May News and Reviews

Hello everybody on this sunny spring day! It's the 1st of May, another holiday in Germany, and finally - after several cold and rainy weeks - the spring is back with warm and sunny weather. We've used this day off from work to go walking hiking. There's a very nice region just about a 40 minutes drive away from us, where you can go hiking, climb some hills, explore some dripstone caves or an ancient ruin. It's a great area for a day's trip and today was just a perfect day to go out and enjoy the spring. Days like these fit perfectly to my activity resolutions, and I'm still going to the gym - although it's getting harder now, with the nice weather outside. I haven't lost any more weight over the last month, but I'm okay with that: I know that the last pounds are always the hardest to lose, and on the other hand I've built up some muscles (which are heavier than fat). I feel healthy and optimistic, and I can even enjoy a piece of apple pie or cheese cake without having a bad conscience, and that was the plan: be active, enjoy eating, be happy. :)

So, how about crochet? April's been such a busy and exciting month: it started with the revelation of my super-secret project, followed by a series of "Making of... The Wedding Blanket" posts.

After that I've posted a whole bunch of new motifs for the "Beyond the Square" Challenge, and recently I've updated the Challenge News as well. However, the highlight of the past month has definitely been the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week at the end of April.

I've put a lot of effort into writing the posts and taking the pictures, but I never would have thought that I'd get so many lovely comments or find so many new and amazing blogs. It's been a great experience for every participant I think, and I'm glad that I had the possibility to join this party this year.

Talking about party: please remember that there's another link-party here, soon - you can still vote for your favorite topic in my right side bar.

Now let's see what's next on the list: my first blogiversary lies ahead this month, which means I'll use the opportunity for another giveaway, I hope you won't miss that :)

I also hope that you can look forward to a few more original patterns. I've got a few patterns in mind, but it always takes a while to reproduce the item, take notes, take pictures, write down the pattern and finally post it. I've posted this picture of some mandalas before, but here it is again, because I'd really like to make a pattern for these:

There are several more ideas in my mind, but if I told you now - where'd be the fun and surprise in that? :) Meanwhile you can enjoy more of my Challenge motifs, which I'll be posting soon again.

Finally, since this a general monthly update post, here are some non-crochet plans for May:

• Opening the outdoor jogging season
• Taking the bike for my way to work (could be rather wishful thinking, I'm not much of a cycling fan)
• Re-designing my other website (a travel blog)
• Preparing stuff for our upcoming USA trip
• Getting some nasty but necessary stuff over with, before I can comfortably look forward to our vacation (expensive car check-ups, unpleasant medical check-ups)

That's it for today. I hope the weather is lovely at your end of the world, too :)

Have a great week,