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!
However, it’s almost time to head off to the airport for another long-haul flight back to Germany. (That really makes me sound like I’m some kind of jet-setter when it’s just been how family events have turned out). I’m looking forward to some serious knitting time. I have that sock I started and I have a new cardigan to cast on! The sock is a Magic Zauberball Stripe sock but I’m using a Lana Grossa yarn that also has long colour stripes.
This is how far I’d got after two long-haul flights (Sydney to Tokyo and Tokyo to Vienna).
I really like it as it has a bit of pattern on alternate rows. The purl stitches each side of the slipped stitches help those slipped ones stand out. This pair were made from one 100g ball of Regia sock yarn (the colour design is Vermont) and I just started the second sock as soon as the first one was finished. They don’t need to be identical as you can see here on the heels.
Because I started the toe exactly where a new colour began, I was able to make an identical second sock.
Naturally, we woke up to stiff legs and I was determined to walk ‘on the flat’. Mr Soknitsome suggested we went around the Haindorfer Berg. We did. It was still a bit hilly in parts and I was quite glad to get back. Being the energetic man he is, Mr Soknitsome went off for a run. I exercised my fingers and did a spot of knitting. On the following day we hiked up to the Priener Hütte (1400m/4600ft), where we enjoyed an early lunch outside in the sunshine with a great view. So what next? Yes, the summit. We plodded through snow, along ridges and up the steep climb to the summit of the Geigelstein. At just over 1800m (5900ft) it is the second highest mountain in the Chiemgau Alps. It was all very well reaching the top but there wasn’t much of it and the drops down were sheer on three sides. I don’t like heights at all and was fretting about the journey back down – steep, slippery and scary! Although I sometimes wonder if Mr Soknitsome thinks I’m exaggerating and underestimates my true fear of heights (I was already commenting on the ascent about how much I wasn’t looking forward to the return), he showed his steady and dependable side and made the descent just 2 steps in front of me, digging his heels into the snow to make footprints for me to step into. A couple of times I slid and thudded into him but it was funny, thankfully. Once we got down to the alpine hut we took a different path back. The views were great – we stayed up high for ages…so eventually the walk down was very, very steep.
The place we stayed in has these baskets of scarves which you can add to during your stay or buy as a knitting kit to take home.
It developed a little in Bangkok Airport before growing up considerably while crossing the Indian ocean and after arriving at its new home in Cologne, Germany. We hit puberty on the A31 heading towards the North Sea. Having been there before, 
Sock Two was born in Cologne and spent its childhood on high-speed ICE trains and in buses and trams. It only got as far as Ludwigshafen, 160 odd miles to the south of Cologne and Kassel, 150 miles to the north east but 250 miles by train! Its development was slow but steady. There were no growing pains and Sock Two turned out to look a lot like Sock One.
