I am starting to knit longies for our upcoming arrival and my 4 year old REALLY wants me to knit him a pair. I thought the pattern should be fairly straight forward based on the patterns I've seen; however, I am a little concerned because his legs are so chunky compared to his waist. Here are his measurements:
24" waist
14" thighs
16" inseam
23" long (waist to ankle)

Based on a 5 stitch per inch calc, I was going to use 130 as my overall stitch circumference; however, once I subtract 10 for the crotch and divide by two, I end up with 60 or 12" for my thighs. I am worried that the knit just won't stretch or look right at that point. How would you handle that? I suppose that I could increase over the lower buttocks section up to the required stitches for the thighs - 70 each, which means I would need to go from 130 to 150 by the time I split for the legs. So how do you add 20 stitches in a 3 inch section and have it look right? Or, what do you think I could get away with on the thighs, stretch wise - a 13" circumf at 64 stitches - then I would only have to add 8 stitches by the time I get down there.

Have I confused the issue thoroughly yet :) ?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jen

Jen, the math is makin' my head hurt... ;)

I just finished knitting longies last week,though, using this fab pattern:
http://www.birdcrossstitch.com/organicwool/woolpants.html

Ther's a free version at that link, but I wanted all the sizes so I e-mailed her and asked if I could buy the pattern without buying the kit, and she let me. She's very nice and helpful!

:D

After staying up until after 1 just looking at the math part, I think I figured out what I need to do. I know that I will get some stretch out of it, so I made the legs to be a little over 13" around. Then I will just need to decrease 4-6 stitches when I get to the waist off of each leg. That shouldn't be too, too noticeable.


Ohh, and I really like the tinybirds patterns. I adapted the soaker pattern to my use and it turned out great. Her instructions are really easy to follow. Another one that is free that I really like is at ww.knitty.com - the cargo pants pattern.

Jen

Here's what I would do. I'd tell him that longies are for babies and then knit him a really cool hat and scarf. Maybe the snake scarf--http://www.scknitting.com/spring2005/slithering.html.

But that's just me. ;)