Home Is Where the Mid-Century Modern Furniture Is

Lately, I've been getting into re-decorating the house, making it a little more mid-century modern than it has been looking. About 90% of this stuff happened to be in the house when I moved here, but I'm just extremely playing off the mid-60s to mid-70s accents again.

My favorite recent purchase was this lamp! (Simple, I know.) But I had been thinking about it on and off for the past 3 weeks or so yet couldn't justify buying it for nearly $40 even at Target. I go back for curtain rods the other day for the sun room and ta da! The lamp is $10.

This mid-century chair was just chilling downstairs. I was originally going to paint it orange (bought spraypaint and everything) but then I got the lamp and couldn't bear to paint it orange. It's going to get a new coat of white though since it's chipped.

I also temporarily pinned up old 45's I rescued from the street about a year ago. I had planned on making cool record wall hangings (and still will, since I have a whole giant box!) This looks pretty cool for now.

Here is 1 of 2 curtains I made for the sunroom, which still needs some work. The blinds had gotten destroyed by the cats (and time since the sun dried them out over... what, 12 years?) I'm sure the neighbors are happy our house doesn't look abandoned on the outside anymore!

 These are the curtain panels I got from the little old Polish woman named Harriet who lives down the street! $4 for these retro 70s babies. Such a sweet old lady. You can see some of my artwork hanging there on the far left and barely see the fabric on the chairs that I recovered for the dining room table sometime last year.

And here is a new reading/relaxing nook! We re-organized a bit of furniture around the house and it feels like a new space almost. I'm in love with that table (it has doors and space for magazines!). The cityscape pillows I made a while back. I'll probably chill and knit here later on tonight.

Speaking of which, here is a preview of a knitting project I'm working on!

I saw a hood sort of thing in a 60s magazine (I think it was one I didn't buy at the thrift store?) and searched around for knitting patterns online. No such luck. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and draft up a hood pattern, attempt to increase and decrease myself! This is something I had been wanting to re-learn  - I made this awesome short sleeve sweater in college for Knitwear Design, but don't ask me how I did it.

I think I figured it all out! The bottom part there overlaps for faux buttons that have snaps behind them. I am also using this knit stitch I learned from Purl Bee since it was a beginner's lace stitch. The others I had in my knit stitch book were just a little too complicated for me right now. Purl Bee's stitch is done with a much finer yarn, but I just used medium weight with size 8 needles.

I suppose it's cyclical due to weather, but I'm getting into knitting again and will probably play with more things to make in the near future.

I'm also in love with anything on this knitwear blog called Brooklyn Tweed. I found them last year. I have yet to attempt any of their garments, but I just might have to! All the pieces are pretty amazing.

This hood is knitting up pretty fast - I expect it to be done by mid-October, assuming I don't mess up anything on it severely. Usually things come out how I envision the, but you never know. I'll also post the patterns after it's finished also assuming all goes well on it!