Knitting Rectangles

I still *only* knit rectangles. I say still because I caught the knitting bug from my good friend Robin over at Crafty Bird almost two years ago. And this project is straight from the Rowan Vintage Style book. I love this scarf. That is to say, I love what the scarf intimates to me in the picture from the book. An early fall day. The first scents of apples and pumpkin pie are noticeable in the air on the way home after a leisurely ramble. Home to some lovely little abode that is one of a few around a courtyard of beautifully converted stables. And the promise of a pint in the garden at the pub. Sigh. This is why I must make this scarf. But, I have been working on this scarf for a year and a half! I am not a fast knitter. And I haven’t progressed past rectangles…yet. (I did make a triangle shawl though.)

So here is Monette almost half way finished.



And here is a close up detail of the lace trim. I actually found knitting this part very rewarding after knitting and un-knitting it four times. It was the first hint of the magic of knitting (above and beyond: "Look what comes out of one piece of string!" after my first rectangle)that I felt as the yo/k2tg translated into something beautiful. I must remind myself of that when I start on the other side of the lace (since it’s been a year and half since I did that bit, I am sure I will knit and un-knit several times).



In other Rectangle Knitting News, while finishing my thesis I also started to knit a gift for the Paul-to-my-John-friend’s sister as a wedding gift. Note to self: do not attempt to knit and write a thesis at the same time. The stress of the thesis was directly translated into the piece of knitting. In the end, one side was much shorter than the other side (i.e. I cast off far fewer stitches than I cast on) and several repair sessions later it was better but definitely not wedding gift material. I was “following” a pattern from the LYS in Victoria when I decided I wanted more of a fishnet look.

Here is the result.



I like the scarf and have named it Mermaid. But, because it is wonky and sort of short and awkward, I am knitting a new scarf for the new Mrs. L.

I will keep Mermaid for myself as a souvenire of my thesis. Peter suggested we look for an antique silver napkin ring at a thrift store to use as a toggle for it…if that works out, I’ll post mermaid with some bling.

I am using the same yarn for the new scarf for Mrs. L minus the most fishnet-like one (which by the way is beautiful and from - Handmaiden yarns - as is the curly teal one used in both scarves).



And here is my progress so far. This time I am actually following the pattern much more closely and things are looking better. I also defended my thesis a few months ago so there is no transferable stress from that!



Those are my rectangles. I have another rectangle scarf project in the basket, as well, and I have one of the Devon hat kits from Handmaiden. Not a rectangle, exactly…. I did try to knit it last November without much success. It’s black yarn. I'll blame that unfinished project on dim winter light coupled with black yarn.

I am optimistic about these latest rectangles, though.

Apricots and Thomas

There are many, many fruit trees here. And lately we've seen people under them with plastic bags picking up loads of fruit - mainly apricots are on offer from the trees right now. So last week we stopped under a apricot tree which had not yet been stripped bare and shook some branches and plucked a bit to get nearly 2 kilos of apricots! What fun! They are gorgeous! The bread is there for scale. The bread was yummy too and a loaf of nice fresh bread is only .45 YTL. I know that I put the prices of things up often but I think it is good to get an idea of the price of things here for perspective. I think bread everywhere should be less than 50 cents a loaf! On the other hand, an imported magazine here like British Vogue is 15YTL and the American Vogue is 22YTL. At least the Economist puts their own prices on the magazine relative to the markets and currencies where it’s sold so it is only about 5YTL.

I digress. Here are the apricots.



It was a boatload of fruit so we did two things. I used the seasonal crumble recipe from the rebar modern food cookbook to inspire me and made an apricot crumble. A few weeks ago I made one with peaches and a hazlenut/oatmeal topping but this crumble was just an oatmeal topping with the apricot filling. Because we don't have measuring cups/spoons, nor can I figure out what cornstarch is here (or if there is such a thing) I use the recipe more as a guide. Typically, I follow recipes to a T but it has been good for me to read them as guidelines and then do whatever makes the most sense given our kitchen (don't forget we have a gas oven with 3 settings so none of this preheating to 350 degrees business!) and resources. The crumble was excellent - not too sweet. Also, we cooked the rest of the apricots and reduced them to put in the freezer to make good things later like apricot glazed chicken.

In addition to visits from the apricot fairy, we also get visits from Thomas The Cat from time to time. We call him Thomas because he sort of has the colors and markings of Tom from Tom and Jerry (although I know Tom is really gray). Thomas is our Lojaman's cat. Every Lojman (apartment block) seems to have one and Thomas is ours. He likes to come in for some milk and then explore the apartment a bit before heading out again.





Turkish lesson:
(I really could use a Turkish keyboard for this because I am missing the "s" and "c" with the squiggle below and the "o" and "u" with the two dots and the "g" with the smile above it)
black = kara
white = bayez
cat = kide
ve = and

Thomas = kara ve bayez kide :)

Muze

Two weekends ago we visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations here in Ankara. I was very impressed! Especially because when we visited a similar sort of museum in Antalya I found it to be poorly run. But the one here in Ankara is wonderful! The museum is located in the old part of Ankara, Ulus, and I thought it was interesting to see that in this area where older architecture reigns, even when things are remodeled, that one house appeared to have aluminum siding on it! I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition of old and new.


There were many beautiful artifacts on display but of course, pictures could only be taken outside, hence the urns in the trees and the lion/pig creature.




I was especially impressed by how the museum was ordered chronologically such the display cases went from the Paleolithic period through the Bronze Age and on in a counter clockwise fashion which made the exhibit easy to follow. I was especially taken with all of the Mother Goddess icons and the stone tablets documenting, lists, marriages, divorces, servitude and other contracts along with their stone envelopes. I would recommend this museum - it is not very large but then, I have a hard time seeing everything in large museums anyway. Plus, it is housed in a 10-domed market building that has been restored which is also lovely to look at.

And of course, we ate. Down a few steps off the "parking lot" at the bottom of castle there was this funky, fun looking place with gourds hanging off the rush mat hiding the ugly plastic awning, string beans climbing up strings with a few ice-plants mixed in, 7 tables in total covered in bright oilcloths with comfy looking chairs with bright flower print cushions and a woman beckoning us in. Across the way was a swanky place with a nice terrace, big canvas umbrellas, chic Europeans and very professional looking waitstaff. We opted for piknik place rather than the swanky terrace being in-the-know local types (we stick out like a sore thumb though – we are constantly being offered a taxi). The atmosphere was perfect and the prices were unbeatable - we both had lunch for less than 13 YTL! And it was a marvelous lunch! Peter had an Iskender kebab with all the fixin’s (kebab, rice, tomatoes and cucumbers, flat bread, peppers and a yogurt sauce) and I had a pide (like a pizza but on a flat, oblong, bubbly bread) with cheese and egg (called karsli, I think - there are many kinds of pide). It was delicious. Meals always end here with tea. As we had been eating we noticed a young boy going up and down the hill with a tray of tea glasses and mused on how the tea always seemed to be hot, fresh and plentiful and how no one ever seemed to actually pay for it (not that we have tried to get tea off of a tea vendor on the street, yet). We wondered if maybe tea was just a public service here? Or if there was some sort of Tea Mafioso run by a large woman called Momma Cay? (tea here is pronounced chai just like chai tea at your local coffee house) We thought maybe everyone settled his or her tea bills with Momma Cay down some back alley. Giggling at this when the welcoming hostess who had also been our server offered us tea, we said yes and where should the tea come from but off the tea boy as he passed by! Unless you are licensed as a teahouse, maybe you have to buy from Momma Cay!

In the Mediterranean Style

Our 4 lira houseplant from Pratiker has a new leaf! I was a little worried about why she might have been so inexpensive but in a new pot and sitting in the window sill she seems well...

I suspect that it might be she is celebrating the arrival of the bottled ginger beer! Peter has bottled the ginger beer and after it started fizzing (as shown in this picture), we squeezed out the excess air and screwed the lids on very tight. Now, all the ginger beer is wrapped in plastic bags and is in the rubbish bin in case it explodes...
Speaking of beer and food, since that is mainly what life consists of (except for working which right now is being done but at odd hours of the day as I remotely log on to computers half way around the world), I am trying to embrace eating In the Mediterranean Style. This is highly necessary because Peter's cooking is excellent and I could easily overeat every single day if we had homemade tomato soup, cottage pie, curries and homemade hamburgers everyday. And, it’s also a pleasure because everything is readily available for eating in this style, unsurprisingly, since we are just a few hours from the Mediterranean. I like to look at the MediterraneanAsian for inspiration. In many ways, eating the meals planned won't work for us but the pictures and info are very useful. After looking for inspiration and going to Real (grocery store) last night this was dinner: Mmm. The grain salad was from the deli section at the local grocery store and is bulgur, cilantro, tomatoes and spices to give it warmth but not too hot. And the white yogurt dip was also from the deli and is a spinach and dill yogurt dip. Yum! We just cut up some veggies and put some olives with it and poured two glasses of Skol beer and dinner was served!
Then...I made dessert :)

fridge... kiwi isn't really in season here nor are bananas and these are expensive compared to other things (e.g. 3 lemons cost .33 YTL, 4 sweet plums cost .46 YTL and 3 tomatoes tallies in at under .50 YTL while 2 bananas is 1.5o YTL) but they are familiar to me and I like to have bananas on my cereal in the morning. I am trying to make use of all of the seasonal things here like the melon pictured above and below - which is apparently a honeydew melon but interestingly, it doesn't look like honeydew I am used to... it is very good and juicy but not as sweet as what I would call honeydew and is more pale:

Plus, the rind doesn't look like Honeydew but it is very good all the same! The dessert then, was kiwi, banana and honeydew drizzled with honey (which is from one of Peter's students whose father is a police officer but he also keeps bees - we have five different types of honey in the pantry) and topped with crushed almonds and hazelnuts (findik). If the mint hadn't wilted, I would have put a sprig of fresh mint in the picture too! A lovely summery dessert In the Mediterranean Style :)

In other food/beverage news, Real has gotten in a shipment of filter coffee so I was able to buy something besides Starbucks! Real has all sorts of things including food, clothes, DVDs and air conditioners (like a Super Target) and most of the time, everything is in stock but things which are imported, like filter coffee (filtre khave) and frozen shrimp etc. are not always on the shelves. Anyway, the filter coffee we have now is Jacobs brand, which is very dark so I only need half of much of it compared with the measurement needed for Starbucks' brand. I am just a fussy American and can't handle those strong European coffees (let alone Turkish coffee! I have had it every now and then, but it's much too dark and ferocious to drink first thing in the morning!).

Last but not least, we are taking Turkish lessons for nearly three hours every weekday. Learning another language makes me sympathize with little kids who have a large repertoire of nouns and end up pointing a lot and saying words with pleading looks on their faces... or maybe that is just me as I try to learn a new language after my brain has lost all its language plasticity!

Gule Gule! (bye bye!)

Minutiae

I had typed out a whole blog entry a few days ago and silly me, I was not saving as I went along and was not cognizant of the fact that the electricity had already gone out twice during the day. It does that here on campus though not, apparently as often when students are here. And we speculated that the air conditioner was to blame for sucking up all of the electricity. It has only gone out once at home. But it never stays out very long - only two or three minutes. So I lost the entry.

A side note, when I visited at Christmas time and we went to Antalya, the lights in the old harbor went out every night for up to an hour - no one really seemed to notice! They just lit some candles in the restaurant we started going to every night and went on their way drinking tea and talking!

So, I was trying to capture some of the day-to-day things here in this post. As seen below, ads from the glossy flyer for the grocery store paint a pretty typical picture. Although I am not sure I have ever seen a party pack in North America, all the products in here are familiar-ish: Efes beer (the local beer that can be good or can taste like fish), Pepsi, chips, nuts etc. Not a bad price for all of that.
These packs are usually on sale so it’s not just because of the World Cup.

Next, is a picture of the cheese on offer. White cheese. Lots and lots of white cheese can be had which is not unlike mozzarella but not exactly mozzarella, either. There are other cheeses, one kind of cheddar, Gouda, Camembert etc., but these are fairly expensive. Also dairy-wise, there is: yogurt, yogurt, yogurt watered down into a drink, cream cheese, more yogurt and mostly UHT milk. I found pasteurized milk but it went bad in only two days. I think because milk here is only whole milk, so no water to give it a longer shelf life. So I am adjusting to the UHT stuff. Also, there is no sour cream. At all. I love sour cream.
At the faculty club on campus, there is a section on the menu of Tex-Mex items. It’s true. And they say these items are served with sour cream. So Peter asked the barman, Murat, about the sour cream and he brought us a sample. Turns out, it is basically whipped cream but not sweetened. Oh well, you don’t really need sour cream anyway. I learned to love sour cream and chips from R. and A. upstairs in Vic but since there isn’t such a thing here I am settling for a dip made from mayo and bbq sauce served with bugles I had at the faculty club.

And the produce. It is fantastic here! Whatever is in season is cheap, delicious and abundant. A whole watermelon is 2 YTL (however, there is no such thing as seedless here) and cherries are still in season! But the strawberries are gone. And they don’t sell overpriced ones by the pint that are fat and tasteless until the winter holiday when it’s a treat. Which is very different from N. America where you can get anything, nearly anytime but not be assured it’s that good. While lots of things like peppers and tomatoes taste like they come from your garden and are cheap as chips, things like avocados and bananas cost more than I am used to paying. But, the quality is still very high for these things.

Other, tidbits here... below is a picture of Yumy toilet paper, which we thought was quite cute. There is not peanut butter of the regular variety to be had. I think I mentioned that already. While there is a whole 1/3 aisle devoted to Nutella-like spreads, there is only a really sweet type of peanut butter. And I have it on authority that most people when going to the US or UK, bring back things like peanut butter, Stilton cheese and shoes (for ladies like myself with large feet). So we are thinking of trying to make peanut butter at home… We are in fact, making Ginger beer right now. I say we, Peter is making a Ginger Beer Plant right now so we can make Ginger Beer. Finally, laundry. We have a washing machine in the bathroom. It basically takes up the whole bathroom. Quite different then what I am used to, but at least we have one in the apartment. And we dry everything on a clothes dryer – see below. I think dryers uncommon here and only the rich have them. And I haven’t seen anything in any of the shops like the stacked washer and dryers suitable for apartments. I think there is also a fear of ruining things in dryers and having to pay to run them, it’s true that our clothes will last longer being air-dried. There is a HUGE market for irons, consequently. It seems the sales people encourage ironing everything including t-shits and underwear. But it makes sense, I guess, if you can’t put things in a dryer.

There are all sorts of other little things that are different here: going to a bar and going to the washroom only to discover there is not a conventional toilet like I am used to (but you make due, trust me); statues and pictures of Ataturk everywhere; people sweeping whole parking lots with a household broom (it creates jobs) and so on. But many things are the same: Lay’s potato chips; Starbucks (if anyone knows of someplace else in Ankara to buy filter coffee, please let me know!); stores like Levi’s and Diesel in the mall; Mercedes and Hyundai and so on. The material things are fairly similar here, overall. But the pace is much more relaxed and people don’t seem to worry as much or being in any great hurry. It drives me nuts. And I consider myself pretty laid back and uncomfortable on the East Coast because I think the pace is too fast! But all in all, things are pretty similar and when they aren’t, you try to adapt and figure out if some company will ship peanut butter to Turkey!