1860's Knitted Baby Vest

I have been working, for about a month now, on a knitted baby vest. I know that knitted vests were common in the Civil War era and it seemed like a wonderfully warm addition to Asa's winter wardrobe. Previous to beginning this project I could: cast on, knit and purl so I had many new skills to learn if I wanted to knit this vest. I learned how to increase and decrease, make buttonholes, crochet an edging and attach two knitted pieces together. And finally, today, the vest in finished!!!

And, wonder of wonders, it doesn't fit. Wow, oh good. I was hoping to have spent all that time for nothing. :-) Actually, it isn't quite that disastrous. You see, for the belt I tried knitting on circular knitting needles (something I had never done before) and the stitches looked wonky. I don't know, maybe there's a trick to making your knitting look neat on them? Anyway, I chucked the circulars and did the belt on regular needles, doing rows of 12 stitches. However, that made the buttonhole sit vertically instead of horizontally like the others. The belt is a bit snug (I didn't block the belt, by the way) and it makes the button pop out of the hole. I suppose the next step is to remove the belt and knit a new, larger one and then crochet new edging for it and re-attach, but I'm not really up for that right now so I guess I'll put it away and sew for a while. :-/

Prepare yourself to be amazed!

Prepare yourself to be amazed, for I, yes even I, have in fact knitted something. BE IT KNOWN: that the person formerly known as Not-Quite-A-Real-Woman-Because-She-Can't-Knit (snicker, snicker) has decided that though living vicariously through the knitting genius of others did in fact afford some benefit, the loss of self respect and perpetual whining got too tiresome and has, therefore, met its Waterloo.

So, without further ado, introducing my combination dish cloth/wash cloth. :-)

You might (or then again might not) remember that I couldn't purl, so I endeavored to learn this wily stitch through a book that I've had for about a decade. I *do not* learn well through books (that is such an understatement) but I can't watch YouTube videos and none of my knitting friends would consent to fly here and tutor me so I was forced to man up (so to speak) and just learn it already!

However, *this next part is spoken in a small hushed voice*, I'm afraid that I didn't do it right. The opposite side is a mirror image of this side, can that be right? I tried to call a friend this morning to ask her, but naturally people can't be at home when I have momentous and Earth shattering questions about knitted dish cloths. What I thought I was doing was knitting 2 rows and then purling 2 rows, but the rows that look knitted on this side appear to be purled on the opposite side and the purled rows here look knitted back there, so I'm figuring my jubilation is in vain.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated. :-)