Thursday, May 24, 2012

The finishing details

I don't understand why, but I hate doing the finishing details on crafted projects.  When I'm finished with a quilt, I don't want to spend hours hand-hemming the binding on.  I'm done.  I want to be done.  When I'm finished cross stitching, I don't want to spend umpteen hours backstitching.  ugh!  I've learned how to weave in my ends as I go on knitting so that I don't have to deal with the finishing that way, but there's still the blocking to be done.  So far, what I've made I've avoided that too!

Weaving is a great craft for me because once your done you're pretty much done.  There's the wet-finishing but it is such an integral part of the cloth that it really is part of the process of making the cloth, not "finishing" it.  Most cloth is definitely an ugly duckling.

That said, I find it amazing how wonderful things look after being finished.  If I didn't take the time to hand hem my binding on a quilt, it wouldn't look nearly as professional and nice as it does.  If I don't backstitch my cross stitches, there isn't much definition to the design.  One MUST weave in the end when knitting because if not, it just looks tacky...and blocking is so important to the overall design (especially for lace) and to make the yarn behave that it also must be done.

And still somehow it feels like punishment for accomplishing something.  Crazy, I know.

Today's picture is of the first sock for my Mama!  I hope she loves it as much as I do.  From this perspective (and don't worry there will be others) you can see the slipped stitch ribbing in the heel--I love that detail, and the lacy cuff.  I love how the self patterning yarn works.  Very very fun to work with because it's a surprise every few rows.  Clearly I'm easily entertained!

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