Friday 15 October 2010

⚫ plump glossy rose hips ⚫

hook me in

This is a prayer, a slow easy over under 
The stove clicking and ticking and with each opening
The flames rumble into the room and I link and breathe and dream the colour of the air

I promised myself a long time ago to learn something 
completely new with each passing year. 
To add to the things I will always be learning and illuminating and improving on.

This year it has been meditation and crochet and the art of letting go.
In discovering what is good for me I find a twirl of peace.

Have a lovely weekend.

Friday 1 October 2010

♕ queen of shops ♕

I'm back in the rain and grey and gloomy doom. I thought you might have had the decency to have an Indian summer waiting for me but alas only the grey carpeted corridor of Gatwick greeted me and my 20 kilos of luggage. My luggage was packed with my purchases of wool from the haberdashery shop in Turkey.
Knitting and crochet are very popular pastimes in Turkey. It's very hot in the summer but becomes cooler in the winter especially in the mountains. Even in the warm days that I was there I saw older people with woollen hats on and shawls & knitted socks appearing in the shops.
I am teaching myself to crochet and very nice it is too. I am not very accomplished but I am enjoying making little granny squares and it keeps my idle hands busy. So to the wool shop I went to buy some pure Turkish wool for my blanket which I will deem a family heirloom before I have begun.
The shop was divine. The proprietors spoke very little English so I just swooned around them and they didn't mind me taking a few snaps which I knew you would all love to see.
It was a haberdashery heaven...

Alladin's cave

wool shop

The wool choice was staggering in colour and grade and it was all so much cheaper than here. Pure 100% wool was 4 Turkish Lira for 100 grams which works out to around £1.70. And the hanks of wool worked out much much cheaper than that. And if you didn't mind an acrylic mix then you would pay a few pence a ball. Not Fair is it? That's the problem with living on an island that isn't self sufficient anymore. Grrr. We should have lots of good value home spun wool. I thought we had loads of sheep?

pure Turkish wool

Check out those colours?

button blooms

Every type of button you could possibly need?

buttons

And reels of ribbons galore...

ribbons on reels

ribbon bundles

zippedy doo dah

Zips and...
trim
Trim and lace...
apple tea break
And the sweet couple running the shop bought us Apple Tea on a tray. It's just normal behaviour in Turkey. They don't do that in John Lewis do they?
I'll keep you posted on the crochet blanket...it's my new going out.