Turkish Kilim Motifs
The charts enclosed here are a selection of motifs commonly found on Turkish kilims, a type of flat woven rug. Most of the motifs were taken from kilims, or other woven items, that I own. However, in some cases, I was able to find the motif already charted by other sources. The large dragon motif was created by converting a simple .gif image found on kilim.com to a knitting chart via Gimp software. This process requires choices to be made due to the change of scale from a very small image to a large one for a knitting chart. Additionally, I made a few artistic changes for balance. So, you'll notice that my chart doesn't match the original exactly. The original image, and many others, can be found here: http://www.kilim.com/about kilims/motifs/index.asp The smaller motifs were made using the online chart making software by Tricksy Knitter. This is great software for hand creating charts. You can find it here: http://www.tricksyknitter.com/pages/knittingchart-maker/create-a-color-chart.php. Just make sure to create an account first and save often - I've had frustration on occasion, but it's a wonderful gift to the community. I used these motifs for mittens. There is a snake, the Turkish apple motif, double hooks, and interlocking chain, and a palm pattern. I took the palm, the hook, and double hook pattern from Fancy Feet by Anna Z., a wonderful collection of Turkish motifs. The hooks are found on many of my woven items. Her book also includes the apple, which I found in several references. I charted the snake and chain motifs directly from my own items. I used these charts to create mittens. To do this, I used a standard “recipe" for mittens with a peasant thumb, like that you can find on Ravelry or in many books. The dragon chart is very large, and to use it for a women's mitten you need a very small gauge. My gauge was around 11st/in with heavy lace weight yarn. I fear that any less than 10st/in and you will be swimming in your mittens, so be warned! I did the smaller motifs in bands that went all the way around the mitten, and the large dragon only as a back of the hand. Note that the motifs have different length repeats, so I did adjust the size of the mitten by 1-2 stitches as needed. On the large motif, I had 46 stitches on the back and 45 stitches on the palm, for example. It was relatively straightforward, but there was some calculation involved. You can see my finished project and notes on my Ravelry page here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/ReneeKnitsABit/ turkish-sampler-mittens. Enjoy! Renee (ReneeKnitsABit) January 1, 2013
