When our daughter shared a photo of our granddaughter pulling herself up to a standing position I just knew I had to knit her a little dress. We were a bit surprised to see her doing it already as she was six-and-a-half months old at the time. In the picture she had on a little dress and you could see frilly nappy peeping out below. Very cute!
After a bit of virtual consultation (sending Ravelry links via WhatsApp gives you a decent-sized photo in the message with the link below) we decided on Rotational in grey. Younger Soknitsome Daughter has a fondness for black and grey and likes grey clothes for Soknitsome Granddaughter, too. 
I knitted the dress in dark and very pale grey stripes. The pattern was easy to follow although I must have miscounted somewhere before joining the back and front as I had to add two stitches to get the slip-stitch colour change row to work out properly.
The yarn is Australian Superfine Merino from Cleckheaton. I bought it at a yarn-tasting hosted by the Knitters’ Guild NSW. Since it’s a superwash yarn, I was good and knitted and washed quite a large tension square. I then went down a needle size for the dress because I was also aiming for a garment that wouldn’t look too huge on a slim nine-month old baby (this is more a dress for the winter months). The dress actually works well as a tunic later, too so I did knit towards a 12-month size for length as our granddaughter is not short.
You can imagine my alarm when on giving the dress a bath, I could feel it relaxing beneath my fingers! Fortunately, after being laid out flat to dry, it shrank back to the expected dimensions. Mr Soknitsome got to visit them during his business trip to Germany and promptly sent pictures. Although little Soknitsome Granddaughter did pull herself up to stand while he was there, it was never while wearing the dress!
This is how far I’d got after two long-haul flights (Sydney to Tokyo and Tokyo to Vienna).
Younger Soknitsome Daughter likes purple and as I wanted a unisex colour this yarn looked perfect. It’s another yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills – a blend of wool and bamboo – and has a lovely sheen to it. I struggled slightly with the pattern as there was no way my swatches were blocking out to the size and tension of the pattern. (A common remark on projects is that this blanket turns out smaller than the original). I even knitted squares with various needle sizes and left them out for pondering while I knitted something else. In the end, I went with the recommended needle size since I preferred the finished fabric.
To replicate Younger Soknitsome’s laundry practice, I just hung the blanket over a drying rack and was very happy to see the final size after washing. It grew but without becoming loose and floppy. There are photos of the little one wrapped up in her blanket but these are my daughter’s pictures.
The first item to be knitted was a white cardigan. White cardigans may not be very practical but doesn’t every newborn need a white cardigan? I think so. I chose a traditional classy looking cardigan, a French design, but just to be on the safe side knitted the 3 months size rather than newborn. This cardigan was knitted in Patons Australia Big Baby 4-ply, a very soft machine-washable blend of acrylic and nylon.
After that I made a red jumper. Red is good for boys and girls. The pattern I chose is actually labelled as being ‘boys’ sweaters and vest’ but I think textured sweaters are unisex. The pattern is a Sirdar one (there are lots of Sirdar paper patterns available as PDFs on Patternfish) and as such, traditionally written: knitted in pieces and seamed. I didn’t fancy seaming such a little knit in Dk/8-ply weight so I knitted in the round to the armholes then to and fro for the front and back. I did a three-needle-bind-off for the seamed shoulder and finished the one with button flaps as in the pattern. I picked up stitches around the armholes for the sleeves and worked short rows for the sleeve caps. For this jumper I used Australian machine washable wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills. It’s lovely and soft, quite plump, perhaps slightly thicker than many 8-ply / DK yarns.
The third garment I made (well small clothes are just so lovely to knit) was a stripey cardigan in green and white. I used more of the Patons Australia Big Baby, holding the yarn double to replicate DK thickness. Strangely enough, the DK version of this yarn is not nearly as soft as the 4-ply. Once again I didn’t follow the pattern exactly. I didn’t slip the edge stitches as I prefer picking up stitches for button bands in the ratio of 3 for 4 stitches. To turn the cardigan into an outfit I also made a striped hat but with thinner stripes.
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