Project Progress

I've not blogged much about some of my recent projects, but I've got plenty in progress at the moment.
I mean, there are always lots of UFO's at my place, but I wanted to throw out some pics of my progress on a few that are actually still considered current, as opposed to being tucked away, awaiting renewed interest.

My DK baby boy blues are coming along nicely. I did my short row heels, and I'm on to the leg of the sock. I notice my short-row wraps are not as snug as I might like, but in the interest of not going nuts with the DK stuff, I'm letting them stand. My next pair will be much better, I'm sure.

I'm finally back to where I was on my legwarmers before I had to rip them back. I should have considered the size of my muscular calves in the first place, but I got caught up in the whole business of following the instructions instead. Serves me right, having to rip back 12" and re-knit it with added stitches to accommodate my actual legs. Or maybe it's a misprint, and I'm not the only victim. See, you start at the bottom (ankle) and it says to work the pattern as established, no increases, for 18". Even if you've got bird-legs, I bet you want a little more room in there for your calf than you have for your ankle. Maybe it should be something more like 8"? In any case, I had to do all the increases already, and I'm only at 17". I may need to do more increases when I get to the knees as well. If you're looking at your legs right now, and thinking that 18" is much longer than the distance from your ankle to your knee, you're right. But these aren't meant to be super snug - they should be allowed to sort of relax and rest comfortably.

As for the two All My Chickens projects I should have already finished, I've hit a little snag with the first one. I finally got the whole thing cut, and it's lovely, but I failed to consider that if you have something that goes nearly to the edges of an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, you will not be able to then frame the finished item in an 8" x 10" frame.

Duh.

Apparently, I didn't run to 11" x 14" in my past history of frame-buying, so I've now got to go on a frame hunt. I feel a bit stupid about that, as it would have been very easy to shrink the pattern down just a smidgen. I like how it looks, though, so the framing expedition should be worthwhile, when I can finally find the time.
(The second one, I hope to be showing off soon. I think. So no spoilers yet.)

I managed to finish Twin2's PJ top that matches the bottoms sewn for Christmas 2008. He hasn't worn it yet, but I expect he will. Either way, it's no longer in the sewing room, so that's something.

I pulled out another long-time UFO (cut out sometime in the 90's, but not a stitch sewn until now), and I've made some reasonable progress there. It's a knee-length jumper (meaning a sleeveless dress with deep armholes, not a pullover sweater, though I have had some of those in knee-length, too (it was an 80's thing)) cut out in a lovely deep mustard/gold colored wide wale corduroy. Not even sure corduroy comes in such a bulky wide wale anymore. It was popular at the time. Construction was initially delayed by the need to find a matching lighter-weight fabric to make the facings, as the corduroy itself was far too bulky to behave well in that capacity. As the well-matched cotton was neatly tucked away with the rest of it, I have no clue why I ignored it this long. I suspect that I may find it's desperately out of style, and may not get worn once it's done, but I still feel a need to finish it. I remember I was pretty excited about it at the time, so who knows.

I also finally finished a sweet little pink owlie sleep sack. I want to make the matching hat, so I guess the project as a whole is not actually complete. However, were I to receive a last-minute baby shower invite, I'd be okay with giving just the sleep sack without the hat, if I had to.

That's all for now, progress-wise. I have several other things I wish I could say I'd made progress on, but as they're all just exactly as they were back in January, this is all I can brag on today.