching our Allthingsnetworking members as I see it as such an awesome platform that increases engagement and grows an audience very quickly.  I’m loving the new platforms and apparently I’m crushing it – so I have been told.

Laughter all the way

Blog post 2 of the 30 day blog challenge run by Sarah Arrow – so far so good!

Laughter all the way? Indeed – I was just deciding what to write for todays blog post and thought I might write about the good things from 2015. I was looking back through the periscopes I had done for some ideas and I came across this one! That was it – I had to blog about the Giggly Grannies and in particular the last three Christmases.

it bought tears to my eyes and I hope is gives you a little amusement too.

For those of you who don’t know, Julie and I met at Ryde Methodist church about three and a half years ago and we just clicked from day one. I don’t know what it is but we just giggle a lot when we are together and soon earned the name of The Giggly Grannies There is always laughter when we are together -it just happens and Julie’s motto is leave ‘em laughing

We put our skills together and started fundraising first for the Open Arms project for feeding the hungry and homeless of Ryde and then for other things including Macmillan nurses and local Ryde charities.

Julie likes everything pink as you might pick up from the videos and I like all things purple.

In December 2013 – Julie set her heart on heart shaped crumpets – pardon the pun. Now many of you will think what a simple present for Christmas – easy peasy no problem there then as Asda were promoting them well on TV which is how Julie knew about them.

Ah easy peasy for those of you living on the big north Isle (as we call the mainland) but for those of us living on the Isle of Wight – not so easy as we don’t have an Asda. She tried to get folks to get her some but it was all to no avail. There was little laughter on this occasion.  How could I let Christmas pass without my friend enjoying the one thing she had set her heart on? It was 23rd December – I had put a few feelers out but had to be careful as Julie uses facebook but she is not a twitter fan – I got as near as someone going across the pond on Boxing day which seemed to be the best I might manage. I rang my daughter who was coming down to the Island over Christmas and her husband had just left Asda and there was no way he was going back!!!! I left a message on my brother’s phone – he was coming on Christmas eve – but hey ho he only picked the message up once he was on the Island. I left my sister a message as she was coming over from Bournemouth and I knew there was an Asda there. Finally it looked like I was in luck. As she doesn’t have a car but was willing to go on Christmas eve before coming to us – I suggested she call the store – great idea as they didn’t have many but she reserved some. She almost left them behind at her house but phewie she just remembered. I then had to sort of divert Julie to my mum’s house before she went to her sons house for Christmas.

After much cloak and dagger stuff – I managed to get Julie to agree to pop in for mums houses for tea – she then spent at least five minutes telling us how good she had been all year and all she wanted were crumpets but she was sad as it wasn’t go to happen.

 

Christmas 2014 also provided a lot of laughter as you will see.

I hope I have made you laugh a little or even a lot – Julie is amazing – she lives with an illness that would make most people cry but she loves to make people laugh – Leave them laughing is her motto.

 

We have even been told off for laughing but hey ho – do you think we are going to stop anytime soon?