A Workshop Par Excellence

Hi, to all you out there. It's a little while since I last posted on this blog. I'm afraid personal stuff has kept me so busy. Some really exciting news though, we're off back to Canada and for Christmas as well. We've never had Christmas away from family before. Ever. Well nothing stays the same forever and I think we need a change. Tickets are book and paid for so no changing of minds now. I'm having trouble though, finding a suitable Insurance policy that isn't going to cost the earth though. They get more difficult to find as you get older and various 'senior' ailments set in! I've discovered we're going to need individual policies this time as his 'lordship' is 65 and I'm going to stay longer than him! More complications. I've also decided to resurrect the Canadian adventure blog for our trip but will give it another suitable name.Watch this space..................

Anyway back to more recent matters. A few weeks ago I was browsing the wool department of our John Lewis store and asking questions from an assistant. She told me about a series of knitting workshops they were going to hold. She made them sound very tempting. Politely declining I went off to continue shopping. Before I got out of the department I suddenly thought 'why not' so I returned and book one up. The workshop was for 'Funky Fair'isle Mitts.' Your wool, lunch plus a discount voucher for 10% off Rowan Wools was all included. Bargain!

The day arrived (yesterday) and after a shortened daily swim I parked at No 2's sons home and walked into town. At John Lewis's haberdashery department very nice young man escorted me to the large room on the fourth floor where the workshop was to be held. The mittens above were an example of what we were aiming for.

This basket contained some samples for fair'isle patterns and some of the really lovely pattern books were looked over before we settled to start our sampler piece. We started knitting as the coffee and biscuits arrived. Later in the morning lunch, buffet style was delivered to us and was absolutely delicious and so tasty and really well presented.

After lunch we left our samplers of fair'isle and started on the mitts. These wools were a sample of the selection of the lovely Rowan Felted Tweed wools we could choose to knit with.
Afternoon tea arrived at about 3pm along with a plate of homemade shortbread, mmmm......... delicious and the tea was very welcome by that time.

I think our excellent tutor for the day, Margaret Reid, deserved a round of applause.

The workshop was due to end at 4pm but ran on as we were so engrossed with our knitting. Thank goodness I had put a meal in the slow cooker before I left in the morning as I was absolutly exhusted by the time I got home.

I couldn't resist adding a picture of this yummy lime cheese cake we had for dessert at lunch. There was also a fresh fruit salad but who could not resist this calorie loaded delight?

Sorry not me!

Oh and I'll certainly be booking other workshops at this store and maybe I'll go along to their Knit and Natter sessions in the resturant on the second Thursdays of the month.