New Neighborly

 

 It's been quite a while since I knit any garments and in this case of this sweet pattern, it's been seven years since I last knit it. With A's 10th birthday approaching I knew I wanted to make her something special. She's tall so she's wearing size 12 in most things and the Neighborly pattern only goes up to size 6/7 I believe. To make this pattern fit my tall girl I decided to use bulky weight yarn on size 10 needles and increase the stitches by about 10%. I really should have used a size 11 needle on the variegated yarn but I was well into it before I realized the mistake. I found an old shell flower button that went perfectly with this sweater.

While it was on the needles I was sure it was just the right size but once she put it on I saw it was almost too small already! Sigh. She's growing so quickly and in my mind she's still little. I think I will try this pattern again next winter but I'll use large needles and increase but 25% instead and I think I will make the "skirt" part much longer (this one was two full skeins as it was!). Still, I'm proud of myself for getting this done in a week and having it blocked and ready for A's birthday.