"Finish work" and documentation...

...crafting concepts of the week. First, let's go to the top of the waves.

• I spent Friday afternoon sorting through a few things and working on the Mermaid.
• I surveyed the cookies remaining from the Christmas baking orgy and decided that I had enough to take to Spin-In without having to bake any more. Yay!
• Spin-In was great! It was really good to see everyone again. There is something about crafting with a group that is energizing. Not that Craft Coffee isn't energizing; it's just a different dynamic. Lots of good conversation and, of course, good munchies!
• The next fiber up for spinning is a merino-silk from Lisa Souza, called Mirabel:

• I want to do something different so I plan on doing spindle spinning and the use the wheel to chain-ply it.  I'm auditioning spindles now and have already rejected one. My KCL Woods mini-spindle (0.62 ounces) works, but is not maintaining its spin very well with this fiber. My next attempt will be a Purpleheart square spindle (below) from Spindlewood. I have successfully used it to spin some Wensleydale that was problematic.
  
  In the wings, is a Cocobolo and Yellowheart square spindle (0.875 oz.) also from Spindlewood. I used it to spin some angora-merino, which was a real P.I.T.A. to spin.

About "Finish Work" and Documentation

The Husband's parents are not in great health and it's time to move them into a smaller one-story home that they can manage better than a 2-story, 5-bedroom house with a large yard. They just don't have the energy to keep things up any more. The Husband has been going through things stored in the unused bedrooms and working with his parents to donate or discard things they can't take to a smaller place.

We spent Sunday going through my mother-in-law's craft stash. At 87, she is no longer able to do cross stitch, needlepoint, knitting, or crocheting. It's very sad. She loved stitching cross stitch ornaments and Christmas stockings as gifts. (I have several of the ornaments that she made.)  She also enjoyed making needlepoint pillow tops. When she finished a project, she put any leftover floss or yarn in the original plastic bag and stored them in a box. She was very careful to note any floss/yarn color changes that she made.

We separated all of the completed crochet items and will ask her about the pieces. We're not sure whether she crocheted them all or if perhaps her mother had made some of them. In any case, we will put them aside for her daughter to make the final decision on what to do with them. There were several completed needlepoint pillow tops and a few large completed cross stitch pieces. We also put them all aside for her daughter to look at.

There were 3 items that I made her that I will keep and photograph for posterity. I made them well before I started photographing my own work. I do, however, have notes of when I made them and the patterns I used.

As for the rest of the stash, there was candlewicking project with enough candlewicking thread to complete it. There was a little crochet thread, bits and pieces of acrylic yarn, a few full skeins of DMC floss, and some needlepoint wool. I took the needlepoint wool as I have a couple of small projects where I'm stalled for lack of supplies, plus the floss as I can always use floss. Beyond that there was not much worth salvaging.

We found dozens of kit packets that she completed with no indication of when the project was made or who received it. The Husband photographed the kit pictures and we recycled what we could.

So where do "finish work" and documentation come into play? Of the 2, I think "finish work" is the most important. If the pillow tops had been finished as pillows, they would be easier to share with family members or if no one wanted them, donate them. As they are now, I don't know what we'll do with them if no one wants them. It lit a fire under me to do the finish work on the projects that I have stitched and done nothing with.

I think documentation is important to at least have some record of your life's craft-work even if the projects bite the dust along the way. Even something short like a completed date, who the item was made for if it was a gift, and a photo. Someone craft-inclined in a future generation might find it interesting that  great-grandma did all these cross stitch and needlepoint projects in her spare time.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think it's important. I am more motivated than ever to keep records of my projects. And organize information about them. And to do the finishing work. Some day someone's going to go through my craft stuff and I'd like to make it easier for them to decide what to do with it.
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