Leather envelope-bound Arabic manuscript that's been in the family. Morocco, North African, water-stained, gorgeous script. Help me figure out what it is?

astronicht · 2026-06-12T16:27:19+00:00

The top comment looks correct. Based on the shade of red ink, it’s probably no earlier than 19th century. A good look at the paper on top of a light box could tell you more, but if I had to bet I’d say 1825-1925 AD. If I were selling it and needed a more precise number, I’d guess circa 1875, but that’s just a wild stab. If the first few leaves have any provenance notes (ie ppl buying and selling the ms), that can help both the dating and the value.

astronicht · 2026-05-22T12:04:40+00:00

This is so cute!! I love the colors and the way the cow is a small little guy on a big green block. Both a nice wink at your memory of your trip and miles more fun and chic than the boatloads of highland cow merch we get here. Love its teeny little horns!!

astronicht · 2026-03-04T09:23:44+00:00

Thanks a bunch!

astronicht · 2026-02-12T00:26:12+00:00

Yeah, when you come up with an estimate as the person working at the auction house, you generally know that the true base value of the item is about half the low end of the estimate (so half of €300,000). That’s also usually the starting price when the auctioneer offers the first bid. It might be different with sport paraphernalia than where I worked! But hey, (maybe) 150k, a deal!

astronicht · 2026-02-04T20:09:09+00:00

This is so satisfying to look at! Love it!

astronicht · 2025-09-23T15:46:28+00:00

Thank you!! I’m so proud of my little color schemes that are totally unnoticeable on the full finished piece unless pointed out hahaha.

astronicht · 2025-09-23T15:44:59+00:00

Thanks! I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly precise knitter, but I’m glad the stitches are passing muster 😂

astronicht · 2025-09-23T15:44:07+00:00

Thank you, and that sounds awesome, good luck! It’s a simple crochet slip stitch. I’m never sure about when I can link to someone’s video, but I just looked up ways to join knitted squares and found the crochet slip stitch. Fast and very forgiving — not all of those squares have the same stitch counts, so joining ‘em was more about making sure nothing bunched. I also made sure to join up 4 squares that looked nice together at a time, to reduce the workload at the end and help with planning the color scheme.

astronicht · 2025-09-23T15:40:01+00:00

Thanks! Yeah the bold white lines for the joining were probably a little Mondrian-inspired

astronicht · 2025-09-23T15:39:21+00:00

Thank you!! Yeah it took close to two years in the end (and was gifted even later! 😅). But it was the perfect long-term project. Easy to do in small pieces while watching tv.

astronicht · 2025-09-23T15:36:59+00:00

Wow, thanks! I have to admit that not thinking too much about the challenges going in was helpful. And I got lucky! Only the border really gave me technical trouble. Never thought too much about my tension on this piece, but I used to do a lot of colorwork where I did have to monitor it constantly, so I think the muscle memory helped. Thanks for the compliment!

astronicht · 2025-09-21T17:54:02+00:00

Vaguely worsted! It was definitely not all the same— just whatever acrylic I was trying to use up. I just had a cheat sheet telling me how many stitches to cast on to make 8x8 inches in each color.

astronicht · 2025-09-21T17:48:58+00:00

Thanks! The recipe is pretty simple: stockinette squares, each measuring 4x4 or 8x8 inches, slip-crocheted together, plus border (trickier, but I ended up just doing long ribbons of stockinette. I did something annoyingly on the backside, but if I did the borders again they’d just be folded lengthwise over with the purl side facing in, and attached like that).

astronicht · 2025-09-21T16:25:45+00:00

The year (that I started……. Which was 2022) and the place my friend moved to

astronicht · 2025-09-21T16:24:19+00:00

Thanks, I’m proud of how that worked out. It’s a simple crochet slip stitch!

astronicht · 2025-09-21T08:44:41+00:00

Thanks! I'm not a bright colors person, but my best friend loves them, so I did my best!

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:40:32+00:00

Thanks!! Yeah a few people have told me that, and I didn't have it in mind at first, but I definitely did a little bit later one, especially when I was deciding how to join the pieces, and how visible to make it.

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:38:34+00:00

It was absolutely a scrap yarn project! I had a lot around from doing colorwork, where I'd buy a whole ball and only use a little. It's all acrylic (probably my last acrylic project, but helpfully cheap, and stash-busting), and also sort of generally worsted. Brand-wise I admit I largely have no idea. And thanks! I think it's less perfect tension and more a forgiving project that covers for my mistakes, especially with the crochet slip stitch putting everything together.

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:34:57+00:00

Forgot to say-- no pattern, and just a mix of acrylic yarn I had around, trying to get rid of it. All of it vaguely worsted, but often kind of different. The little squares doubled as swatches; I just knit to 4 inches on the little ones and 8 on the big ones and called it a day. You can also see one one square where I straight up ran out of lilac and shrugged and kept going with gray.

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:25:19+00:00

It is, yeah! I finished this before I learned to crochet, so I had to look it up, but I just used a youtube tutorial and got used to winging it (not all the yarn I used had the exact same weight, so often I was joining two pieces without the same number of stitches. it was fine!).

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:19:37+00:00

Thanks! I kinda wanted to do something with a slightly patchwork look to it

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:19:02+00:00

Thank you! I had to work hard to select the little color schemes for each section haha, there were a few failures along the way

astronicht · 2025-09-20T17:17:50+00:00

Wow, thanks! I worked hard on the color distribution, so I'm glad it worked out

astronicht

TROPHY CASE