70's Heaven

After decorating the living room, my enthusiasm for getting the rest of the house updated is high!    We finally got new carpet to replace the stairs and landing (which the dog had chewed one manic week when he was accidentally on working dog food), as well as two of the bedrooms (mostly ruined by the cats), and we got laminate laid in the living room to finish it off (I've added a photo to the Purple Haze blog entry).   The new carpet in the spare bedroom was a pre-cursor to getting wardrobes in there.   I've been coping with my clothes being stored on flimsy rails for nearly 3 years, and it is especially awful when we have visitors who have to look at my clothes when they stay with us. 


Seeing as Greg's purple walls were such a success, we decided to go with a similar technique.  He chose a main colour and left me to work out how to coordinate it.   His chosen colour this time was orange, as this room gets the sunrise in the morning and he wanted the wall to reflect it.     I then used the Dulux Colour Concept app for the iPad again, to chose coordinating colours.  I decided on what I thought was a grey, but actually, is a very pale grey-purple, but having found the Orla Kiely bedding fabric (bought from Dotmaison.com), I could see how it would all come together.

Previously, the room was painted the same cold green that the living room was. In addition, there was some mould (not damp though) in a corner of the room, and some of the paint was flaking in the other corners.   I scraped the flaking paint off and sanded it, filled a few holes and filled the gap between the wall and the skirting boards, and then used Mould Killer to clean as much of the mould off as I could.     I then painted the most mouldy parts - the corner by the skirting and all the way up the corner to the ceiling - with Ronseal Anti Mould paint in the hope that this will keep it at bay.


I painted the grey walls first, then the orange wall.  I have to admit, you don't want to be looking too closely at my cutting in, especially at the ceiling edge, but hey, it'll mostly be behind wardrobes and doors....





There are more things I need to do: paint the skirting boards (I used an old roller for the orange, not the new microfibre one, and it splattered quite a lot), get a new lampshade, and make some curtains and a pelmet to cover the broken bit of plaster by the window... but the wardrobes (Shoreditch, from Next, x 2) arrive towards the end of October, and I cannot wait to get them, and be able to organise my clothes properly!

I'll update when the room is finished.

Winter is here - time for a new hat

Well, it feels like winter this weekend.  A cold arctic wind has been blowing over Britain and brought the soggy weather with it.   So, to celebrate this, I decided it was time for a new hat.

My old grey one was looking ... well, old and grey.  It is a snug hat that keeps my ears warm, and was bought for me when I was having chemotherapy to keep my bald head warm through the winter.   I felt it was time to have something new.

I bought two balls of  Rowan Felted Tweed from John Lewis and, using the same pattern I used when I made hats for friends and family for Christmas (the Boyfriend hat).

I used an entire ball of wool on the main part of the hat before starting the decreases. As I found that the pattern's recommendation of  a length of 5.5in was far too short, I knew to make it longer.

The next day, I had to decide whether to make a pom-pom to put on top of the hat, or to crochet a flower. As I am still quite new to crochet, I did want to at least try, and had found a nice pattern via Pinterest that would look good. My old hat has a flower, and I always liked it.  The Wagon Wheel Flower pattern was reasonably easy to follow... although it appears to lead you to make the inner petals first and then the outer ones, and having made the first set I was worried the flower would be too big, so I adjusted it slightly so I added the second, smaller set of petals at the front with chains of 4 and 9 double crochet, but otherwise following the instructions.

I was pleased with the outcome and sewed it onto the hat, but when I tried it on, it was a little itchy against my forehead.  So, I decided to add a lining.    Luckily, I had bought a couple of fleece blankets from Ikea not long ago, intending to use them for camping. We did use them for camping, and they were great.  And they were purple... and exact match for my new hat.   So, after having found a website with great instructions on both how to make a full lining for a knitted hat or a headband lining, I cut a strip of fleece and set to.  

The only mistake I made here was that I cut my strip the wrong way, so the stretch was on the short edge, not the long edge.  But seeing as it is only me that will wear the hat, I don't think it will matter too much.

I'm really pleased with the finished hat.  It is warm, but not too warm (I think a full lining would have been), fits perfectly, and doesn't make my forehead itch!

And not only practical, but it looks nice too.     So, at £13.50 for the wool (2 balls bought, 1.5 used), £3 for the Ikea blanket (albeit I only used a tiny strip) and say, 6 hours of my time, that hat is probably a lot more pricey than any you'll buy in the shops - but its mine, and unique.