Thursday 5 May 2011

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.


Cinder Block socks (1)



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.


Bremen May 2011 007



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



Bremen May 2011 022

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!



Bremen May 2011 026



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!



Bremen May 2011 043



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



Aegean Ishbel WIP  (3)

5 comments:

Kathy said...

Your photos from Germany are lovely. I've only been for a freezing weekend in Cologne ... so it's not really somewhere I'm familiar with. I think the wedding was such a global event, you couldn't really escape from it. The York sisters were hilarious weren't they?
xxx

Danielle said...

Lovely photos! And the color way of those socks are to die for!!

evaowl said...

Having my breakfast coffee and reading my fav blogs.... my very personal half an hour of selfindulgence. Just to say that the streusel cherry pie was too much for my morning cornflakes... You made my day, thank you

Stadtwaldvogel said...

You have taken wonderful pictures, dear Helen! When I was a child I went to Bremerhaven on holidays. And I love Streuselkuchen, too!
Your socks are just great.
Enjoy your weekend!
Yours, Julia

melissa said...

what a wonderful trip you and mr.jk had! and you documented it with such lovely photos.

oh the light through the trees in springtime, it does wonders for the soul, does it not?

ps - beatrice's hat *was* a monstrosity, wasn't it?!?