Fresh start

I was wondering what kind of New Year's post to do and decided to just show some of my projects from last year that I didn't show at the time. Lots of these projects come with ideas that anyone can use.

The picture at the top shows some of our new wall colours - we've finally painted the walls and it's made such a difference. I was a little tired of the green on my walls, it was a bit too heavy and yellow and not what I had originally imagined. So I just went a bit more apple green, and a bit lighter and I like it much better now. The colour is Debbie Travis' "poached pear". We then painted the kitchen an even lighter version of the green ("chiffon") and the two pale greens are really fresh and pretty together (the kitchen has a window to the living room). I love how the wall colour looks with this ceramic bird painted mold from my favourite antique/vintage shop at St. Lawrence market.

There's still one wall to go in the kitchen - so you can see the old colour. It was a peachy kind of yellow (which really didn't look great with the new green next to it in the living room) and had quite a few scuffs and marks that wouldn't come off. When we painted it we had to take down a few shelves and had one of those "why do we even need these?" moments. We managed to tuck away a few things into the closet and move some others and ended up getting rid of a large cluttered shelf altogether.One of the quick knitting projects I did over the holidays was this pink hat. It's from the Stitch n' Bitch book - the boy hat with the flame colours, and it knits up so fast! I did it in one evening while we were at a bed & breakfast.
The best part is I used a bunch of old yarns mixed together. I had lots of odds and ends, a bright pink that was a bit too bright, a rusty orange that was a bit drab, a peachy mohair that was a bit too peachy and a pale pink that was a bit bland. But I love them blended together! This is a great way to use up some of the odd balls in your stash. I still have this ball left over:
The following is one of my favourite new projects because the fabric was a Christmas present from Bradley. It came all the way from Cath Kidston in London! I missed going to her shop and regretted it. What a wonderful present, particularly as it was a complete surprise. He also bought me a little sewing kit with a red oilcloth cover with birds on it and a flowery needlebook. The same fabric as this cute book bag.
So this is my new knitting tote. The handles are dark olive green and the lining is a light tan coloured gingham.
Another quick project was this tea cosy:
It's two squares knit in a k2 p2 rib with a few holes (yo, k2tog) along the top of each. Then you sew the sides together leaving a gap where your teapot has its handles and spout. Thread a ribbon through the holes to gather up the top. And voila! you have a custom cosy that's perfect for your teapot and you don't have to take it off to pour.
I didn't make as many presents this year, a hat for one friend, earrings for another and a bag and this GPS cosy for Bradley. (note: this is a good present idea for your boyfriend if you don't want to risk the "breakup" sweater.)
He was thrilled - I also gave him the GPS! The following scarf isn't that exciting - but I love it because it's really large and warm, and made from 100% lambswool. The best part though is that I got all the wool from a boxy sweater from Old Navy. It took a couple of evenings to unravel but it was worth it. To do this you need to find sweaters with yarn worth salvaging, that are sewn together at the seams like a handknit sweater, and not cut and serged at the seams. You can google images of "serged edge" to see what I mean. It's a kind of machine sewing that keeps cut edges from unravelling.

Then all you do is undo the seams carefully with your stitch ripper so that you have separate panels of knitting. Then unravel. If you want you can wash the skeins and that will remove the kinks.
The stitch is broken rib - a great scarf stitch that looks the same on both sides, doesn't curl and isn't as tight as a regular rib so you get more width for your yarn. It's just k2 p2 rib on an odd number of stitches.And finally I made this olive green hat but it's just a bit too small for my head. I think this one is getting unravelled!
That's it for 2006. I wish everyone a wonderful new year!