Finishing It Up


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I used to, at the beginning of 2011, have an occasional feature on my knitting site called “Finish it up Friday.” One of my resolutions had been to either finish or frog (that’s knitter-speak for ripping out a project) as many of my on-the-needles projects as possible.

It didn’t last very long, but it was a glorious idea, and now that I’m sitting here with a bunch of projects in progress and many, many (many!) more that I want to get started on right away, I’m declaring tomorrow Finish it up Friday! I’d love for you to join me.

I made a list, and here are some of the things I’d like to finish up.

Legwarmers 1 and 2

knit legwarmers
Almost finished knit legwarmers.

The other day the Bit suddenly decided she was willing to wear legwarmers. To bed and outside, under her jeans. This is an amazing milestone, particularly the part about wearing them to bed, because she hates blankets. So at least with legwarmers I feel like she has a little extra layer of protection.

The only trouble is all her legwarmers are from last year and while they’re pretty stretchy, they won’t go up over her calves. So as soon as she started wearing legwarmers again I started knitting these fuzzy beauties (they’re for a 2-year-old, otherwise I probably never would have used this yarn for anything!).

The only finishing they need is woven in ends, a cute picture taken and the pattern written up, all of which should be done tonight and tomorrow.

fabric legwarmers
Legwarmers from the sleeves of a long-sleeved shirt.

Of course the Bit needs more than one pair of legwarmers, but I can’t spend all month knitting them for her. I’ll bet you’ve seen tutorials for making legwarmers out of sweater arms (like this one from Little Pink Monster, though I’ve seen it done with adult sweaters, too). Well, I had this long-sleeved T-shirt with a hole right down by the cuff and I thought I could cut the sleeves off and make thin legwarmers out of them.

They’re a little big, but that’s fine for wearing over jammies. These need the seams slightly resewn (she pulled some of the thread out when they stretched, so I know I need to stretch it more when I sew the seams) and I’m embroidering embellishments on them — each one’s getting three flowers with French knot centers and probably some chain stitching, too — and I’ll work on this one tonight and tomorrow, too.

And More Knitting

shawl in progress
Oooh, pretty lace shawl!

I started this shawl a little before Thanksgiving when I was reviewing the book it was in and decided I needed to start knitting it right away, that same day, no matter what else I was working on. I had every intention of finishing it over Thanksgiving weekend, and it’s pretty darn close to done, so I don’t think this will be a big problem to finish. If I get bored or done with embroidery before we’re done watching TV tonight, this will be my go-to knitting project.

knit vest
This vest is way prettier in person.

For years I have had this gorgeous brown alpaca in my yarn stash. Years. And every year when it gets cold I pledge I’m going to make myself a sweater. A sweater with really deep ribbing. And a V-neck.

This year, I decided, was finally the year. But I made a vest instead, because it’s alpaca, and I feared a sweater would be too warm for a person who’s inside pretty much all the time. The front and back are done, all I need to do is sew the shoulders, knit the neckline ribbing, sew the side seams and knit the armhole ribbing. I’m sure this will take a lot longer than I hope.

Oh, and More Sewing

fabric for dress up
Oooh, sparkly fabric!

As if that’s not enough, I have two quick sewing tasks on my agenda. The fabric on the left is the bottom part of a formal I bought at a rummage sale for $1. The top is still a dress up dress, and the bottom I want to make a wrap. All that entails is hemming the edges. I should do this by hand, but I’ll probably do it by machine. She’s 2 and doesn’t know the difference.

The gorgeous purple sparkly number on the right is just a big piece of fabric that’s going to be a cape. All that entails is hemming the edges and leaving a casing at the top for a ribbon to go through. I’m leaving it plain because she also likes to wear it with the cape over her front as a dress. To each her own.

Bonus Points

I have no real illusions about getting all of this done. But if I were to, there are two other unfinished projects looming. I’m glittering a pair of my old dress shoes for the girl’s dress up, and I’m all but done with a hooded sweater for her — it just needs the edging around the hood knit and the seams and sleeves sewn.

That’s a lot of unfinished business! If I got even half of it done I’d be pretty darn happy. I’ll check back in tomorrow and let you know of my progress.

In the meantime, do you have some things you need to finish up? I’d love it if you join me!


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