Just in time >

The sun is shining, but it is pretty cold outside - just as well I finished my hat on Friday! I wore it yesterday and it kept me cosy warm :-D I am really pleased with the colour. I have nearly a whole skein left but not sure what to do with it! Any ideas?

Next up... I want to give Clara a go - this is another hat from Hip Knit Hats. I have spotted a fo on CatKnitz - it is certainly my fav pattern out of the entire book- but alas I will have to go shopping as I don't have the required needles - what a pity. Great excuse me thinks.

Turkish words for today are:
merhaba - hello
selam! - hi
hava - weather
ilkbahar - spring
güneşli - sunny
gün - day
Şubat - February

Until I learn the rules I will be sticking to words for now rather than sentences.

I love red pink blue white...

...wow I am so in love with this yarn - these are so my colours. I spotted the yarn first on imaybeknittingaranchhouse - just look at those fab socks, a very well chosen pattern - AND then when I looked up yarntini on pureknits the yarn came up super BIG in a window - those guys know how to tempt a weak willed customer. Oh boy - it has been 4 weeks since I went yarn stroking/shopping.


My Turkish words today are:
kirmizi - red
pembe - pink
mavi - blue
beyaz - white

şapka - violet seed wip

Tomorrow will be the start of my third week in Türkiye. The language is a challenge but I am progressing, slowly. When I do try my new lingo 'skills' out around the city my efforts have been much appreciated, so this is spurring me on. So from now on to help increase my vocabulary I will add at least two new Turkish words to my posts. I can't guarantee the translations will be correct mind you, or that I can pronounce them properly and would like to encourage anyone out there to correct me. First up...

menekşe tohum - violet seed
şapka - hat



There hasn't been much time for knitting since I arrived, but this weekend I finally started my Violet Seed hat from Cathy Carron's Hip Knit Hats. I am using ggh, aspen chunky weight, merino/acyrlic 50/50 mix, colourway 23. My gorgeous blue, 8mm Crystal Palace daisy needles were bought a few months back. I adore the colour of these and would love to be buy the whole yummy set- çok güzel :-)

London > Istanbul

I am now safely installed in my new pad in Istanbul.
I have a pretty impressive view from my little balcony.





Any how this is a knitting blog so here comes the knitting bit.... I was knitting in London right to the last minute, busy finishing a baby pixie hat for a friends baby boy, Gabriel who lives in France with mummy and daddy. I took inspiration from this beautiful example from castoncastoff. I don't have a finished pic but I will ask mummy to send me one soon. So at the mo please be content with a WIP photo.

a sad note....

Sadly my grandad passed away on Thursday 25th Janaury. Grandad Cyril (though his first name was actually albert) died at 88. He lived in Cheshire all his life. He was a strong, hard-working man who made his living from the land. For the last twenty five years of his life he lived in good health in the village where my parents live. Grandad was quite a character and he will be sadly missed.

I postponed my flight to Istanbul for a week to be with my family and attend the funeral. I will now fly to Turkey tomorrow(sunday).