Thursday, December 21, 2006

self-striping yarn


I am deeply amazed with this fabulous yarn. I run out of adjectives... my friend came over and she was looking at the both sides of my project, but couldn't find the ends of contrasting color yarns and there are no knots. I feel myself like a magician. Well I don't expect the yarn to do the decreasing and increasing as well, but...who knows what future will bring!? I have patience since I got plenty of yarn this week. The weather is getting worse or, shall I say, favorable for knitting. I rearranged the furniture in living room; my favorite armchair is now strategically placed near window, with a floor lamp beside it. Nowadays is so cloudy, it looks like daytime turned into a continuous sunset.

Friday, December 15, 2006

My next knitting project


Last week I visited a yarn shop situated in Profilo Shopping Center. It was Sunday and the shop was so crowded: everybody was looking for yarns for a future knitting project. I was amazed to see many young women as well. Their usual choice: fancy and novelty yarns. Now it is a new fashion for knitting in Istanbul: knitted bags, knitted fancy bags. So, I followed the young crowd and did finally choose two types of beige yarns. I intend to knit a handbag which will match my new beige boots. Here is my choice of yarns. As my knitting project will grow, I will post pictures with different stages.



This pink and black pillow influenced my choice of yarns.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Knitting around the world


I can say for sure knitting is the most popular craft in the world. I was born in Romania, I can still remember very clearly how my grandma was knitting: very fast and daily. Then my mom: during dictator Ceausescu time she had to attend endless meetings with the same thematic: the glorious achievements of a great president: Nicolae Ceausescu. Actually nobody was listening, men were reading books and women were knitting discretely, with hands under the desks. At the end of a five-six hours meeting, everybody was showing happily what he/she accomplished: how many chapters in a book were read or a completely knitted sleeve…well, since then almost 25 years have passed. Now I am married in Turkey, and I can say that undoubtly Turkish women have amazing hands. They are so gifted, and they adore knitting and crocheting. Gorgeous items are knitted just for the sake of offering gifts or to decorate homes. All my lady neighbors are avid knitters. One of them, Fatma, is knitting a lot for her baby girl niece. When the knitting part is finished, she likes to embellish the knitted items with decorative stitches: cross stitches, looped stitches, etc using linen threads. It is amazing how a decorative stitch can change the look of a knitted sweater or vest. I strongly advise beginner knitters to try this very simple technique: if you don’t know (or don’t have time) to change colors and/or to knit laborious hard-to-follow patterns, just knit simple and then embellish with a decorative stitch using linen threads. For cotton yarns it is advisable to use ribbons for your decorative stitches.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

For the busy knitter

Hi:

Welcome to my blog. I am an avid knitter; Unfortunately I can't knit very laborious patterns, so I am using easy-to-follow patterns and stitches. Here I'll share with you some of them.

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