Put Your Feet to the Beat

This was the only thing that I managed to finish during my entire vacation. I went to Turkey for 12 days and only got back the night before Ally Pally, did you miss me ? ;-)

I started these in Pergamon and finished them the night before we left Istanbul. That muscular, slightly hairy arm belongs to my husband, not me (in case you were wondering).

Now working in a dark boring colour with a boring rib is hard in the cloudy, rainy skies of blimey, but in the sunshine of the Agean, it wasn't too bad. It also gave me lots of opportunity to speak to some of the Turkish ladies (as they only tended to approach when the husband left me alone for a few moments). They also quickly scurried away whenever he approached.

The conversation for the photo shoot went like this :

Me: Can you please stand on the balcony so that I can take a photo of my socks with the Blue Mosque in the background?

Him: You mean you don't want my face, just the socks?

Me: Yes, just the socks, but don't obstruct the view of the mosque too much, ok?

Him: Ok, I get it , just the socks, the blue mosque and my hairy arm.

One pair of Regia chamelon socks in 4 x 2 rib for the husband

Back in blighty, in the green of my garden...

Do hand knitted socks group on trees?

Unblocked and on British stone, you can see how boring these socks were to knit. I'm only greatful that the husband does not want a 4 ply stocking stitch sweater in this colour. (Please don't give him any ideas)

Unobstructed Blue Mosque view, taken from my hotel balcony. Please note, if you take a hotel in the Sultanahmet district (i.e. Old Istanbul) with a view of the Blue Mosque, you will get a wake-up call every morning, just before sunrise when the ezran is blared over the loudspeakers attached to the minaret. The call to mosque happens 5 times a day but the longest calls seems to happen just before sunrise.

Blue Mosque aka. Sultan Ahmet Camii

The blue Mosque was commissioned by Sultan Ahmet I (the district took his name) and boasts 6 minarets. At the time, this was very controversial, since it was deemed to be in competition with Mecca. Built in 1606-1616, it contains a visual salute from its architect, Sedefkar Mehmet Aga, to the neighbouring Hagia Sophia, built over 1000 years ago. In Hagia Sophia, you feel the pull to look upwards inside the church whereas in the Blue Mosque, your eyes are drawn upwards outside, by the graceful minarets. The Mosque is actually known as Sultan Ahmet Camii, but is more familiarly known as the blue mosque due to the large number of blue tiles in the inside.

As a working Mosque, you are requested to cover-up arms and legs when visiting. I brought a shawl to also cover my head and neck too, but noticed that lots of tourists hadn't bothered and were let in. This wasn't the case in the other mosques that I went to. If you didn't have a scarf or shawl, they were going to *lend* you one (for a small donation)/

Do you think I look adequately modest?

Posted by atu at October 15, 2005 07:11 PM | TrackBack