Istanbul

As promised, here it is: 4 days in photos.

I'm sure that some of you may have been here before but this was my first time and it blew me away. It's such a heated mix of different cultures, visions, sounds and aromas. The photos are in the order of the sights we saw. If I could accompany them with the sound of the Muezzin (the prayer call that echoes around the city four times a day; it reaches you wherever you are!), I would.

This is my my favourite image from the whole trip: beautiful iznik tiles:

The Blue Mosque:

Hagia Sophia:

Although historically more important, Hagia Sophia is perhaps less beautiful visually than the Blue Mosque. Just don't tell my old university History of Art professor!

The interior of Hagia Sophia, a confused blend of Christian Byzantine and Muslim styles:


An ancient tile from the Islamic Arts Museum; I think this design transcends time, it could easily have been done today:

An early example of a kilim (woven Anatolian carpet), worn in patches:

A view of the Blue Mosque from the terrace on our hotel roof - we were very close:

We had a night-time drink up here away from the crowds below, with one of the best views of the city:

The Blue Mosque at night:

Mosaic from the interior of Hagia Sophia:

Inside the eclectic Grand Bazaar:

Inside the Basilica Cistern, the Roman waterworks beneath the city, the only cool spot!:

The interior of the Blue Mosque:

A buddleia bush in a courtyard at the Topkapi Palace:

Be prepared, there are a few photos of iznik tiles coming up!:

The "Sofa" of the Palace, a spot for rest and relaxation for the sultans and their concubines:

A view of the city from the "Sofa":

A sofa in the "Sofa"!:

Mother of pearl was also in abundance:

A random colourful little street:

Rainbow Blanket: Blocked

It would be too boring (for you and me) to show as many photos as last time, so here's one blocked photo.

I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but somehow preferred the "fluffier" look when it first came off the needles. That's the beauty of it not being a garment; it doesn't have to fit a certain size, so can be what you want it to be.

I'm off to Istanbul for the weekend. See you soon!

Rainbow Blanket: Update

I've emailed the designer for her feedback, but having checked other people's comments from their projects, it seems that following the original pattern results in a rectangle.

Hurrah - I'm not going mad after all! I'm off to block it.

FO: Rainbow Blanket

The Blanket's finished!

It's not blocked yet, or it would have straighter edges. It's not blocked because there's a major problem: IT'S NOT SQUARE! This is more than a glaring error.

I realised this was going to happen about half-way, but checked the pattern a million times and can't see that I've done anything wrong. The other projects on Ravelry are all square, so I've asked ravelers where I've gone wrong, and will report back.

DH says that I'm being rectanglist and should just embrace the rectangle. Let's see what the good people on Rav suggest.

Bear with me while I get this sorted, and hopefully I'll have some correct photos to show you.

My other problem is with Blogger: sometimes when I upload an image to a post the image rotates itself (e.g. below), and sometimes it doesn't. There's nowhere on the uploading page to change the properties ... aagghh!

At this point I should probably mention that it's one of my favourite things I've ever made. It was super easy, super fast and as any knitter would know, the colour changes really kept me going.

Easy, because although it looks really complicated, but it's not; that's the beauty of it. You just carry the yarn up the side as you swap the main colour and contrast colour every two rows. That's right, no intarsia or fair isle, it's really just slipped stitches which create the chain effect.

Fast, I'm not sure why because the cotton doesn't slip off the needles (in my case bamboo) like wool does. Although I had a break of several weeks waiting for the Ecru (main colour) to arrive, in total the knitting took about 10 days - not bad.

I absolutely love the colour work. Each colour moves on to the next in a subtle way (although I love the way the designer, Erika Flory chose to not go straight from yellow through to green, but in a way the colour moves back and forth before ending (for e.g., see the orange-peach-red-pink stretch). I hope this makes sense; I'm not sure I've articulated my thoughts very well here!

The other thing which I think really makes this project, is the designer's ingenius use of off-white for the main colour, which connects all of the colour links and borders the whole piece. Many would have just used a glaring bright white, but the Ecru is far more subtle.

Back view (still quite pretty):

Back detail:

I did make one mistake, though not according to the pattern, and it wouldn't have affected the shape of the blanket. If you look at other versions of the blanket, on each block of a separate colour, there are only three bands (separated by the chain pattern in the main colour) rather than four in my case; in other words, I changed colour four rows after other people did in their versions). This instruction was not in the pattern as far as I can see. I noticed this after I was about a quarter of the way through, and didn't want to go back. I also prefer the way I have done it, although the other versions look great too; both ways look good. Having checked and counted several times, I don't believe this would have afffected the length of the blanket, though please feel free to tell me otherwise.

Meanwhile, onto other things: when I finished the blanket last night I swatched for the Cardigan, the pattern for which I've also added to Ravelry with the aid of a helpful Sirdar pattern moderator. Again, sorry for the sideways view (I'll try to fix that). I'm just about to cast on.

Last night for dinner I made DH andmyself a nice summery Salad Niçoise (a favourite in my family) - yummy!:

New Commission

Look at these beautiful cherries:

This week's news is that a relative of DH's, Laurence, (I'd call him a family friend; he's lovely) has asked me to make him a cardigan. I'm thrilled!

After hunting high and low, I think I've found the right pattern. He wants one exactly like that worn by Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady. I didn't know the film (though I know the play) so had to search for a photo.

This is the nearest cardigan pattern I could find. I hope Laurence likes it. Check out the cheesy photos of the early 90's models! I plan to make my version classier but I'm not doing a contemporary version; this is going to be a classic shape (like all the best things in life).

He would like a camel cardigan, so I have found the yarn below:

What do you think? Is it camel-ish enough? It's an 80% merino, 20% kid mohair mix and feels divine. It should knit up nicely. I've got the leather elbow patches and leather buttons and am ready to go.

I'll keep you posted on progress, but can't cast on yet as I have to finish the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket (I'm on the home stretch now, and loving those colour changes). I'm afraid I'm one of those boring knitters who tends to finish one project before moving on to another.

While I was buying the yarn I couldn't help but check out what else was in John Lewis (a place I'm not usually too fond of, but the Oxford Street store has a better selection of yarn than Peter Jones).

I cam away with some Noro Silk Garden...

Destined for the pattern below (apologies but I can't seem to rotate this image):

And some chunky tweed for a log cabin blanket that was actually on sale (I had the acqua already):

FO: Shrug!

The shrug is finished! Here are some photo's pre-blocked; I'll get a photo of it on someone soon:

It was a very quick knit (I love using worsted weight on a 5mm needle). It was very easy, with a nice smattering of lace. The only bit I worried about beforehand was picking up the stitches around the body to work in rib, but in the end it was really easy.

I made one change; it's supposed to be knitted flat, but I prefer to knit everything in the round whenever possible, so I knitted the arms in the round.

I love it; perfect for keeping your shoulders warm on a cool summer night (though it's pretty hot here at the moment - for Britain, that is):

Last night DH and I went over to his parents to see his sister who's over from Dubai. My MIL made her yummy oriental chicken salad, and I brought dessert:

Summer Pavlova:

You might not be able to see very well from the photo but it's a very soft pavlova. I've made it lots of times, and it's a perfect summer dish when fruit is at its best. Basically, you turn the oven up to it's hottest setting, make your usual merringue recipe, spread it out into a rectangle on an oven tray, put it in the oven then immediately turn the oven off and leave overnight. Turn the merringue out onto a serving dish, cover with whipped double cream and the fruit of your choice. I used loganberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds which I sprinkled with rosewater and lavendar sugar.

More roses!

Finally the Peaches & Creme in Ecru that I've been waiting for has arrived, so I can get on with the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket. I should have photos for you soon-ish.


By the way, in case anyone's wondering, Hammersmith Stitch N' Bitch is going really well. We meet every week now, which really suits me, and it's such a great group of people. It's great being able to share my hobby with such lovely people; plus I've learned quite a few good tips so far.


Two weeks ago we went to the pub, which we have decided to try to do once a month as it stays open later than the cafe. 12 people came, including a few newbies, each of them great fun and very talented. I think the high turnout may have been due to the promise of wine! Tuesday is now the highlight of my week!

Not Much to Show You...

Just a couple of projects I've started:

The Tall Yarns Socks:

The awesome shrug:

In Giant Peach:

By the way, Amy over at Sassy Does It has just become an auntie for the third time to her sister's third little girl! Check out the beautiful blanket she made.

Sorry for the lack of much knitting; I hope to have made a bit more progress by the next time I post!

It was DH and my 2nd wedding anniversary on Tuesday and my lovely DMIL dropped these beautiful roses off on the doorstep - how kind is she?! The last two years have just flown by. In September we'll be celebrating ten years together!

New Projects!

I started this on Friday night. It's the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket by Erika Flory. You can see other examples on Ravelry. It's knit using Peaches & Creme Solids in all the colours of the rainbow (16 to be exact) and alternated with this clever chain stitch in off-white which makes it look like a layer of chains overlaid on the stockinette colours (am I making any sense?). Anyway, it's soooo much easier than it looks, very effective, washable, tough (cotton) and ideal for summer. I'm sure it'll look fantastic when it's finished, but I can't do any more as I'm waiting for the rest of the MC to arrive (Ecru) and I've gone as far as I can, over a quarter of the way through in just one evening. I hope it turns out a bit larger though.

I think I might start this wonderful shrug next (also on Ravelry) as I've just taken delivery of some gorgeous Dream in Colour Classy, naughty me! I originally ordered it for the Tulips Cardigan (for a friend), but when it arrived I couldn't resist some more Giant Peach for the shrug!

Last night, probably too late in the day, I decided to dye some yarn for the first time (DH wasn't too pleased). I got these sock kits from Tall Yarns N Tales at a knitting show, and am planning on doing some blue and natural striped socks for DH, and some red and natural striped ones for me.

It's quite an easy technique that doesn't involve boiling in pans, but a quick 10 minutes in the microwave, woohoo! In order to get stripes I halved the skein in length and dyed one half in tupperware, with the undyed half left outside the tub. This is it just before it goes in the microwave:

Both skeins hung up to dry:

Those of you who know my blog will know that I hate sock-knitting. That doesn't mean that I don't think it's a very skilled task, I do, and I really admire the many of you who do it on a regular basis, but I had a bad experience a couple of years ago and swore I'd never try them again. Now I'm eating my words! The pattern seems like a very simple top-down construction, and as long as I avoid the dpn's, I shouldn't go wrong.... You know I will! I'll let you know how it goes once I've wound these now-dried skins and cast on.

I'll leave you with another magnificent peony; really striking:

Talk soon, Rowan