Canvas Tip: Shaving Your Finished Project

That title sounds a little weird, doesn't it?  Like I'm about to tell you I'm some kind of weirdo that likes shaving things, lol.  Well I am weird, but not without reason!  (And no, small furry creatures don't have to worry about me sneaking up on them and shaving them.)

When I was working on my Fall Welcome Wall Hanging a couple of weeks ago,  I noticed an interesting problem.  Because the piece is so big, I was rubbing the yarn a lot as I worked, and it started to create pills and piles of fuzz.  Normally a piece made with acrylic yarn gets kind of fuzzy as you work on it simply because the yarn is soft, but it's not usually a problem if it's a small piece.  But this big piece I worked on clearly had some issues.

The pilling was especially bad on the dark red section.

It really looked bad.  I like to present my work as professionally as I can, and I just wasn't happy about those ugly fuzzies.  So I thought, well, what can I do?  The only thing I could think of was to get out my husband's electric shaver.

 I used the straight clipper attachment and gently ran it over the piece.  If you're doing this, don't push down!  You don't want to cut the yarn, just clip the fuzzies on the surface. 

As you can see, I actually got a good amount of fuzz off the piece. 

And now it looks pretty darn good!  The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's a huge improvement.

So there you go!  If you have problems with fuzz or pilling with your project, just shave it!