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For the sweater, I used the Children's Bulky Top-Down Pullover pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple. I had 5 skeins of this beautiful Lopi (a deep blue, with an overlying red haze, and occasional flecks of turquoise and green) in my stash, and the yardage on the pattern said that would be enough. I was skeptical -- but they were right! I had enough left over that I didn't have to be nervous near the end, but not enough to think I could have made a larger size. I made the biggest size, which measures 34 inches at the chest. My friend's 11-year-old son - a normal, healthy kid - has a chest measurement of 29 inches, so I know this size is right on target. I added a couple of inches to body and sleeves to provide room to grow. I also used a nice trick for the bindoff on the roll neck, to keep it stretchy. Instead of using the "normal" technique, do this:
*Knit 2 stitches together. Return the 1 stitch now on the righthand needle to the left needle.* Repeat until you're done. You no longer have that overly tight edge that so often results from a neck edge bindoff.
The mittens are also Lopi, also from stash. They use the stitch and row count from the smallest size of the pattern on the A4A web site, but with needles appropriate to Lopi, and come out as an adult medium (I'm guessing there -- my hands are L/XL, and these are too small for me, but bigger than kid size). You can see a ridge where the needle was left in place while they were put aside for quite a long time -- I may try washing them again to see if I can get rid of that.
I'm sure beautiful things will start flooding in now that we know our deadline -- I can't wait to see!
