The first side of the new OYA scarf

So I quickly finished the 1st side, starched it, and then took photos to put up for my lovely fellow readers to see. You can see what I meant before about the scarf being lovely, and for some reason I don't think a flat 2d type oya would have gone as well as a 3d oya would with this one.  I didn't use Altin Basak for this one as my new nylon threads came a couple of days ago they're called "Ozen is" -said 'ozen ish' and its great, really like it, excellent pull and doesn't twirl.  This oya is called hanimeli, however there are 2 versions of this oya.  One does actually look like a ladies hand (hanim= woman, eli= hand) however this one is the actual flower version which I believe is called a honey suckle.  The intermitant motif is often called maydonoz or cimen, which is parsley or grass, so I'm gathering in this instance its grass lol. 

It's really time consuming and I guess I'm going to price this one between 50 and 60 AUD, which I think is fair.  The most time consuming thing is having to make 4 petals and then making the stamens aswel, I hate stamens lol.  Usually I'll finish one side with the 1st row and then complete the flowers on it,  that way I don't get bored doing the same thing over and over again.  Anyway 3 sides to go!  Wish me luck!!

This weeks antics..

So this weeks been full on!  On thursday I went to spotlight to get some beads for some more bracelets for my upcoming stall (hopefully!) And theres this lovely Turkish woman who works in spotlight who I promised last time I went in there that I'd give her some oya samples, and when I went in, she was talking to this old Turkish lady who apparently is a regular who had a really ugly oya scarf on- like, it wasnt ugly, it was more undetailed and just quickly done, it was "kelebek oyasi" which is a crochet butterfly edging with love knots in between each motif with pink blue and yellow mixed thread on a plain white scarf.  So I went up to the lady that works there and I said "oh I promised you these last time, here you go" and I proceeded to walk off and go to the bead section in Spotlight.  Not even 3 seconds later she came running calling my name because the lady wanted my number to buy some items off me.  How cool is that!?  So I gave her my number and I'm waiting for her call!  So when I got home I started on some Igne oyasi straight away, since I had none in my stash since I gave away the last 3 I had as presents.  I have about 9 or 10 crochet oya scarves and this woman specifically wanted Igne oyasi so I started immediately.  I have this lovely scarf with pink purple yellow and green colours and shiny stuck on sequins, so normally what I'll do is assess the scarf and determine what Oya to put on it, and what colours to use.  I decided on the "Hanimeli" Oya which differs from town to town in Turkey.  Even though this Oya is made for girls getting married, not alot of Turkish people these days know all the meanings for all the Oya, so if it looks pretty, they'll wear it.  I've 1/4 to half finished it so when I do the 1st edge I'll put up a photo.

Heres another edging of a scarf that I whipped up.  I call it 7's because the motif looks like 7s! Duhh lol, Pretty, right?

This towel edging I finished in 2 days.  Its made out of plastic rings (called Halka in Turkish) with a filet edging with some ribbon wrapped through it.  Its such a drainer to make but it looks pretty :)

So that was part of my week.  Tomorrow I have a placement interview at an Aged Care facility so I hope I get it!  Wish me luck!!

Cheers x.

Turkish Stitch Bracelets

So last night my partner reminded me that we would be hopefully opening a market stall next year and suggested I start making things that everyone would like (not just scarves because obviously not everyones muslim to wear one)  So I thought I'd whip up some trial bracelets before my partners mother sends us more supplies (beads, threads, whatnot)  This isn't exactly a stitch, its more a sequence of stitches that create what is actually a form of oya edging (called yilan omurgasi or snake spine.)  The edging part would be made by making a stitch in between the beads and then chaining and repeating for the length of the oya, however if you use bigger beads and thicker thread you can make them into bracelets.  I think Adele has a tutorial on this stitch on her website or blog, I think its http://www.recklessbeading.blogspot.com/, or alternatively you can find her on ravelry under the same nickname. 

Oya Flowers...

So last night I decided to make an oya flower since I hadn't made one for so long.  The only bad thing is that because I only have a smaller size nylon thread, it took a long time to work up the outer pink tube.  But anyway I dont think I'll have a use for it, I might embroider stem stitches and then lead them to the flower?  I dont know.  I dont even know if theres even a flower that looks like this i kind of just made it up lol.

These are some flat oyas I made last night aswel just out of boredom.  I'll probably add to it and make an example of flowers I know how to make, maybe I can use it as an example for people to pick to put on scarves they want done, or something else, I dont know..what would you use them for??

Hope all that read this are doing well, I'm having neighbour problems at the moment so this is the only thing calming me down!!

This post is likely to get some people angry...Sorry!

Before I begin my rant I guess I should explain somethings to you so you don't misjudge me whilst reading this post.  I am not racist, nor do I care what religion you are.  I do not care if you are black, white, red, green or purple.  I do not care if you are a christian, muslim, hindu, buddhist or jewish.  I judge people based on how they treat me.  I am not biased.  Nor will I be accused of any of the above-mentioned things after you have read this post and are unhappy with what I've written.

Now, moving on to the interesting part of the rant.

I am sick to death of people messaging me and telling me that Oya is Armenian or *shock horror* "Greek." I am also sick to death of people messaging me about the Armenian genocide, or how Turks killed greeks and therefore because Turks had everything, "Oya" is owned by either Armenia or Greece.  Please, save me your political bullshit.  I am not Turkish, nor do I know anything about any genocide.  I never started this blog to be inundated by people of Armenian and Greek heritage telling me "oh my grandmother did this in her village its not Oya its whatever." 

Being that Oya is my craft of choice, I think I'd know a little bit about it.  So I'm here to set some things straight and hopefully, just HOPEFULLY you people who want to claim something that you know nothing about, will leave me be and just read my blog for inspiration and not to throw around such ludicris claims.

Lets face it:  Type in "greek lace" or "armenian lace" into google, and not much comes back.  Most of its crochet anyway.  However if we type in "Oya" then a whole database of pictures and information comes up.  If Oya really was greek or armenian, why is it not as popular there as it is in Turkey?  Why is it every time I see someone put up a picture of an Oya lace doily or whatever, its apparently "armenian" or "greek?"  You'll notice that armenians and greeks don't make oya flowers or scarf edgings because OYA isnt THEIRS to know how to do that, and ontop of that, I didn't know christians wore scarves anyway?

I'd be pretty stupid to rant on like this without some sort of source to quote right?  Ok lets begin.  Moorad Alexanian says on an internet site that the oya knot was first used in Arabia and spread to Turkey and then Armenia and other countries, he then goes on to say: "But reminding Armenians of that is likely to get an angry response, said Kliot, because of ethnic tensions. ``One woman said to me, `You do not put `Turks' and `Armenians' in the same mouth!''  -Please...Armenians and Turks in the same mouth? Are you kidding me? So because of some ethnic tensions, that entitles you to claim something as your own? Good try, but no win.  I'm lebanese, and we've had problems with Turkey in the past too, but that doesn't give me the right to say that oya is now miraculously lebanese just because I'm pissed off with a whole race of people, does it?  I tend not to believe that the oya knot was even created IN arabia, due to this source of information:  "It is natural that Turkish decorative arts before and after Islam have influenced many decorative traditions in many geographical regions especially where there was Turkish rule" (turkcebilgi.com, Onuk 1988)  Mind you this information comes from a PROFESSOR who has studied the history of Oya, so as if we're going to argue with her, right?  Lets look at it from another perspective:  Hummus is the arabic word for chickpeas, everyone knows that its a middle eastern dip.  Greeks and Turks also call it hummus and claim it to be theirs, even though the NAME is ARABIC- so does this make it Middle Eastern, Greek or Turkish?

I had a "LOL" moment in my local library the other day.  I was looking for a popular embroidery book when I came across a book called "mediterrainian knotted lace".  I thought I'd have a look through it and see if it was Oya, since Turkey is in the mediterrainian.  As soon as I read the preface, I laughed and put it over the Automotive section 4 rows away from where it was.  This is what I read from the book:  When asia minor fell to the Turks, Greek "refugees" took their craft to mainland greece and taught it  wherever they settled"  She also goes on to say "She believes therefore that greeks can and should claim ownership of knotted lace, being of greek ancestry (which she isn't by the way, her deceased husband was) I too would like to claim it as being greek."  Now, type bebilla or dandella into google and you hardly find anything about OYA.  This woman has obviously made herself out to be a woman of knowledge and therefore we should all believe the crap shes written.  Does anyone else find what she's written stupid and without reference?  I mean in her actual references shes lists ARMENIAN lace books?  And the other funny thing is that she says that this lace has no names for the stitches, where as in Turkish every stitch has a name.  What she calls bows are called Seytan Bacagi in Turkish.  What she calls a raised stitch is called Tavsan Kullagi in Turkish.  So basically shes written crap down and tried to make herself sound like a historian.  Please.  Greeks don't like Turks, thats why her mother in law told her its greek.

Now come on- Turkish people are well known for handcrafts, and yet other people need to argue over an inanimate object made by a needle and thread!  Plus theres huge differences between the way turks make igne oyasi, and the way that armenians and possibly even greeks make it.  Its fine to do something a different way, but that doesn't mean you get the right to claim it.

Now I would not be going on this rant if some uneducated people didnt message me telling me that its not oya its whatever.  And yes, I put the tag "armenian lace" on my blogs because some people are misinformed and type that in to google.  I know by writing this I have offended some people, but as I said before, I'm not racist and I'm not biased.



Now for a picture of a laughing horse to make everything better.

I figured it out!!

I'm  actually really really REALLY proud of myself.  I've been trying to figure out how to do this motif for about a year and a half after I found that my partners mother had left a half done one here when she went back to Turkey (which you can see in one of my earlier posts.)  Its the "fan" motif, done with 2 colours a hair pin that I made myself and a size .7mm crochet hook.  If you're wondering how I made a hair pin myself, I just used a metal coat hanger.  I eventually realised why my previous attempts had failed and thats because I was doing it upside down *smacks forehead*

I was sort of mucking around this week with some tatting and bead crochet, but I'll probably continue with the bead crochet as its already nearly a metre long, and I have a yellow black white and green scarf that I can attach it to.  The motif is called "ojeli parmak" and "parmak" means "finger" and the motif does kind of look like fingers with nail polish on them!  Very easy to whip up, its a variation of the "goose eye" which is even simpler!  The tatted edging is called "pirpirim" which is one of my favourite greens- pursulane, very easy to whip up aswel as theres no chains, making this edging simple and suited for a beginner.

Thanks for taking a look!  Have a great day!

Apologies...

Loyal followers and lurkers of my blog I wish to apologize for not blogging for a while, I've been extremely busy and grandmas been sick so I've been there and by the time I get home I'm too busy to do anything...Luckily for me I take my work with me!

So I've been lacing it up for the past couple of weeks, even though I was supposed to be making an oya scarf for my partners mother on the 22nd of this month (I still have time) but I'm waiting for my shipment of threads to come as I've picked the scarf but dont have the thread colours for it.

About my laceworks:  I made the tablecloth and runner while I was at my grandmothers.  I used Oren bayan thread.  The 3 doilies are knitted and made by my grandmother from around 30 years ago (I found them while I was cleaning out all of her old clothes shoved at the back of a cupboard) and she gladly gave them to me.  Theres 2 oya lace pieces down the bottom left hand corner, one is a motif doily that still needs 3 more motifs to be completed- its a mixture of crochet and Igne oyasi which is totally beautiful, and the other one is a WIP (work in progress) where I'm just playing around with some stitch ideas.  Both are made with Nylon thread.

Its been really weird weather here in Melbourne the past week- I think thats why my neighbours have both gone mental..  That story is for another blog post lol.

I promise not to neglect any of you reading this blog again, but sometimes life throws things your way and you dont have time to take photos, sit down and write. 

Cheers xx

I love a good towel..And a good edging!

I think theres nothing better than going into somebodys house and finding a beautiful towel edging attatched to a soft cotton towel.  I definately think that you can enhance the look of ANY bathroom by adding a nice colourful edging to a towel thats well displayed.  Usually if an Igne Oyasi towel edging is made, they have a crochet part to it aswel, this part is sewn onto the towel to allow the owner to change the edging to a different towel if they wanted to.  Although some people prefer to do Igne Oyasi on the actual edge of the towel, I think either way is fine! Enjoy!

Bukhari Rice Recipe

So lebanese cooking doesn't really divulge into Gulf (Khaliji) cooking, but for the sake of being "Arab" I thought I'd share this recipe.  This dish is similar to an Indian biriyani, and in saying that, Saudi/Khaliji cooking has alot of similarity to Indian cooking in the sense that they use alot of spices. Bukhar in Arabic "steam" and the name of this dish comes from the steam created to cook and make the rice fluffy. For those of you who have heard of "kabseh" then this is just as good.

The aroma of this dish is captivating, and will make your neighbours come over and introduce themselves if they haven't already.

Ingredients:4c basmati rice
1kg chicken (traditionally they use a whole chicken, but you may use pieces)
1/2 c oil
4 large onions cut into half rings
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 carrots (I don't like carrots so I don't use them)
1 tbs ground cumin
1 c sultanas/currents
Almonds, Pine nuts, Cashews for presentation

MethodWash rice and leave in warm salty water for an hour.  Remove skin of the chicken and wash it, cover the chicken lightly with flour and salt (this is one way to keep that 'chickeny' smell coming out in the cooking process that Arabs use, also cinnamon is used but the abovementioned method is also effective.)  Cut into 6 or 8 pieces.
In a large stainless steel pot, heat the oil, and add the pieces of chicken and cook until golden.  Remove chicken and set aside.  Add more oil and fry the onions until they are golden, add 3 cups of water and leave to boil.  Add chicken to the pot, add salt and pepper, cover the pot and let it boil for 30 mins. 
Remove chicken from broth, and add carrots to broth.  Strain rice and and add it with the cumin to the pot and stir.  Leave it to boil and add the sultanas and chicken-DO NOT STIR. .  Place a piece of foil over the pot and seal the sides and place the lid on top (this keeps the steam in)  turn down to low and leave for an hour. 
During this time you can fry the almonds, pine nuts and cashews in either oil or ghee.
Take out chicken, put rice on a platter, arrange chicken on top and then put the fried nuts on top aswel.

Enjoy!

Embroidery Stitches!!!

Just a few stitches, I'll upload more when I can find the other folder.  Theres also a great embroidery stitch library made by SharonB you can find the link here

Tatting things!

So I was going through my pattern books (some of which I didn't even know I had) and I thought that I'd post them for everyone to have a look at! Enjoy x

The 1st recipe of many..

So after much deliberation, I've decided to put up recipes that have been passed down to me, or ones I've come up with in this blog also.  Some of you may be thinking:  "this is a craft blog, why would you add food to it also?"  Well thats a simple question to answer.  My grandmother was a prized cook in our city in Lebanon.  She was orphaned at a young age and went to live with her aunty who taught her all the ins and outs of lebanese cooking.  These secrets and recipes have been passed down to me and now its time to share them with you.  Yes, this is a craft blog, but its also a journey of my life through the things I love, and if I've forgotten to mention, I was a chef at a top restaurant for nearly 2 years, however due to distance and "restaurant politics" I quit and now I'm undertaking aged care.  I also indulged in Turkish cookery obviously because of my partner, and many other different cuisines, however I think for the time being I'll just stick to middle-eastern recipes.  Most ingredients can be found in your local shops, or in a middle eastern grocery.

Cooking to me is my other love alongside craft.  I cook nearly every day, and sometimes get angry at myself because I can't think of WHAT to cook.  So I'll put up a section on the left hand side of the blog called "Cooking" (obviously?) after I put a few recipes up.

One thing I'll pre-warn you all about is I'm not very good with amounts and quantities, I normally just do it by eye, so hopefully we can overcome this together!

This recipe is one of my all time favourite Turkish recipes, as I love baking.  This is a perfect thing to whip up as an entree if you cut it in slices or just as a meal on its own,  I made these the other day for my partner, he loved them of course!

Cheese Pide:  (4 serves)Dough

2 3/4c  Plain Flour
7g (1 packet) Instant yeast
3/4c  Warm Water
2 Tbs Olive oil

Filling

1c  Feta cheese (if your feta is too salty, soak it in water for 10 mins)

1c Tulum cheese (this can be found at Turkish groceries, if you cant find it, use another cup of feta)
Parsley (optional)

GlazeYogurt mixed with water
Nigella or Sesame seeds
Olive Oil

-I used my bread maker to make the dough, but if you prefer you can always do it by hand.

MethodPreheat oven! (250 dC)

Place flour, yeast, water and oil together and mix until its just a little bit sticky but not too much, watch your dough, know your dough- if it needs more water add a little at a time, if it needs more flour the same applies.
When it has come together and formed a not so sticky ball, cover it in olive oil and leave to rest for as long as you can (an hour if you are in a hurry)

While you're waiting, crumble the cheeses and chop the parsley (optional) and mix together in a bowl.

Seperate your dough in to 4 pieces, rest another 15 mins. 

Pat down the dough into oval shapes, then use a rolling pin to make it more longer and wider.  If it sticks to the rolling pin, put a little bit more oil.

Put cheese mixture in the middle from one end to another, and start to fold the edges together but leaving it open in the middle.

Glaze with yogurt mixture and sprinkle nigella or sesame seeds on the dough.

Bake in a preheated oven at 250 degrees C on a tray lined with baking paper

Glaze with olive oil as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Enjoy!

New crochet oya scarf

This is the newest scarf I made to add to my collection.  It's crocheted with yellow beads, and white green and pink nylon thread.  It took me about 3 days to complete, and I'm extremely happy with it.  I was a bit annoyed to have to iron each individual motif so they would lay flat, but I guess its all a process that I should be pleased with.

Knitting and Crochet Patterns

So isn't it really annoying when you're looking for something specific and you have to go to 1000 websites just to find what you want?  Well for those of you who don't know, you don't have to!

Theres 2 pattern sites I swear by, even if its not for a pattern, even if its just for an idea!  They're all categorized so the only searching you'll be doing is ON the actual sight!  However, if you'd rather follow a pattern by a chart (which is me, but you know...we learn to adapt) then I suggest looking for them in another language like French, Arabic Whatever.  It seems that English patterns are almost always written, whilst European/Asian countries prefer a chart.  Anyway, here are the links:

For Crochet click here

For Knitting click  here


Weather has been weird over the last week, last wednesday it rained so much I thought we were going to get flooded, yesteday was really sunny and today it keeps changing.  Thats Melbourne weather for you!

How creative can you be when it comes to a scarf edging?

I've always liked quirky things, especially when it comes to things like lace, when things are supposed to be done a certain way, and a certain height, shape whatever.  It was to my suprise when looking for examples of "carnation oya" (mind you, depending on which area of turkey you come from determines what shape and the length between each motif there is.)  Now keeping in mind that in Turkish the same word for Cloves (the spice) also is the word for Carnation, I typed it in google to find examples.  After a couple of pages I found a photo of cloves with beads on them?  It wasnt until I opened up the photo that I saw that cloves had been used in an oya egding.  I laughed in sheer delight that someone actually thought to use cloves as a medium on a scarf.  I immedately told my partner about it who replied "yes this is probably used for a woman who doesnt like to shower because at least she'd smell nice then." - Great line.

So when I get the time, I'm going to buy a whole thing of cloves and I'm going to do it.  I think its a fabulous idea.

Turkish Tulip Festival!

Finally got the photos on the computer to show you, it was a really nice area and the flowers were stunning.  The belly dancer looked like reece witherspoon on crack with a little too much blush on her cheeks, but apart from that it was a spectacular day!