Winter Wonderland Delayed

Seriously, I don’t know if I have ever waffled around this much trying to decide how to approach a project. I’ve been trying to get started for almost two weeks, I tell you! But which size to make (decision: a little of 36, a little of 40)? What kind of button band to use (decision: moss stitch picked up later)? Where do I want seams (decision: bodice sides and back waist, none of this awkward gore business)? Argh! At one point I hunted around the internet and ordered beads for the aeolian shawl just to feel like I was making some sort of progress on something.

Swatch (berroco ultra alpaca) on size 8 came out as 18sts, 25 rows (pattern: 16.5 sts, 24 rows).

Normally I would make the smallest size. And that makes sense for the bust even considering my gauge variance. But I tend to run into some problems when we get to the caboose so I kind of want to make the 40” skirt. And I’m really not into the way the gores look when they get seamed in on the sides but in trying to convert the skirt to one piece, I’m inclined to transform the lower part of the gores into additional pattern repeats which really only works in the 40” anyway so there you go! And let’s face it, this sucker is going to vertically stretch like madness no matter what the swatch says. Then again, I don’t really want a big old horizontal seam at the waist bulking that area up. Therefore I’m going to try to do the skirt and front bodice in one piece (w/ some joined yarn, obv.) and do the back bodice separately. That’ll get me some seams on the sides for stability and adjustments and the horizontal waist seam might be an enormous boon to allow adjustments in the back for the aforementioned caboose situation.

 I think I've got my row instructions calculated and written out for everything except the sleeves and collar. But am I ready to jump in and actually start the knitting? At this point I've been waiting so long that I might have intimidated myself out of doing anything. And given today's snowquester storm's complete failure to materialize, maybe I should take the thematic hint and just wait for next year.