Now is the month of Maying .....

Blimey! Where is the year going to? It's May already. Before you know it, there will be Christmas cards in the shops and you'll be wishing you'd started your present knitting earlier!

I thought that I'd pop in to tell you about our weekend in Bremen. We had a lovely time, and the weather was wonderful - warm sunshine the whole time. We didn't manage to escape the wedding however - it was being shown on 6 channels on German TV, and Mr JK's auntie really wanted us to watch it with her. So I sat with my sock, and knitted away, whilst laughing at the hats (especially Beatrice's monstrosity!) and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the right moments. I did enjoy the music that they'd chosen - I can remember singing Parry's 'Blest Pair of Sirens' when I was at school, and it's always been one of my favourite choral pieces. And the wedding anthem by John Rutter was truly beautiful. Over the course of the weekend, I managed to finish the 2nd of my Cinder Block socks. I do like the pattern, and think I might knit another pair in a solid colourway.

We went up to Bremerhaven on Saturday, and spent a good chunk of the day exploring the Klimahaus. It's a fascinating exploration of life for various people living in different countries of the world, but all on the 8th degree of longitude. We visited Germany, Alaska, Sardinia and Samoa, amongst other places. I found the lives of the Tuareg nomads especially interesting and thought provoking. It makes you start to think about all the things in your life that you take for granted, and how much more simply you could live and still be happy.

Sunday was May Day in Germany, so we visited Fischerhude. It's a very picturesque village near Bremen, with lovely old buildings.

Fortunately for Mr JK, the yarn shop there was closed (as are pretty much all shops in Germany on Sundays). We wandered through the village, enjoying the spring sunshine. We walked by the river for part of the time - it was as lovely as it looks!

Of course, no visit to Germany would be complete without sampling a cake or two! I love streusel kuchen, and this one was made with cherries. Yummy!

I'll leave you for now with a photo of my Ishbel shawl - I didn't take Spriteling with me, as I knew we'd fall out big time! So I managed to knit all the stocking stitch part of Ishbel, and am ready to start the lace section. I'm feeling especially pleased with myself because it's knitted with my handspun yarn. I think the colours look lovely! See you soon. xx