Cleaning Up - A New Year Begun

The new year always starts with a look back at the past year, a tallying of boo-boos and hopefully some successes and vows to do better next time. It also means dealing with unfinished business and projects that were started and then stagnated. I have several projects, one of which is not even mine, to save. It is an act of reconciliation of our plans and good intentions with the reality of what has actually transpired. It is also a dynamite learning tool as sometimes we don't even know what went wrong. We just gave up and left it behind stashed out of sight in a closet somewhere. I believe in wringing every last bit of knowledge out of every project I tackle, so analyzing the project in question is a must when reviewing our stash of UFO's (unfinished objects) and determining which may be worth saving and which is beyond hope.

Sometimes it is painful. I have a too fragile Alpaca warp on my loom (see above picture) that has about 35% of its ends on a separate “warp beam” because that many lengths of yarn have broken. My husband has suggested cutting it off. I will have to get creative finding something to do with over a hundred pieces of 5 foot long lengths of yarn. I am literally cutting my losses, making a mental note not to use Alpaca in the warp again and moving on. I think the key to putting a failed project to bed so it doesn't haunt you in your dreams is to find a way to make use of the section that you have completed. Is there something you can use if for?

I keep looking at those 24 inches of finished fabric and am stumped. It is not long enough, even sideways for a scarf. It is too wide and the wrong material for a table runner. Hello - a table runner does not need to be soft either! But as I write, and writing is such an awesome way to gather thoughts together, I am thinking that a pillow cover may just do it for me. Yes, I could plug on, mending breaking threads every time I advance the warp or I could salvage what I can. So now I have found a use for the completed section. Yeah!

Next, I need to figure out how to use the leftover ends. But, even more important, my initial idea was good, a prayer shawl to wear while meditating. I can't let go of that vision so my next step in putting the project to bed is to either order a more appropriate warp yarn in the same colorway (re-warping the loom afresh) or to figure out if I have enough yarn to switch to knitting one instead. The project has 3 different browns, one light blue, and one varigated fuzzy single, all in Alpaca. They are used in both the warp and weft. I was trying to avoid stripes. It is the dark side of Coco Chanel. Who knew Chanel could be dark? Some things can't be figured out completely ahead, so I'm going to make my pillow and submerge my hands in that lovely Alpaca and let it tell me what to do with it. In the meantime, my loom will be free for another project, many of which are just waiting to happen.