My husband tells me there is no emergency in yarn. I profoundly disagreed when I opened my crochet bag in Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, to begin my special "I'm on a plane for 20 hours" project. I opened the bag to find the gorgeous yarn and guide for stitch ideas but no crochet hook!
I arrive in Istanbul, 23 hours later, thinking I would find a hook easily, but all the shops were closed because of the end of Ramadan. The shops were not going to be open until the following Wednedsay (We arrived the previous Saturday). We were due to leave Istanbul on a 12.30pm flight that day, so I had time to go to a shop and hope they were open by 9.00am. I did this and the place didn't open. Sigh - now 5 days with a project begging to be begun...
We spent the next 2 days clambering up to, over and around ruins in Ephesus and Selcuk. On the last night, I asked the hotel owner if he knew where I could find a hook. He sent his son to take me to a shop where I could find one. I felt the glorious anticipation of working with my yarn and entered the shop. There was not a hook in sight and no one spoke English. Sigh again - 7 days with no crochet...
We flew on to Cappadocia where we stayed in house with friends. in a nearby village, my husband and I ended up in rug store buying a rug from Murat - (more about him another time). Murat said that he knew where I could find a hook and he sent his assistant to take me there. I followed Ali through the back streets of Urgup to find myself in a ladies underwear store. I felt like I had been down this road before, but Ali asked the woman behind the counter something in Turkish and she passed over a basket of hooks - YAY YAY YAY!
I chose 3 hooks in various sizes and did not care how much they were - asking price? 1.75TL = 87.5 cents AUD.
NICE
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Paradise found - an oasis after a 9 day drought. I wanted to kiss those hooks!
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Yours in yarny goodness,
Shona
