12/27/09 - I’ve got almost the entire skirt knit…and I’m about to frog the entire darned thing. I’m knitting the size 4, so Lexie will be able to wear it next year and the year after, but it’s knitting up huuuuge. I’m on gauge (13 sts / 4”), but with the number of stitches cast on for this size I’ve got a skirt about 42” around. 42” for a 4-year-old? That just seems to be a bit much; her current skirts measure no more than 37” around. So I think I’m either going to cast on the size 2 but knit for the size 4 length, or go down a needle size…or maybe both.

01/07/10 - Knitting done! I ended up dropping a needle size and casting on the number of stitches for the size 2, although I kept the number of stitches for a size 4 when I reached the bodice. Now I just need to block, seam the shoulders, and find buttons that’ll do the yarn justice.

01/11/10 - Knitting done! No, I’m not repeating myself…I just had to repeat my knitting. After getting the shoulders seamed, I tried it on my 2-year-old and the bodice was snug. So I tried it on my 4-year-old (he wasn’t thrilled about the whole wearing a dress thing, but I bribed him with all the Wii he wanted) and it was definitely too tight. So I had to undo the seams and rip back to the skirt. That did give me a chance to redo a buttonhole that I’d accidentally put in the wrong spot. I calculated the number of stitches I’d need to get the size I wanted, and although I won’t know for sure until my son’s awake tomorrow, it looks like it’ll be the right size now…

01/17/10 - And it was the right size; whew! In fact, it fit my son very nicely; Lexie might actually get 3 years of wear out of it. The last finishing touch was the buttons, and there I ran into a bit of serendipity. I’d just happened to visit the etsy page of Wooden Treasures, my favorite source of wooden buttons, and discovered he was having a sale…so I took the opportunity to stock up. when the buttons arrived yesterday, I know that one of the sets was perfect (half of the set actually, since it came in a set of 10). So I sewed them on and am thrilled with the result.