On Finishing

Okay, so I joke lovingly that DH is often a 93%er... his words, not mine.  Yet, I've realized this last week, I'm just as guilty.  In truth we are a matched set, and it's my hope that we can keep each other motivated through it all.

My yarn basket has been overflowing for two years now.  Up until the days I was shivering with fever and bronchitis, I had four projects that needed finished.  I start ambitious, but tend to fizzle before finishing.  I get distracted: the kids want to sit on my lap, someone needs something, the garden beckons, it's too warm to be buried under yarn, and so on.

There's one project in particular that has been nagging at me.  There's a quirky little story behind it, naturally.  Two years ago we broke down and bought our first new [not 2nd hand, not made from scratch in DH's garage] furniture -- a sofa set.  I was so excited to have something I had picked out.  A few months later, it was a rainy afternoon and boys were going stir-crazy.  Mom was just going crazy.

If you are wondering, this is Lion Jiffy, El Paso.

So, everyone in the mommy-van and off to the craft store.  Now, I have an eye for color.  As I pushed that tiny cart loaded with 85# of boys around, I stumbled upon the perfect yarn for my furniture!  I was so thrilled, the colors were such pretty jewel tones -- exactly the undertones of our green sofa.  Bonus: it was on sale!  Needless to say, I bought out what they had in stock and went home to find a pattern.  The web is a wonderful thing for cheap [ahem, thrifty] crafters like me.  RedHeart had a pattern with an interesting repetition of cluster and petal stitches.

For you crocheters -- it was a double cluster (four dc split
between two st and clustered tog) and petal
(ch 3, dc in first ch)repetition.

Now, I've gotten into gardening, as you know, which means my spring/summer/fall is a wash of planting, tending, harvesting, and canning.  No time for yarn except on vacation (and who wants to haul an afghan around in July?!).  Yeah... two years to complete my afghan.  I'd do a few rows, and it would get back-burnered.  That basket couldn't hold another skein of yarn!  In the mean-time I had done lots of smaller projects, because they were necessary or just quick and easy to finish.  The afghan, not so much.

I've crocheted for years, knitted only recently.  I'll go as long
as my wrist holds out -- same as with my music!

So, it was cool and windy last week, I had a chill, and that yarn beckoned.  I started crocheting and actually finished that afghan I started two years ago.  Today, I believe that project had been saved for a purpose -- to redeem a rotten day.  Did I really want to be sick last week?  Nope.  But it was so nice to cozy under the yarn and finish the last 20 rows of that afghan, which is now adorning the back of my love seat!  The most accomplished sick-day ever ~ and I use the term sick-day loosely, as mom still had to chase kids, discipline for acting out at school, make dinner (pizza rocks!), and feed the animals.  I'm reminded to always give thanks for the blessing in all circumstances.  I was able to finish something!

I attended a local women's faith conference this past weekend, and the speaker shared that what you put in is what you get out.  Strength comes when you persevere through the fatigue of a situation.  If you put into yourself determination [and productivity in this case] you can persevere through wanting to give up.  The doing becomes instinct.  Now, she was talking on a grander, spiritual level, I'm sure.  But the truth is, this goes for our everyday lives, too!  We can find strength to finish things, when we check our motivation and make the doing second nature.  Might I suggest we pray this for ourselves ~ I know I try to: Lord, give me the motivation, determination, and courage to finish what I've started...in all things...and, to remember that it's not for my own glory that I do these things!

Yes, that's a loose end on the lower left corner.  Bah!

If I could only learn to not just finish the project, but weave in my loose ends (now if that isn't a metaphor for life!) ~ DS2's new scarf, my dish cloths, the hand towel for my bathroom ~ that yarn basket would be empty!  And you know what that would mean... aside from being able to start something new, it's a whole lot of satisfaction for finishing the race that was started, persevering through the fatigue and discouragement, and following the instinct to keep going!  And...giving thanks in all things, even sick-days and stagnant projects!