Yesterday I learned the importance of knitting a gauge swatch. I was trying to knit some doll clothes (I know...I'm weird. But I wanted to actually finish a project, and it looked easy enough!) and about halfway through I looked up at the pattern again, looked at the gauge and was like "huh...4st = 1in...ok...well, maybe it'll work anyway." Then I looked at the tiny piece of fabric that I had knit and realized that there was no way in hell that that would fit an American Girl doll. An unnatural-proportioned Barbie doll maybe, but not a chubby, realistically-proportioned AG doll. But, I was on the phone (with Shannon! who's in Madison!) knitting away and continued on, thinking, "well maybe it'll work when I'm all done..." Right. That doesn't make any sense. Then I finished, and realized that I had a 3in x 6in piece of stripey ribbed knitting that was too cute to rip out but that would never ever be a skirt. My mom suggested making it into a patchwork skirt, but then I realized that would look hideous because the stripes wouldn't match.

So...I made a tank top! I crocheted (yup, just learned, too!) a few strings, tied 'em onto the rectangle, and voila! A tank top!