And the winner is...

All of you who commented on the Castle post!
It was indeed, Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex. My dad worked there as a Security Officer after he retired! 
So,Sophie, Christine and Fiona - please email me at theknitstudio@gmail.com with your addresses and the weight of yarn you would like and I will post a surprise out later this week. 
Sophie, very impressed by the history lesson!
Carol, text me a colour (reds, blues, pinks, purples) and I'll send you a little surprise :-) 
Have a Continental Knitting Workshop tomorrow at The Knit Studio - so early night for me.

The Four C's

Which do you prefer?

Cake!

Some of the fab cake at Claudia and Dianne's Housewarming Party, earlier today.

Cushions!

Finished cushion covers from last Sundays' Sewing Workshop at The Knit Studio

Cat!

Mittens, chilling after a hard day....well, chilling.

Cute!

Sorry I didn't do my homework - the lamb ate my notes!

Hope you are all having a great Bank Holiday Weekend. We have had all seasons here in Newcastle, with sun, rain, hail, winds, frost who knows what is going on! 

Current project on the needles, baby socks and more baby socks for a friend who is expecting twin girls. A great way for me to use up that 'little' bit of left over sock yarn I have in my Stash.

Surprise! Surprise!

Yes, I am back! and yes, that is a castle!!! But where is it? A little competition to celebrate my return to Blogging after such a long break.
Answers in the comments box - and with the help of Mittens I will choose the lucky winner of a skien of fabulous yarn from The Knit Studio - please specify which weight you would prefer lace, 4ply, DK, Aran, Chunky!!! 
We will pick a winner next Bank Holiday Monday 7th? May.


Mmm so let's see what has happened since my last post? My birthday, The Knit Studio's 1st Road Trip to the Knitting Show at Harrogate, Workshops, Christmas, Sarah's birthday, New Year, lots of knitting, parties, adventures and more Workshops, Basketball, too much to write about all at once - so I'll just leave you with a few photos of knitted goodies.

There seems to be a shawl thing going on, down here in Newcastle!
Don't forget the competition!

Re-Connecting

Over the past month I have been able to step back and spend a little time addressing things (and people) that have been somewhat neglected. My Grandma always said 'Give a busy person something to do and it always gets done'. Not always the case methinks. Give a busy person something to do and it usually gets added to an already enormous list of things to do!!
I have been having a little 'me' time of late. This has given me a chance to see old friends, chat for ages on the phone, and photograph some of my many projects (i am still ignoring the ironing). Who knew that I had knitted not one, but four Ishbels this year!! I have had a couple of hugely enjoyable and interesting woolly related road trips for inspiration and information. But, best of all, I have had time to sit and browse my huge collection of Knitting Books and Magazines. As the owner of The Knit Studio I stock a large, nay ginormous amount of Knitting, Crochet and Sewing books, this means I have unlimited access to them all. What can be better than to browse through beautiful books for inspiration with a coffee, some cake and a very large cat for company?

Ishbel knitted in DK Cotton

HitchHiker knitted in 4ply

Ishbel knitted in Lace Weight

Trial knitted in DK Cotton

Veyla knitted in Angora

Damson knitted in DK Bamboo Cotton

Just a few of this years projects which finally made to the front of the camera!!

And, not forgetting Mittens

Time to advertise for staff I think, then I can enjoy a little more 'me time'!

Applications on a postcard to...........................................

Moving On - At Last!

Thank you so much for all your kind words and comments about Pebbles. It was lovely to read them and know you were all thinking of us, I really appreciate your thoughts :-)

And, moving on - I shall be doing a number of short posts with photos to get this Blog and myself moving!

VIV - Ysolda Teague

We had a VIV (very important visitor) to The Knit Studio in July. Young, talented Scottish designer and author Ysolda Teague came to visit us for the day. Ysolda was launching her new book Little Red in the City and came to do a Book Signing and Trunk Show. We all had a great time trying on various garments from the book, deciding which design we were going to knit first. It was very difficult to choose as all the garments are fabulous and it made such a difference being able to try them on.

I'll leave you with a few pics.

Ysolda & Tori.

Ysolda and her youngest fan?

Rebecca, Ysolda and Anne (giving orders as usual).

Pebbles 2003 -2011

In order to move on with my Blogging I have to write about something that saddens me. But, I need to get past this, so......
Pebbles, our beautiful family pet and feline best friend died last month after a short, sudden illness. For those of you who know me, you will realise this is a kind of double blow, as for more than 8 years I have used his name as my Internet ID on many knitting websites and forums.
Pebbles and his brother Mittens came into our lives just over 8 years ago and gave us so many magical, hysterical, moving, funny and friendly moments. Mittens has suffered his loss too, as they used to eat, sleep and come in and out together, and I think he still looks and waits for Pebbles most days.
Here are some of our favourite photos of Pebbles for you to share our memories.

Just arrived at 6 weeks old. 2003.

Favourite place to sit - approx 2006.

Braving my Radioactive Thyroid treatment approx 2006.

Dining with Mittens.

Wondering when all the snow will go - 2010.

Playing in the snow with my bro'. 2010

Under my umberella - ella -ella.

A cat, a cushion or a cushion and a cat?

Pebbles 2003 -2011

I hope you have enjoyed these photos, they have made me smile as I uploaded them.



It's Been A While!

I have just realised that it has been nearly a month since I Blogged! I cannot believe that so much time has passed so quickly. It is nearly June, half way through the year, and all those plans and To Do Lists still sit in my notebooks, patiently waiting for ticks.
When it comes to Blogging, I always want to have great photos, a funny story or anecdote, and something interesting for you all to read when you stop by. Sometimes though, when it is time for me to sit down and relax, catch up with friends' Bogs, Ravelry and answer emails etc all I actually want to do is sit and knit, or crochet! And so, another day or two will pass without a Blog post. So, I hit on this really great idea (or so I thought) create a document, use it as a mini Diary update it every now and then and once a week copy and paste it onto the Blog. Brilliant! I started my 'diary' 2 weeks ago, it was going well, filling up nicely - a trip to Sussex for Easter, Workshops and Events at The Knit Studio, cats being silly, flowers appearing in the garden, lots of great photos - fast forward to last Saturday evening.
Home from a brilliant day at The Knit Studio, prep to do for Sewing Workshop on Sunday and Freeform Knitting & Crochet Workshop on Monday and a Gin & Tonic at hand, perfect. Then, the most awful thing happened - I sat down at my laptop, began to work and poof! it all went blank! Cue frantic checking of cables, plugs, doing a quick bit of dust removal and......nothing, nothing at all. My LapTop est Morte! and it has been a nightmare!
I am using Sarahs' at the mo while she is at school, mine is at the PC Hospital where they fear it is a very nasty Virus and I may have lost it all! Email contacts, photos, documents, workshop notes and lots of other things I can't remember now, but will in the future when I need to find 'that' pattern, or 'that' link! It would also appear that it had been lurking around a while, and all my Backups done in 2011 are corrupted too!
So, if you need to email me please use theknitstudio@gmail.com - if you have sent an email to my btopenworld address please resend to the gmail one, and apologies to anyone who might never hear from me again!
In the general scheme of life, it is not really that bad. There are lots of other things that are much worse that could have happened and that are happening, and at the end of the day I will get through this inconvenience (because that's all it is really) and more fool me for not checking the BackUps were ok and not removing more rubbish from my LapTop. A lesson learnt - the hard way.

Anyway - enough of that.
The other day I came out of the house to see this

I think they are having a discussion about whose turn it is to drive!

And, my mug says it all!

Bye for now........