Take three ties...

I can't escape from hats..! They spring into my mind when I least expect it. This is of course what happened when I went to the Porta Portese flea-market in Rome last Sunday morning. It was heaving with people, and I had been warned to hold on tight to my purse as apparantly there are alot of pickpockets.  As flea-markets go, I have to say this isn't one of the best. Yes, it's huge, but also a bit disappointing, as two thirds of the stalls offer new and fairly cheap goods. There are though a number of people selling second-hand clothes...not vintage, but the sort things you'd get in charity shops in the UK.  But these sorts of  goods are much cheaper at Porta Portese. You can pick up jumpers, dresses and the like for a couple of euros an item, and ties and scarves for one euro each. It's great if you want to recycle the stuff into other things. There are a few hit and miss vintage stalls. I found one woman selling a collection of fabulous 50's glasses - but they were pretty expensive - at between thirty and fifty euros a pair. This woman also had a big box of old hats, and I found one which I liked the look of for a mere three euros. So you do have to hunt around. The ties I bought aren't featured here, but my friend Meche on seeing my ties presented me with three of her own knitted ones, as if to say, OK MJ - get recycling. This is what I came up with.