Ruthie, first let me say that I'm so happy that you made it through your surgeries and are healing well.
Second, as a dancer who knits, I like thigh high leg warmers myself with a fabric that is breatheable, cotton or cotton blend is good. You could use a wool blend, too, depending on the climate but I live in Savannah. I found several thigh high leg warmer patterns from Lion Brand and they have child sizes, too. I got this one by typing in "thigh high" but some show up under "leg warmers", too. Don't use all acrylic yarn--it is suffocating for dance class.
Here is one that uses sock yarn but Lion has them in worsted, too.
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70...html?noImages=
You need to sign up but all the patterns are free.
If you are looking at knee high, ChicKnits has one that is free also:
http://www.chicknits.com/leggochic.html
There are also tons of leg warmer patterns listed here:
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.co...legwarmers.php
If you are on Ravelry, there are tons of patterns there, too. Some are free and some are not:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sear...ry=leg+warmers
But Lion has the only thigh high pattern i could find.
Happy knitting!