When I last posted about my fairisle project, Shaded Flower, I was having troubles with the fit in front. Being new to stranded knitting, I did not realize there is no give at all in a piece knit in fair isle so I did not build in enough positive ease.
Luckily, the fabric responded very well to blocking and I got an extra inch and a half of width out of both the fronts so that I could get a good fit. I pin blocked the pieces onto a mattress, very slowly stretching the fabric towards my goal and the felted tweed took it very well.
What a relief! After all that work, to not be able to wear it as I wanted would have been a terrible disappointment. I wore my finished cardigan while I was traveling in Isernhagen, a lovely North German village where my husband's extended family lives. Isernhagen was still quite chilly in May, so it was a perfect coverup.
This is the Wöhler Dusche an agricultural museum in Isernhagen. Every house in the village had the same pointed roof, and the new homes, all constructed of brick or stone, looked remarkably similar in style and construction to the old which made for charming scenery next to the forests and fields. It is so green and peaceful there! My husband and I went there to celebrate his godfather’s 50th Wedding anniversary, and I learned that there is a special church ceremony for a 50th wedding anniversary there, in which the family attends (singing hymns in German was a bit of a challenge so I sort of hummed along) and the celebrating couple even receive a special letter from the Bishop congratulating them! Wow. Perhaps we Americans should do more to celebrate our special anniversaries.
It was spargel season in Germany, and the famous white asparagus played a large part in the anniversary feast we had that night. My uncle and aunt-in-law had rented a large room in a local tavern for their anniversary party, and about 60 people attended to enjoy the feast. The spargel was served with hollandaise sauce and other specialites were shnitzel, fried potatoes, shinken, which is a German form of prosciutto, and soup with dumplings. A band of musicians played swing-style music and the dancing was the topper to an amazing night.
For anyone who is not familiar with spargel, the plants are grown in hillocks covered from the sun so that they can never develop the clorophyll which would turn them green. They are completely white and the size of long fingers. They taste a bit like an artichoke heart when they are steamed. My husband's cousin drove us out to a spargel farm and there were actually 11 different varieties of asparagus sold there, it was remarkable! The Germans are very proud of their spargel, below is the official image from the German spargel website:
This coming weekend my husband and I will be flying to South Carolina to celebrate his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and I hope to get a lot of knitting done! The house my in-laws rented overlooks the beach, so I plan to sit on a deck chair under a parasol and knit one of the wonderful Rowan patterns that have been in my queue for so long.