As I post this I am closing in on the finishing stage of a project that I’ve been working on for weeks, so I want to get it right. I work by the seat of my pants, but finishing requires special attention. If I don’t plan this stage, it will sit unfinished.
I use a Finishing Plan form (now with fillable fields for you to download) you can download it for your own use. As a pant-ser, the actual written plan is often forgotten after I’ve done the planning. Having written it down, I won’t forget. The most important part is putting in when you will do the work, and estimate the time it will. Estimates are most likely to be too short.
Finishing Plan Available for Download
Download your fillable form pdf! Finishing Plan for Knitters
Below is a sample of one page of the Finishing Plan I made for my project, called Termi. I have fixed the spaces needing fixing when I filled this out. FYI, my evening knitting time is usually 2 hours . There is another project with a short timeline I need to start on Monday. My Finishing Plan shows that I have 8.5 hours of work I need to do in my knitting time. I may have to watch documentaries to get some extra knitting time. But what I am more likely to do is to do parts of the finishing each night (and if I do get extra knitting time) so that I don’t have to do it in a short time frame. I am never good at doing that!
Looking at my calendar I have 18 days. This is deadline is possible (really until I looked at the calendar it didn’t seem like it)! By seeing the actual time available I can spread the work out over the balance of this month. I like to do the finishing when I am fresh, and put it down when I’m bored or tired.
Having a Larger Finishing Plan
Hand-dyed yarn can have challenges, but my challenges were mostly created by my not getting enough yarn at the beginning. Susie dyed another skein of Oskar for me when it became clear I was a solid skein short. I was able to creatively add the single ply to break my color transitions between two slightly different Oskars, and Oskar and Merlot.
It was kind of fun to wing it, but I don’t recommend it as an ongoing practice. To avoid this I could have completed my Ready? Set the Finish Line form out at the beginning. Download it too!
Leave a Reply