christmas jumper finished?

time to decorate the tree?

I have now finished Best Boy's Christmas jumper...or have I? I have sewn in the dozens of ends and carefully sewn up the seams, given Rudolph his red nose and given the reindeer each an eye but still feel like there is something missing. Bearing in mind that Best Boy will be wearing it Christmas day I feel it is lacking on the sparkle front. So...I wonder...should I decorate the tree? Should I glitz it up a bit like this one? (thanks to fresh-thoughts.co.uk) OK...maybe not quite like that but after my sparkly yarn find in Hobbycraft last week and the green and silver colours I coveted  - I'm thinking...does the tree need something extra, like green, red and silver sparkly baubles? Does it need some sequinned tinsel? A gold star at the top? I think it does...do you?

Talking about finishing items, I don't know about other knitters but I really used to hate the making-up part of knitting and would rush through it. This resulted in items that looked poorly made, despite the quality of the knitted material or the beauty of the yarn used. It also resulted in a lot of unfinished projects as I couldn't be bothered with the sewing part of it all.  Nowadays, I have come to the conclusion that the making-up of an item is an important part of the whole process, almost as important as the knitting part itself, and I now take my time to do it as carefully and neatly as possible. This has resulted in my finished items looking home made rather than poorly made. I can't say I enjoy the making-up part any more than I used to but I no longer hate it and I value it for the difference it makes to the finished item. There are lots of free knitting resources with instructions on finishing an item, (knitty.com or knit simple for example), available on the web - so... no more excuses for poorly finished or unfinished garments.