Finishing

My sister says I've been getting all kinds of things done. She's right. I've been knitting like a fiend. But after the knitting (or whatever), everything tends to sit while I procrastinate over the final step, the finishing.

I wove this rug about three years ago, and we've been getting a lot of use out of it. But the header (the dark navy edge near the fringe) is a cotton that shrank more than the rest of the rug. It was pulling up as if I'd laced a drawstring through the ends.

When I finally figured out why the rug was not laying flat, I decided to try snipping those threads. Voila!

After I'd spun this wool, I Navajo plied it (three ply). I didn't like the way it knitted up, so I had to unspin it. For knitting, it's called a gauge. For weaving, it's called sampling. Either way, if I'd bothered to do this to see how the yarn would behave when knitted up, I wouldn't have ended up knitting three hats and ending up with two. (It's called "frogging". Ripping  out.) Luckily, knitting hats doesn't take much time. Finished!

By the time my LYS closed in the end of January, I'd made some serious inroads into my policy of only buying yarn if I had a project in mind, and a reason for it. I bought Paintbox Knits by Bonnette and Murchland. Then, I purchased the yarn and buttons. This dress is a 2T. I made it just because. Now, I'm building a stash of FOs (as opposed to UFOs---UnFinished Objects).

With the left overs, I made the dress on the left. All of these are 18mos size in Juniper Moon Farm "Neve" (pure Peruvian pima cotton).

And, again with the leftovers, I made this 18 mos size sweater/jacket. All four garments needed to be blocked to be finished.

This sweater sat for about two months before I finally blocked it, along with those baby clothes. I admit to dragging my heels...a lot. But Finally! I'm finished! Of course, now, it'll be too hot to wear the sweater until next winter.

Clean House

This is how I clean my house. If I finish something, a project or a puzzle or a magazine, I can get rid of it. Then, there's one less thing in the "to do" pile!

Years ago, I bought 2 oz of this Friesan Lamb wool in Oregon. I spun it up in just a few hours. I'll probably use it for a dryer ball.

Just last year, I did a spinning and weaving demo for my friend's school. She gifted me with a bag of cotton that they'd grown there. I spent several days picking out all of the plant matter. Doesn't it look squeeze-ably soft?

A five years ago, I cut a warp for a rug, but my math was off. I had twice as many ends as I needed. That warp has been sitting in the "to do" pile. Now, not only have I used up that warp, but two bins of cloth have now been consolidated into one! This pattern is from Handwoven, Summer 1985.

Because I was using up, and actually running out of fabric, you can see where I added some green strips to the blue and light blue to the dark blue. Shocking, I know! By allowing it not to be perfect, I actually learned something! And I'm happy with the results!

With the last of the warp, here's the last of the fabric strips...except the red. There's always more red.