I’m about 8 inches up the back.

I’m feeling a little stupid. I swatched, blocked, and measured. Abby’s chest measures 27 inches. The pamphlet I have for basic patterns and yardage suggests a 32 inch sweater for Abby’s age. That seems extreme. I’ve heard that 4 inches is a good ease for a comfortable fit, but percentage-wise, that seems way too much for a kid, and this pattern suggestion would be 5 inches. So, the swatch measured at 5.5 stitches to the inch. I figured that if I followed the 32 inch pattern for a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch, it’d be a good compromise, not taking the extra twenty seconds to do the math, ’til I was 5 or 6 inches into it. So, instead of the back being 16 inches across, it’s going to be 14.5. Which will give me a 29 inch sweater. That’s still bigger around than her chest measurement, but it’s closer than I’d wanted.

Should I add a little bit of extra width on the two fronts?

To back up a bit, we did some sketches a couple of weeks ago, and Abby picked her style. Open front, tie at the top, set in and flared sleeves, deep scoop neck, simple stitch pattern. She picked a couple of stitch patterns, which I swatched, and we decided on the mock cable eyelet, size 7 needle. I’m going to follow the 32 inch pattern from the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, modifying it somewhat to fit.

Today, the girls are getting haircuts. I’m not a fast haircutter, so it’s probably going to take much of the day.

My feet hurt already.