Finishing

The armchair project is finished. All but two ends I need to weave in. The beauty of these projects in my mind is that once the last row is crocheted, there isn't a lot to do. I leave the beginning and end of each row long so I can tie it off and turn it into a fringe.

This time I went for tiny tufts rather than luscious lengths for the fringe. I doubled the ends of yarn back through the edge of the row so that I got three times the thickness, then tied them off with an overhand knot and trimmed it. It's more practical that way for a blanket which I expect to get a fair bit of use in a three-pet household. Speaking of which, I must give this a good brush off before I fold it up and send it off. It's ended up being longer than I am, so there's been a fair bit of it dragging around on the floor recently. 

Where Are They Now?

The baby booties are all knitted up. I decided I need to block them somehow. There are a few oddly stretched looking stitches as a result of the short-row shaping which forms to foot of the bootie. So, here they are floating in my bathroom basin.

When they've had a good soak, I'll tug them around a bit and see if I can get those stitches to sit nicely. Then I'll have to find somewhere to let them sit to dry slowly. There's a row of eyelets around the ankle, so a little bit of ribbon is also on the list. 

Finishing

Today is my last day for Christmas making. I hope there will be time for some creative play, but first I need to finish some of the things I've been working on. I mean really finish.

The saying goes, "the job's not done until the paperwork's done". For me it's a case of "the job's not done until the fastenings are attached". I'll start on that while I brew myself another coffee. Then I can go out to the studio and have some fun.

Plain and Done

The garter stitch face washer now has a crochet border and hanging loop. That makes it ready to add to the Neighbourhood House Christmas Hamper collection.

I've been slow to finish it because I'm mostly avoiding repetitive stitches at the moment--especially in crochet. And the needle and thread is featured because it still feels like a major achievement to run in the loose ends immediately when I finish the fun part of my knit or crochet creations.

Not Quite

I was determined to finish my basket before the end of yesterday's workshop. I started the day feeling confident that things were well underway. The handle and rim of this basket are part of the basic structure. That was completed on the first morning. Then there was twining. Then there was more twining. And more twining. As the afternoon wore on one or two of my fellow students finished their work. By three o'clock people were starting to talk about packing up. We were offered extra materials to take home to finish up. I didn't want to know. There I sat--a little island in a sea of basket-making materials. They pulled out the rakes and brooms. They swept around my chair. When the vacuum cleaner roared into action I admitted defeat. The basket is not quite finished.

You can see a little gap in the work just in the middle. It's a persistent little gap. I don't know how many times I thought it was nearly finished, but still there was just a little gap to be filled. I hope to get it done in the next few days. I don't need another nearly-finished project at my house. I'm looking forward to the satisfaction of a completed basket. Then I'll need to decide where to put it. Meanwhile I'm curious about various aspects of what I've learned. There's a world of new materials to be explored, but I keep reminding myself of the realities of space and time. So, we'll see what this little basket leads to . . . I'm not quite hooked . . . yet . . . 

Another Finish

This little scarf was another finish on the weekend.
Despite what felt like an eternity of stitches-200 of them--it was a little shorter than I wanted. It's a while since I've made one of these sideways scarves. I must've used bigger needles last time. And yes it would seem logical to write down what I've done each time I make a scarf, but there are so many of them and each one its different--that's half the fun. And what seems "long enough" one day might turn out to be "a bit too short for what I want" another day. In any case, adding a couple of little stripes on the end provided a bit more interest and finished the scarf off beautifully.

By the way, can you see the difference in loft between the blue yarn and the multi-coloured one? It was actually the same fleece and exactly the same spinning. I flattened the multi-coloured one into a slightly felted yarn when I over-handled it to get all those interesting colours. Learning from that experience, I was extra specially gentle when I dyed the blue.

Done

I didn't think I could get this scarf finished yesterday, but I surprised myself. It's done and in the mail. I made a few decisions about simplifying things I'd hoped to add to it; wove in the loose ends; filled in the paperwork and drove to the Post Office.I have leftover ideas in my head and lots more of this delicious merino fleece, so I expect there is more spinning and making of related scarves in my future. I'm glad I actually got it finished. I decided that participating was more important to me than making just the scarf I had in mind. Maybe next year I'll manage to do both.

First "Piece"

There's that moment of anxiety and excitement in any new endeavor when you declare your first "piece" to be complete and ready for public scrutiny--whether it be a student concert for a musician, or in my case a piece of stitching for my Textile Art course. Yesterday was assessment day for our Colour Theory subject. Our brief was to take a saying or situation that expresses emotion and translate that into a piece featuring colour and line. This represents the saying, "A change is as good as a holiday". There were lots of things that made me happy--particularly after weeks of little colour exercises and stitch samplers. The little coloured curls in the top right hand corner make me smile every time I see them. A moment of completion carries a challenge and hope for "next time". I'd like to challenge myself to be a little more adventurous. I'd also like to learn more about finishing a presenting a textile piece like this. Maybe there's a short course in framing coming up for me . . .

Where's My Medal?

It's a cold, drizzly Sunday morning. I have the heater on, even though it's the end of October--really a perfect day for sitting in the armchair stitching. When I'd made myself a cup of coffee this morning, I looked around for a suitable work in progress to occupy a lazy morning . . . Nothing! All my recent knitting and crochet projects are done! Imagine how tempted I was to cast on something new. But glancing around the room, I did see the last of the finishing tasks. So instead of picking out a delightful skein of something irresistable, I reached for these: I've been weaving in loose ends again. I swear, these things breed while I'm not looking. I'd finished the striped project earlier in the week. All that was left was the matching plain section, but even that seems to have a dozen stray strands in it. Oh well, there's a certain rhythm to the task: thread the needle; slip it through the stitches so the yarn doesn't show on either side; turn; do it again, turn . . . then that final satisfying SNIP!

Despite the small intrinsic reward in this chore, I still feel as though I deserve a medal. Maybe I can conjure one up for myself using all the stray bits of wool when I'm done. Then again, maybe I'll just indulge myself in starting a new project.

Loose Ends

My number one goal for today is to finish some birthday gifts so they can go in the mail today. To do so I need to deal with this:Yep--the dreaded loose ends that need to be finished off at the end of every project. As well as the literal loose ends, I have a bit of paperwork to do; phone calls to make; miscellaneous bits and pieces to tidy up. . . It's always the same story: give me a new challenge to get my teeth into and I'm off, but all the follow-up and sorting to get the task complete is so much harder. Oh well, it's got to be done, so I'll go get my darning needle and try to break the task into some manageable sections. Then at least I can give myself a little cheer as I go along.

Resolution

I have a bad habit of not quite finishing things. I'll make the last stitch on a project and put it aside without weaving in the ends, for instance. It would only take a couple of extra minutes and the thing would be done. So I have a new plan. Simple really. There's now a big darning needle in permanent residence on the side of my armchair. All I have to do when I snip off the last thread is reach over and grab it before I put my work down. Here's today's example: I started the hat yesterday, just 'cause. Now It's finished, well not quite . . . but see the needle on the left of the pic? It's already threaded with the tail of the yarn. Unfortunately I stopped the process there to go grab my camera and write this post. But as soon as I hit "publish" I'm going back to finish it off. Then it will be ready to wear. Well maybe not quite--I'm still tossing up whether it needs to be blocked or not.

Better

I spent most of the day yesterday working on my double weave bag project. Here it is, just about finished: I've made a twisted cord for the strap. I still need to attach that. I've also got the bag I made at the beginning of this warp to finish off. I didn't weave a lining for that one. It was when I was having troubles with the tension at the beginning of the warp. I think I'll line it with silk, with an iron-on interfacing for reinforcement. The tension doesn't look too bad now that it's off the loom . . . whatever!

Now for a reality check:

• this bag is just about done;
• I've been building up the folio for the bag as I go, so there's not much more needed for that, though I could fiddle with presentation for ever--note to self, "you don't have forever"!
• The notes for the rest of the year's work are in a lecture pad and just need a bit of a tidy up. That's another task that could gobble up more time than it's really worth.
• I've got all of the weaving for the Round Robin exercise done. I need to sort out the corresponding notes.
• Then there's an unfinished project . . . well actually it's hardly started. That's the Summer and Winter sampler from the weeks around when my floor chaos was happening. Can I get it done in a week and still keep my sanity?

Finishing

Yesterday I finished weaving the Huck Lace warp I had left on my loom. then I had to finish the Huck Lace weaving after I'd taken it off the loom. In this case finishing means

• hemming,
• weaving in yarn ends
• washing
• pressing
• fringing

. . . all the little things that need to happen to make an item ready for use.

Here's how it looks on my ironing board:

The piece on the right has been hemmed, washed and pressed. The piece on the left is as it came off the loom. I wanted to see how much shrinkage there would be. It's whole centimetere narrower now.

Today, I really should try to do the threading for my Summer and Winter sample. That's well and truly overdue, but there are a few other things to distract me. I'll see how I go.