Ckemish Fehime’s Patiks

Handmade Knitted Slippers

“Knitting is a hobby of mine. Wherever I go I have my knitting needles with me, ready to carry on whenever I sit down. I have been knitting patiks all my life, so the patterns just come naturally to me.

I live  in the Black Sea region of Turkey, where the weather can get rather cold in winter. These beautiful snug slippers are just the thing to keep your feet warm all year around.

Being able to sell a few of the slippers is a real bonus for me as it supplements my pension. I never thought I would be able to sell them overseas, but it seems I was wrong. My daughter lives in England and keeps on calling me, telling me that her friends are after another pair. What can I do except supply them?

Knitting is a great joy for me. So it really doesn’t matter if I’m making them for my son, my niece or a stranger thousands of miles away. As long as it keeps people happy I will carry on knitting.”

— Ckemish Fehime, Hopa, Turkey

Here is some more information provided by my son-in-law, Timothy, earlier in the year…

Ckemish Fehime’s Patiks

This year it feels a bit like we are caught in the midst of a never-ending winter. We have had a few days of sun and heat, but the grey clouds and cold wind seems to predominate. This might be the reason we have seen healthy sales of my mother-in-law’s handmade woolen slippers this year: they are just the thing to warm the feet. But then, it might just be their beauty.

Whenever we visit our village close to Turkey’s border with Georgia on the Black Sea coast, my wife’s mother will be found with five knitting needles in hand, creating one pair of slippers after the other, each one unique yet still featuring complex, elegant designs. How she does it, I’m not quite sure, but perhaps her skill is akin to that of high-speed touch typists.

Ckemish Fehime’s knitted woollen slippers are known as Patik in the Hamsetsi language spoken in this region of Turkey. Both the slippers and the technique by which they are mode evoke something of a dying tradition-indeed it seems that this craft has not passed from mother to daughter yet, although perhaps there is still time.

My mother-in-law does not look at her work whilst knitting, but still creates the most beautiful designs. Using those five knitting needles, the patterns dance into the wool, her five fingers hurtling along like a fast train on the track. We have watched her knitting the slippers while looking away and talking to people at the same time, and it has always puzzled us how she manages to create such lovely designs.

In an old tradition practised by my wife’s family, a pair of slippers is given to every guest that visits the home. It is one that my wife has observed ever since I have known her. A couple of years ago, however, some of our guests began requesting slippers to give as gifts to their own friends and family. Thus we requested a large bag of slippers from “back home”, the number of which has been steadily decreasing ever since as friends and strangers snap them up.