Finished finished

The Knitmore Girls podcast ladies have a steps of completion thing.  Finished, as in finished knitting.  Finished finished, as in all the construction elements are done, including facings sewn, etcetera and Finished finished finished as in ends woven in and buttons on, ready for wear. Or something like that.

This is exactly this project.  There was a point where I was finished knitting and had to decide what I was going to do with it beyond the tube.  And now it is finished finished,  where it is finished but for cutting steeking the sleeves seams, if required and weaving in the ends.  

It worked great for the kids as a tube to curl up in and snuggle in, but it didn't work so well for me.  I had it pulled out last month when I couldn't knit much and was trying to decide what to do with it.  The original plan was to turn it into a big, long, rectangular wrap, the kind that is perfect for watching tv, worn over the shoulders and pinned or buttoned to keep it in place.  Big, warm, snuggly.  

I could still do that, but right now, I want to see how it works as a sort of shrug.  As I mentioned before, the back of my neck is always cold.  In part, that's just me, but it also has to do with the way this house is laid out and how furniture sits.  Small shawls are almost not enough.  The big shawls are in heavy rotation.  Sometimes a small shawl and a large shawl at the same time.  So the shrug idea seemed such a natural choice.

The shrug is pretty simple.  Big tube with a central hole to slip your back and shoulders into.

It looks a little like a giant's sweater if you lay it out like this, but for a really short giant.  

It's about 6 inches longer than my full wingspan, and I opened up about a third of the center of the tube and knit a ribbed edging and sewed it over the cut ends.  

And the finished edge. 

Very, very pleased with the finished product of that process. I was a bit concerned that it could make it fit tightly and that the sewn edges wouldn't stretch the same way the knitted edge did.  I sewed firmly and then stretched it all every few inches and it worked.  Everything remains soft and stretchy.  No hard line of sewing across my back. If I was doing it again, I would have chose to do the sewing through a different place on the cast off edge.  It left an odd row of half stitches instead of a nice row of the bound off edge stitches.  C'est la vie.  Good to go.

I did the top neck opening the same width as the bottom and that may have been a slight error.  If the bottom had a wider opening edge, it might lay more naturally across my back rather than rolling up.  Or not as the case may be.

I sewed a bit of a seam in the 'sleeves' to take out the extra width at each end.  This is a tester, to see if I need it narrowed, or if it matters at all.  I didn't cut it yet but will if there is an advantage.  

I always know when something worked out really well by how much I wear it.  If I find myself reaching for this a lot, it remains as is.  If it is worn but I think of adjusting it all the time, I might just pull out that lovely ribbing and make that of the center opening wider on the bottom.  If it isn't worn at all, I can still go back to the original plan for a big plain wrap, albeit one that is just a wee bit short.  

It's a beautiful piece of work and it deserves to keep me warm.