When Things Go Wrong
Well, I have been working on a project for quite some time and was pretty excited to have it completed, well almost completed. I had big plans for it and was really looking forward to putting it out there and showing it off. However, my plans got derailed, not once, not twice, but three times!
Like many have done with finished items that they are gifting, we wash them. Note everyone does this I understand, but the purpose of doing it is for a few reasons. 1 – Make sure it doesn’t fall apart. 2 – Block it so it can keep it’s shape. 3 – Have a clean item gifted out. In my case, I did want to block it as the tension was slightly off on one side and it was looking a bit lop sided but also because I was attaching a flannelette to the back of it and needed to make sure that the sizing for both was accurate. I was also concerned with the colours running. It’s red and white and was worried the white would/could turn pink if the red colour ran at all. I reached out to the wonderful Facebook community and received MANY different responses. I washed it and the white came out cream coloured! NOT what I was hoping for. On the bright side, I thought, well, it’s not pink. I accepted it and moved on… however, when I was planning to put the border on it for the flannelette piece, I need to match that new white piece to the now cream colour section. So of course, I figured, just recreate what I did the first time with a small sample of the 3 colours and wash it to get the same creamy result. Obvious right? Well, not so. I created a decent sized sample of the red, the white and the grey in about as much yarn as I would have needed to put a border around it. Of course, I wasn’t going to stick it in the washing machine alone since it was so small, so I hand washed it in cold water, like the blanket, with detergent and some fabric softener. Guess what… The white came out white. Not even slightly creamy in colour. So again, I accepted this and moved on… Next plan.
I decided to go with black around as a border. Not at all what I wanted to do but changed the flanette to something with black so that it will blend a bit better. I have now finished the blanket! Well, one last step that I think I need to do is secure the flannel to the crochet project in the centre area so there isn’t a gapping hole in between the 2 pieces. BUT it’s mostly completed. However, I really don’t think I can do what I wanted to do with this one now as it’s, in my eyes, not perfect enough. I had hoped to generate some money for charity with this piece but I just feel bummed about the whole thing. Of course, my husband and daughter still love it and really want to keep it for our family now. But as you can imagine, we have a lot of blankets around here, of course this is an original and one of a kind, but it just may be a new member of the family as well. I’ll post the finished pics once I get a chance to take some good ones.
