Yesterday, my last free weekend day before Christmas, I wrote myself a small list of things to finish, or at least make some progress with. The sketch was one, because I hadn’t got around to it all week. Another was to work on Dad’s socks.

But the main one was the Handspun Wrap Jacket, last blogged about here. Which had already been changed to the Handspun Wrap Vest because I didn’t have enough yarn to weave sleeves. Instead I wove a band with the remaining yarn, to use as a collar.

I’d had a lot of stuff ups to this point. During the weaving of the three main pieces, I’d suddenly realised that my notes and calculations made no allowance for a gap between them. Not wanting to end up with a warp too short for the third panel I’d put a narrow piece of paper between anyway, hoping I’d squeeze them in. But a narrow strip means a short fringe, which is difficult to knot. I decided to hemstitch instead, and then felt the pieces a little. After all, the brown handspun was still too sticky for my liking, and the hot water used in felting might finally get it clean of grease. Unfortunately, it shrank but didn’t felt well enough to hold together, and the hemstitching was coming undone.

So I spent a couple of hours removing the hemstitching, pushing the weft up to expose more warp, then tying lots and lots of tight little knots.

Then I sewed the pieces together, using blanket stitch.

And tried the garment on.

I didn’t like it.

The fabric wasn’t drapey enough, the side steams stuck out in a ridiculous fashion, and the yarn was scratchy and still slightly sticky. None of which you’d have been able to see properly in a photo, so I didn’t bother taking one.

So I changed to Plan B. I redid the side seams as flat blanket stitch hems, all the way along, and…

Made it into a rug. Possibly a picnic rug. Definitely a weirdly shaped rug.

Oh well. Sometimes projects are duds. The good side to this story is that it is OVER. Some of the oldest yarn in my stash has been used. I’ve tried the wrap jacket idea and know that, if I do it again, I’ll need finer yarn and to make a light, drapey fabric.

And now I’m free to weave something else. Perhaps something out of these lovely handspun yarns I bought at the s’n’b end of year party on Saturday:

But definitely not until after Christmas, when Dad’s socks are (hopefully) done and I have some free time again.