I have been moving around the idea of “home” before I came to Helsinki. In my new apartment, curious about what my neighbors' homes looked like, I put notes in theır mailboxes, requesting a visit. Coincidentally, I met a FB group called "immigrant women Finland". Around a long table, everyone had been sharing their stories — when I told mine and that none of the neighbors had replied, immediately the table invited me to their homes. Since then, my desire for warmth has brought a responsive process.  

 

As a small group, we started to gün yapmak loosely based on an old tradition in Turkey where women come together in each others' homes to socialize and create an alternative exchange of money or gold. I was experiencing the warmth of their houses, knitting a conversation about the conditions, needs, lacks, longings. 

 

These expanding friendships brought on an idea of 40 minutes home conversations. The time refers to the idiom "a cup of coffee has 40 years of remembrance". Many muhabbet accumulated to form a web of connections. With my mom, I wanted to talk more and more. 

 

All the while, knitting to keep my hands busy. Knitting different tones of red yarn in many forms. The knit enlarged the connections, relations, desires and actions. Homes intertwined into each other and formed a flow as if it were knitted.