SpringShawlSurprise somewhere in-between

Yesterday I finished Clue 8. Never the light or the time is right to take a picture of a finished clue, but anyway I like most the details.
So here are some photos to honor them.

What comes into your mind when you see the following photo? ;-)
I'm sure that is not a hint to Lul's theme. :-)

I especially like this detail and look at it everytime I pick up my knitting.

Spring is in the Air

Last weekend shone in fantastic weather. In expectation of sun for photos I took my springshawl with me on my weekend trip to friends in Hannover. How happy I was when I saw all those spring flowers already blooming in their yard. It was a real surprise because up here I haven't seen them so far. For sure not in my north-side wooden covered garden.

The beautiful bead pattern.

The alignment.



The solitary crocus.

Knitting in a knit-along

This is what kept me away from blogging, away from sleeping, from being fit for my fulltime job, from household duties .....

When enrolling in SpringShawlSurprise I imagined myself doing a lot of relaxing knitting (blogged here) , sometimes figuring out harder parts of the pattern. But no, clue 1 was not relaxing and clue 2 let me doubt on my sanity ;-) ) Knitting two rows, finally being happy with myself about not giving up only to discover the next mistake.
Being ready to go on with mistakes, almost being ready to quit - only to go back the next morning, reknitting the last rows and going on.

It was worth it and here is the result at the end of clue 3:

What really kept me going was the community. I love the feeling being connected with friendly people all over the world, knitting, helping each other, struggling, going on again, learning from their mistakes, learning about themselves.

My goal for the first clues in January included being on schedule to enjoy this community without spoiling my surprise when other are posting their pictures. And I know myself, once I'm behind I tend to fall even more behind, maybe to the point where this projects gets crowded into the drawer with all other ufo's (unfinished objects).

At one point of my struggle I was thankful for pictures, that showed how it should come out. To help other I posted more pictures with details. If you go to my flickr account you can, if you want, click on the photo you are interested in. Next you can choose "All Sizes" above the photo.

As you can see in the first picture I played around with my camera to honor the beauty of Lul's pattern.

Blogging is the joy of bringing together my interests in travel, craft, photography and internet skills. So yesterday I practiced taking photos with a narrow depth of field. (That topic would be worth another blog-post, for now I refer you to Lolly's article.)

Springshawlsurprise

Via Ravelry I found Springshawlsurprise, which is a 3-month-long knitting project. Each week Lul, a danish lady, will sent one part of a very tangy lace pattern. Even some - and I do hope it will be just "some" - backrows will have a pattern.
I registered, well knowing that I might have taken my mouth too full. My idea of knitting away the dark grey time and adding each day a little piece of spring to my life was very tempting so I registered. I also like the international charme that goes with this project.

Now I can't make up my mind about the yarn. I'm in the very lucky position to have the Hamburger Wollfabrik near by. The normal yarnshops don't sell yarn with the required length of 800 m per 100 gr. At least not the one I know. I would have loved to use Zephyr, which many of the participants will take, because I love the colors from their charts.

I went to the Hamburger Wollfabrik 3 times (!) to pick up bits of yarn for swatches. In merino quality there are hundreds of the most beautiful colors to choose from, but the stitches don't turn out as nice as from the other qualitys. On the other hand I didn't fall for any of the many cashmere/silk colors. Although the feeling of cashmere in my hands for manymany days is appealing.

Today I showed all swatches "live" to some people. During the discussions the choices got narrowed down a bit, but I'm still not so very sure.
Please look for yourself.
Any argument is welcome!

50% cashmere 50% silk very light blue


100 % merino lighter greenish


cashmere / silk / merino /viscose mix


50% cashmere 50% silk white with touches of grey/violet


100% merino darker greenish