I’m knitting a dress for my 2 yr old grand-daughter. The pattern only calls for 24" #7 circs, it says [I]nothing[/I] about switching to a shorter length. At the arm holes, you divide the front & back, so there are only 45 sts to work with. This is [I]impossible[/I] on 24" circs!!!
I’m an hour away from a store that would carry shorter circs, so that’s not an option right now. Does anyone have an idea of what I could do?
When you divide for the front and back, you’re making spaces for the armholes. At this point, you’d work back and forth on those stitches. You still use the circulars, but knit back and forth. Usually you’d finish the back, and then the front. The pieces will be rejoined at the shoulder.
I can sure see that it would work like that, knitting straight instead of in the round! But I wonder how that will work for “wrong side/right side” issues? I wish you could see the pattern and/or I could explain it better. 
Here’s what the dress looks like…
What do the directions say after you get to where you divide for the front and back? From the picture, it looks like stockinette, so it [I]should[/I] tell you to knit the front and purl the back, but the picture isn’t close-up enough for me to be sure.
It says…
Bodice Back:
Row 1: Bind off 3 sts, knit across back sts. (Begins armhole)
Row 2: Bind off 3 sts, purl across row. Work back and forth in st st until back measures 4 1/2" from armhole bind-off, ending with a WS row.
Then it goes on to the neck part, which I won’t even try to understand right now. :mrgreen:
So then it is worked in stockinette. Knit on the front, purl on the back.
Just work 'em as they come. When I started out, I refused to read ahead in the directions. Too confusing.