The last 20% is the hardest

I just love the latest wellness challenge in this Whole Life thing I'm doing: Leave no trace.  I think of that as what you do when you're camping, you know, put out your fire, clean up the area, and take your trash with you.  But this is a more mundane practice--clean up after yourself.  I thought, hey, this will be easy.  I always clean up after myself. But as I read, I began to see what they meant by leave no trace.  Sure, I clean up after myself, I always do the dishes.  See them there on the counter drying?  That.  Right there is the problem.  I don't finish the job. 

Washing the dishes is great, but drying them and putting them away is a whole other level.  It's that last 20%.  The hardest part of all.  That final push takes you from 80% to 100% all the way done and done.  I realized that this last 20% of stuff left undone is why my house always feels a little bit messy.  It's not a disaster or anything, but it never looks its best until company is coming and I rush around doing that last 20% of everything. 

We are all guilty of this in our knit and crochet projects.  Those pieces of sweater languishing in our bag waiting to be seamed. Or the scarf that needs only to be bound off.  Or the hat we could actually wear if we would just weave in the ends and sew on the pompom.  I get it.  Ask me how many of this I have hiding in one or another knitting bags.  Some people don't struggle with this at all, knitting only one project at a time from start to finish, and they have no stash.  Those people are actually unicorns, and you are unlikely to see them in the wild.  The rest of us do struggle, to some degree, with that last 20%. 

There is a little thrill when something goes from 80 or 90% to 100% complete.  It's hard to describe to people who don't knit or crochet, but you know what I mean.  So why don't we do it?  More often than not, projects languish because we don't actually know how to finish them.  The whole process seems so daunting, and we don't want to mess it up. Right? Finishing can be hard both figuratively and literally, especially if you don't know how. If this is you, take one of our finishing classes, and let us show you. If you know how, just come in and do it at the table. It won’t take as long as you think, and you’ll be so happy to chalk up one more in the finished column  

Let's get those gorgeous garments out of the bag and onto your body! I look forward to seeing you and your finished object in the shop and around the table.  You are always welcome here.  ~Ellen

Back to 11 February 2020 Newsletter