Accessing textWidth of a Text component

1 


import mx.core.mx_internal;
use namespace mx_internal;

   var txtIt:Text = new Text();



                txtIt.text = full_array[t][0];
                txtIt.width = 700;
                txtIt.buttonMode = true;
                txtIt.mouseChildren = false;
                txtIt.selectable = false;
                txtIt.y = t * 30;

                var txtfld:TextField = txtIt.getTextField() as TextField;
                trace(txtfld.textWidth);


                myCanvas.addChild(txtIt);

I get a TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.

how do I get at that textWidth?