January's last Ta-Da (not ...)

I sort of had it in the back of my mind to be able to finish January off in a flourish by flouncing on my imaginary cat walk twirling and whirling in my newly finished-hot-off-the-needles waistcoat. 

However. 

(Notice the 'however'?) Something has gone wrong. Can you see?

Spotted the error yet? Bear in mind that I am yet to knit the front and armcye ribbed band to complete it. HOWEVER (there is that word again ...) Yes, I am sure you have seen the ever so slightly longer (barely noticeable I have tried telling myself) front plackets. That is despite repeatedly counting, DESPITE the regular measuring, DESPITE me laying the fronts on to the back  just.incase.this.very.thing.was.going.to.happen. I put it down to being rather tired/frazzled/fed up/incompetent!!! (shhhhhh -  I won't linger on that last point)

There, said it - swept it under the carpet (well chucked back into my knitting bag), there will be serious amounts of froggggggggging (and cussing) later and please don't tell me that it can be fixed - I have FALLEN out of love with it and want to try something NEW!! grrrrrrrr. 

On a much more happy note I do actually have a bit of a Ta-Da! 

I needed to cheer myself up so here it is! Our dining room has full length patio doors which require very long curtains.

We used to have a length of orange taffeta material swathed across giving that corner a flash of strong colour. I took it down some time ago and washed it, for it to then linger in the darkened recesses of my airing cupboard quietly being forgotten.

Until today, when the weather yet again actively detained us as it rained, snowed, howled and sleeted in a depressingly repeating pattern. I burrowed into the airing cupboard and rescued a piece of warm and cheerful fabric. A bright vibrant coral with a gold sheen and rich copper shades.

A delicious flame coloured flash of colour.

My plan, apart from brightening the driech dyster day that this winter seems to deem normal, was to rehang the lambrequin.  But, I did not want to cut, sew or interfere with the material in any way.

So I reached for a handful of elastic bands!

The fabric was folded in half lengthways and a single band held a small pinch of material.

Then at either end of the length,

again, a band held the fabric in a tight 'bunch'.

 

Then, each 'bunch' was turned and tucked into the main body of the fabric ...

This served to hide all the edges and the band.

So far, so good.

Now I have two richly rounded edges to my strip of material.

My curtain rail conveniently has a crook style end

and is perfectly shaped to hold the material.

Can you see how my lambrequin is progressing?

In the middle, the first elastic band, can be seen.

This is where I needed to call in taller reinforcements

Youngest, manfully stepped up to the mark

and stood on a high stool

on his tippy toes

and tucked the middle band on to the central support of the curtain pole.

Yay for lofty teenagers!

A few minor adjustments

and my no-sew lambrequin

is making me smile.

Is brightening my room but at the same time 

(when not under the harsh light of the flash of a camera) 

making it feel snug and warm and cozy.

Hmmm - happy with that, simple, quick and instant gratification!

How's your weekend doing so far?
Have you made any no-sew cheats that made you smile?
Have you done something that helped with your own personal Hygge?

I love hearing what you get up to :)