Buttonholes
I followed beccamade’s notes and created buttons all down the front. Mostly because I had originally intended to actually create the second buttonhole, but that slipped by me, and I didn’t feel like frogging back. I agree with those who made this before me that the using a slip stitch for the second buttonhole makes it off centered, which is odd. After the last row of color A (gray), I made the button band 4 stitches wide, and created a button hole every 12th row.

Sleeves
I didn’t do sleeves, so about a half inch before I divided for sleeves, I started garter stitches where the sleeves are. In other words, I did the following two rows for 6 rows, ending with a WS:

RS: Knit
WS: K4, P21, K 27, P 45, K27, P21, K4.

I also chose to not do increases down the back, so when it came to dividing for sleeves,

RS: K25, BO 27, K45, BO27, K25
WS: K4, P21, place marker, backwards loop cast on 5 stitches, place marker, P45, place marker, backwards loop cast on 5, place marker, P21, K4.

Body (Skirt) Increases
Since I was not increasing down the back, I increased on either side of the underarm stitches so that it was only 4 increases per row. I spaced them out 6 rows apart, so that I increased 16 stitches over 24 rows, as opposed to the 18 stitches in pattern. Since I was 2 stitches short of the stitch count I was supposed to end up with, I replaced all the k2tog in the first row of the hem to just knit, so that my stitch count matched up by the time I finished the first row of the hem section. I also replaced m1r and m1l with RLI, and LLI.

Hem
The last button hole was created on the WS two rows before I started on the hem.

I didn’t want to increase my stitch count on the hem, so when I did the cluster stitch on row 6, I only yo, knit the 5 sts together again twice.

I like this quite well, since it made the cluster stitch more round. I blocked the hem into a scalloped edge.

I decided to leave off the sleeves because Bella lives in southern California. She might wear a long sleeved wool sweater during the winter evenings, but then I’d need to knit for a 1 year old rather than a 6-12 mo old. Baby sizing and how fast they grow! So no sleeves. See below for mods.

I blocked the hem to have a scalloped edge because the detail of the cluster stitch is so cute and I wanted to emphasize it.

If I were to knit this again, I’d cast only cast on 3 stitches at the underarms and then immediately do an increase 2 rows later. The underarm shape just seems a little weird to me right now. I also don’t love the look of LLIs and RLIs, so I’d stick with m1r and m1l next time.

Finished knitting 3/25/18. Really fast knit. I had some leftover yarn so made a headband for Bella as well.