Steam treatment fixes all

So for about 4 weeks, I've been knitting Devan from knitty. About 3 weeks ago, Christiane at Knitting Meetup expressed concern that the sweater was not wide enough for the 1-2 yr old size I am knitting. I worried silently for a while, and checked my gauge compared to the gauge swatch. Guess what? Swatch was at 7.5 sts/inch. Fronts are at 8.5 sts/inch. And therefore too narrow.

I've been very conscious of gauge since this little wakeup call and the back is coming out the right width. But the max width of the fronts was about 6 inches, while the back is the proper 13.5 inches per the pattern.

So, last night I steamed the crap out of the fronts.

In this photo you can see the right side pinned out and all the other pieces resting after their ordeal. I pinned one side of each front and then used my iron on a wool setting with a lot of steam. I pulled towards the middle until the fronts were wide enough. Below, you can see that the steaming worked.. the fronts are now approximately wide enough, even without their cute little rolled edgies. (See the army green of the back peeking out between the fronts?)

But in the photo below, we can see that the fronts are also about an inch too tall, so I'll be taking an 6-8 rows out of the fronts before sewing up.

I'm over the moon pleased about the success of the steaming. Not to mention that I'm going great guns on the back - I've got 10.5 inches and I'm almost ready to insert the little patch detail. I'm totally in love with this project. The cuteness of the pattern, the striping in the sock yarn, and the success of the steam treatment are all working so well.