We recently conquered our attic. The attic is finished, with two rooms up there. One is the girl’s bedroom, and the other had ended up as a storage room/dumping ground. It was a mess and a waste of space. The girl had mentioned wishing it could be a music room, so when the kids and I had a snow day a couple of weeks ago we decided to tackle it. She had important other stuff to do (scholarship apps and homework) so the boy and I started without her.
He packed up Legos and Star Wars toys while I bagged trash and carried a bunch of pieces of wood down three flights of stairs. Once his part was done, he helped me with some of the stuff going in the trash, and then I was on my own. I sorted, filed, tidied, and organized the space, and by the end of the day, the girl had her music room. She was delighted!
Anyway, amongst all of the assorted stuff the girl had discarded in that room, I found yarn! And needles! And…knitting?? Yep, back when she was still interested in knitting, she’d cast on five projects, and they’d all been discarded in various stages. I rescued everything yarn-related and relocated it to my craft room where I could keep it safe, and assessed the projects in front of me. One was a lace cowl with just a few rows, and she had no idea what pattern she’d used. That one got frogged and I’ll make something for her out of the yarn. One was a fingerless glove, and the rest were hats. I like knitting hats. I miss knitting hats. So the glove got set aside and the hats came downstairs and added to my own pile of WIPs. Last weekend when I needed a break from my own projects, I picked up and finished two of hers.
This one was a simple striped slouch hat in acrylic. It felt like Red Heart super saver, and if it hadn’t been so far along, I might have just frogged it. But I liked the colors and it was ready for decrease rounds, so I went with it, and it was done in about an hour.
I’m pretty sure this yarn is Manos del Uruguay Maxima; I love it. She didn’t know what pattern she’d started, and after the ribbed brim I saw two rows of stockinette, then one row of k2, p2. I could work with that. It ended up as a great beanie with a waffle pattern and if she doesn’t wear it, I might steal it.
This last hat WIP is a Sockhead, and it was maybe two inches into the 4″ brim, so I’ll save that for when I need truly mindless knitting, like concerts or movies, things like that. Obviously she’s in no rush for any of these! If you look closely, you can see where I picked up. She’s a very tight knitter, and I am not.
Have you ever finished projects for someone else?
bonnyknits 
With that Sockhead hat – it’s probably going to be unnoticeable when it’s finished where you took over. The 2 inches she knit will be folded up, so that will be a great disguise! I love the waffle beanie, too. Very nice.
I love the way the room ended up. So lovely, and a much better use of space! I can’t recall having finished projects for someone else, but I know I’ve been given WIPs and told to “do something with it” (sometimes that means frogging yarn, sometimes that means taking apart a beading project and re-working it into something else).
Thank you! Yes, I think the hat will be fine once it’s done and washed and on a person’s head!
I do like repurposing WIPs, getting to take them apart and use the bits to make something different! I remember doing that when I was making jewelry and it was a lot of fun!
It can feel good to give a languishing WIP new life! I don’t think I’ll ever be called upon to finish someone else’s knitwear, though, since I’m the only one in my immediate family who knits.
I’ve never finished knitting projects for someone else, but I finished a Jacobs Ladder Afghan for my hubbies grandma. She only needed to twist the ladders and fasten them down with the last row.
Aw, that was sweet of you!
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