I've been doing kind of a lot of reading about baby stuff lately. :-) In the spirit of being healthy, frugal and green, I'm really interested in cloth diapers. For a week or two, in fact, every time the thought of food was about to make me sick, I refocused and tried to picture putting a clean baby's bottom in soft cotton prefolds with wool covers. Ahh.
I still have a lot to learn about using wool. I was first inspired by seeing my cousin Missy's little girl in pink wool leggings, and have learned a lot more from my friend Amy . . . Apparently, these little things I've made are called "soakers," and I'm excited to discover how well they work. My mother diapered all three of us in prefolds with pins and rubber pants, and I have some memories of my 5-year-younger brother wearing them. They seem natural and nice. But wool is much more exciting than rubber pants.
Sooo, for those interested, I used a free pattern from Fern and Faerie for these, mostly because the pattern worked with the needle sizes I have around. The blue one came first, but since I was also using yarn that I had around, it's from a rather thin wool. Hmm. I'm considering trying to felt/shrink it a little, but I've never felted anything before and don't know how to get it to the size I want to get it to. We'll see.
The second went much faster for several reasons:
1. I was using thicker yarn (only 25% wool, though, so it might not work so well.)
2. We were visiting my mom-in-law, who convinced me to try using two pairs of circular needles instead of four double-points.
3. She also convinced me to (once again) try knitting in the Continental method. Way faster.
In the process, I had the opportunity to try to teach myself the Kitchener stitch from youtube, which was interesting. Now they're awaiting lanolizing and product-testing. :-)
Those look lovely!
ReplyDeleteI was getting so excited to try out my soakers too and I'm happy to say that they work perfectly! It is so much better than the covers we used with Paul.
I had to learn kitchner stitch for my soakers too and I thought it was so neat the way it worked out.
The 25% wool probably won't cut it. I've heard you want at least 85%, but I've stuck with 100%.
My washing machine really felts things, so if I want something just a bit felted, I just do it in the sink by hand.
I need to learn continental, just for fun, but overall I like knitting the way I do because I learned from Mrs. Hughes and it makes me think of her every time I knit :)
Thanks! It's so nice to hear that they work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll try hand washing the blue one, then.
Nice memories. Does she know just how much you knit now?
For all she knows, I never got past the squares we were doing at her house :)
ReplyDeletelove you for this post... because I love love wool soakers... and knitpicks.com sells wool cheap for wool soakers....and in a million different colors.. get knitting girl!! also ....Novanaturals.com sells wool wash that I use. you might be able to get it where you live though. love novanaturals for baby things though.. check them out. they will send you a catalogue. I lanolize with lanolin in the tube from Target for nursing Moms nipples and in the sink.. lots of recipes out their. I have always used 100 percent wool. ...chat more later I have to get some zzzzzz
ReplyDeleteAw, yay, thanks for the encouragement! Now I think I'm going to have to get some girly yarn, or at least more neutral. :-) And thanks for the lanolin recommendation because I haven't even looked into that yet and had no idea where I should get it. I did join the wool soaker yahoo group which has helped me learn some stuff. Would love to talk more about it!
ReplyDelete