Has anyone got a pattern for turkish slippers? 

 I was given a pair on my last trip but unfortunately they were too small.  I´d also like to knit some for my grandchildren.

Even better, these look brilliant but the book is very expensive (at least $90 ). 

Many thanks

Knitting Around the World
Turkish Delight for Knitters
by Donna Druchunas

My interest in knitting has been kept alive over the years by the almost infinite variety of color, pattern, and texture that is found in collections of knitters and museums around the world. Although I love the smooth, quiet repetition of knitting a rectangular scarf in garter stitch using a luxurious yarn, it is the endless diversity of technique and style that keeps me interested in knitting as more than a way to keep my hands busy while watching TV.

A few years ago, I went through a phase where I knitted nothing but mittens for almost a year. I bought every book about knitting mittens that I could find and my friends and family members all got mittens as gifts that year. The one book that captured my imagination most was Magnificent Mittens by Anna Zilboorg. The mittens in her book are made with color patterns that are both simple and complex at the same time. Some patterns that looked complex were easy to memorize after knitting just one repeat, while others that looked simple were challenging to knit without errors. I later discovered that the patterns Anna Zilboorg used in most of her mittens were adapted from Turkish socks.

Knitting has a long history in Turkey. Turkish knitting may have been developed by shepherds who had easy access to wool, and who were already familiar with spinning, dyeing, and working with yarn to make rugs. Almost every history of the craft places the birth of knitting somewhere in the Middle East, spreading later into Europe, and finally to North America only a few hundred years ago. Although it´s impossible to know for sure, Anna Zilboorg goes further in her book Fancy Feet: Traditional Knitting Patterns of Turkey, and surmises that the spread of knitting mirrored the spread of Islam.

Not being an expert in history or anthropology, I’m still intrigued by this idea. Traditionally in Turkey, knitters tensioned their yarn by stringing it around their neck, with the balls of yarn held on the knitter’s left, and the yarn traveling around the back of the neck to attach to the needles on the right. Circular knitting is worked on the inside of the tube, and stitches are purled by flicking the yarn around the tip of the needle with the right thumb. This creates a stockinette stitch fabric with the knit surface on the outside. The same techniques are used in Portugal and Peru. I can easily imagine Moorish knitters taking their new craft with them into Portugal and Spain, and later Christian missionaries carrying the same style of knitting across the Atlantic to the Andes in South America. (Today, most Turkish knitters work in the continental style imported from Europe, but the neck tensioning style of knitting is still prevalent in the Andes.)

The traditional techniques used in Turkey may seem exotic, but it’s actually the colorwork patterns found in Turkish socks that give the designs their unique personality.

With diagonal lines predominating, many of the patterns have been created so that two repeats create one round on a sock, forming tall vertical panels that flank the legs.
 

Smaller patterns are also used, with multiple repeats forming horizontal bands around the sock.

Unlike many European designs that have individual motifs, many Turkish designs are made up of interlocking patterns. Often, there is no main color and contrasting color in the way many Western knitters are used to thinking about it. The foreground and background are interchangeable in many designs, and by simply knitting the same pattern and reversing the colors, you may find that you’ve discovered an entirely new look.

The neck-tensioning technique makes it very easy to work with multiple colors, but Turkish patterns can be knit with any knitting style. When working with two colors, you can carry both colors in your left hand, both in your right hand, or one in each. Working with more than two colors in a row, however, requires more nimble fingers if you’re not tensioning the yarn around your neck! If you’ve never worked with multiple colors before, socks (or mittens) make great starter projects. They’re small enough that you won’t be intimidated by a year-long project but big enough to give you enough practice to feel like you’re getting somewhere. If you’re feeling adventurous, try toe-up socks made with the Turkish cast-on.

Sorry the photos didn´t upload but this is the link:

http://www.black-purl-magazine.com/FAL07-COLturkish.htm

They appear to be in 3 parts, sole, left and right pieces and then stiched together to make the whole slipper.  Look for sock/slipper patterns that are similar and you can modify them with adding toe tapering rows of stitches.

After sizing (the sole) you would add a tapered row past your desired sole size. 

for tapering rows you could check other patterns (such as knitted stuffed animals, etc)

good luck!

Thanks TJ.  I´ve done a little more research since then and I saw a similar suggestion to yours, though I think the Turkish way is to complete in one piece using the Turkish cast on method.  It looked complicated but I found a video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YnFQVSSx9do

Sorry Peacetrain, no offence, but they are REALLY horrible!

my grandmother used to knit socks but I have never seen anything like those in the pictures. yes they look weird.

Hi Peacetrain, My mom used to knit argyle socks with the circular/cast on needles.  You can look up ´argyle´ socks, maybe there are tons of inexpensive books/patterns in that for you.  Good luck and have loads of fun!  The video is cool because it shows the actual start process.    thanks!

My grandfather used to knit socks on a circular needle too!  He was very badly injured at Dunkirk during WWII and he learned to knit the socks whilst in hospital. 

I´m going to Turkey at Easter so I´ll get everything I need then but I´ll be spending the summer there too, so I can ask my friend´s mother to show me how it´s done if I have problems. 

As far as I have seen there are two types of short knitted socks. One which is basically just a short sock (though some have a button at the top so they are easier to put on) and then the style on the above picture which feels more like a shoe. They are often given as gifts.

I have never seen anyone use a pattern to make it, rather they just use their imagination and fit the sock to the foot along the making.

 erm . . . but I´ve already started knitting a pair for you, in pink and yellow with a lime green pom pom at the toe