The Great Craft Swap: Check!
In my great desire to check things off my never ending list of crafts to finish/start/create I have completed another long standing project. A while ago (I just checked, it was September of 2008) my lovely mother and I decided to swap projects. I would finish knitting her blanket and she would do the hand sewing of the binding on 2 of my quilts.
The blanket was the first major project I started my mother on. She knew how to knit a bit (she knit me a cute yellow sweater when I was a baby) but I had learned to knit from the books she got me. She went with me to the yarn shop a few years ago when I wanted to start my first sweater and picked out some beautiful self striping yarn in warm browns, reds, and oranges (is it sad that I can’t even remember what kind of yarn it was it was so long ago? I didn’t even know to keep the ball band yet!). She decided she would knit a blanket. I set her up with what I thought was an easy enough pattern. A simple basket weave with a garter stitch border. I did the math, chose the needles, and wrote out the pattern. It seemed simple enough, it was just knitting and purling right? Wrong. The pattern wasn’t difficult but it was an 8 row repeat that was difficult to memorize and hard to identify for a newish knitter. Is it a purl 3, knit 5 row or vice versa? Do I start with a knit 11 or a knit 12 or a knit 8? Thus my mother became slightly frustrated and, as somewhat of a perfectionist, did not wish to continue each time a stitch or two was out of place. This led to a problem because each time she made an error she would need me to fix it. She also couldn’t start in the middle of a row. She would have to go all the way across before she could put it down. These were rather long rows so this also became a bit of a problem.
Seeing that the blanket had been put aside, as had my almost finished quilts, I devised the Great Project Swap. This blanked was clearly a poor choice and had been pushed by the wayside. My quilts were so close but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. We swapped. Mom finished my brown quilt in a weekend and I chugged along on the last 7 balls for the knitted blanket.
I had one more problem with the quilt. I had finished the piecing and even sandwiched it but I wasn’t sure how to actually quilt it. My lines are never as exact as I want them to be and my corners do not always meet in a typical quilting perfect fashion. I’m really more interested in blocks of beautiful fabrics in beautiful colours and a simple design. I really love Bella Moon quilt patterns for this. They are great patterns for the ‘non-quilter’-quilter. I was discussing this issue with my mom when she suggested I find someone who quilts for hire.
I inquired at The Cloth Shop (my local quilt shop) and they had a couple of names for me. I sent my quilt out to Jackee and it came back absolutely stunning! She machine quilted it in a free form with lovely green leaves. The quilting matched the fabric and style of the quilt perfectly and I could not have been happier with her work.
Quite reasonably priced too! Since the actual quilting is not my favorite part it was great to have someone with expertise give it that finishing touch. I gave my mummy the binding and the quilt and she finished it off. I love it.
It was then that I realized I really had to finish that knitted blanket! I powered through the last 4 balls last weekend and it is finito! I’m glad my mom still has the same colour scheme, it took so long to finish. It is lovely though, and will be used by my mom, dad, and brothers on cool evenings curled up on the couch. The great project swap was a smashing success!
Start to…..definitely no finish!
So I was surfing around the net yesterday and I realized I hadn’t blogged about my crafting projects in quite some time. I was thinking ‘why has it been so long?’. Then it came to me: I haven’t finished a project in a whole month! ‘Could it be?’ I asked myself and the sad answer that came back was yes, I have become the Unfinisher. It’s like being a superhero with the opposite of super powers, they are un-super powers to not finish anything I start! It’s so hard working at a yarn store, surrounded by beautiful colorways, exciting new patterns, and inspiring fibers.
Not that I’m complaining, I love the enthusiasm and creativity of starting a new project. Choosing yarn is a particularly indulgent experience for me. I don’t usually go with a budget in mind (a fatal move, let me tell you!) but I usually know approximately what kind of fiber I would like to work with (this usually has a ballpark cost associated with it in my mind). I love winding the the beautiful yarn i have chosen (either by swift or by hand depending on the fiber) and envisioning my great new creation. ‘This is going to be the very best and most unique _____ ever’ I tell myself. For a few days whenever someone asks me how I am I say ‘I’m working on a really great new project….’ then i follow up with the details even if the person asking isn’t a knitter and has no idea what I’m talking about, just because I’m so pumped about it!
Unfortunately there are usually some snags along the way. Perhaps the stitch is a little more complicated than imagined or worse, too simple and boring. These can be the death of a project for me. If something is too dull I will often put it down for a while and start something more interesting. In the past I have usually gone back to the boring project and finished it but lately this seems to be more challenging! I have several projects on the go (all of which I like) so I really just need to pick one and get it done! I’ve been told by several fellow knitters that this Unifinisher phenomenon is not unique to me. Many knitters find the lure of a finished project weaker than the desire to start something new and exciting. No more I say! Time to start checking things off my list!
This first project is a sweater I started with the intention of giving it to my Dad for Fathers Day. Unfortunately disaster struck after I had finished the sleeves: I had run out of yarn. I had neglected to take into account the fact that my Dad is a particularly long person. He is quite thin and quite tall so I had to make some rather serious alterations to the pattern. I essentially had to make the sweater in a size small for the width and a size extra large for the length. When calculating out how many balls of yarn I would need I forgot to figure on the extended length. Not only did I run out of the pivitol brown that would bring the whole cardigan together but my yarn store ran out of it too! There was none to be had all around town so we had to order it in. I think it’s going to make a lovely Christmas present. Of course I cannot be found at fault for not finishing this particular item (yet) as I am awaiting a shipment of yarn.
When i found out that my cardigan would not be finished in time I felt that in one and a half weeks I could knit him a sweater vest. I’m not really sure what I was thinking on that one. Anyone who can work full time and finish an entire sweater vest in a week and a half is amazing. Needless to say he got the sweater vest on the needles still and I am powering through to ge that finished ASAP. I just hate it when I can’t get a project done on time! It feels so anti-climactic when you give them the unfinished gift and it’s really not the best feeling when they do get it a week later. Ah well, live and learn! Here is my lovely sweater vest that I hope to have finished shortly. It really is a great project. I chose Blue Sky Alpaca’s Skinny dyed Cotton for this vest so that it could be worn during the hot summer months. I just hope I get it done in time for him to wear it in the summer!
Another project that is really dragging out is my Earth to Ocean blanket. I realize that blankets are a pick up and put down project and are not meant to be finished in a day, but it has been about 5 months since I started this baby and I am still working on the 2nd or 3rd to last stripe (I can’t decide whether or not to get a couple more skeins and make it longer or to just leave it as it is). The nice thing about this project is that it’s really almost done and won’t take too much longer to bring over the finish line.
Yet another project I am working on is a pair of Little Block Socks from Handmaiden. They are super cute and they have a little cashmere in them to make them a little extra luxurious. I have only made it to the cuff on the first sock so they have a ways to go. I have a little road trip coming up so perhaps that will be my road trip goal, a finished pair of socks (assuming the sweater vest is done first, of course).
These are the four projects that are weighing most heavily on my mind. I also have 2 cotton baby blankets that were intended for little ones that have long since outgrown their need for such things that need borders, another pair of socks, some felted pot holders, a pair of angora baby booties, a scarf or 2, and countless balls of yarn that need to be knit into something, I’m just not sure what yet. So much to knit and so little time…..ain’t it the truth!?
