Wooly Bottoms

Remember that yarn that I dyed with Kool-aid a few posts back?  Well, I used it to knit up some Wool Soakers.

A wool soaker is just the oddest thing.  It really is a bit incomprehensible, but I'll try my best to explain.  Basically, it takes the place of a plastic cover for cloth diapers.  You diaper the baby with the traditional cloth diaper, and then pull the wool soaker over that to keep the, um, "diaper stuff" in the diaper and not leaking out everywhere.

100% wool has amazing soaking qualities, as well as the ability to chemically interact with the urine, neutralizing the uric acid so that the soaker doesn't smell.  Unless the soaker gets soiled with poop, you just pull it off when it's been wet, hang it to dry, and then re-use (no washing required). 

The lanolin in the wool naturally keeps the urine from making any smell.  Each soaker can be used around 20 times before a vaguely "diaper" smell lets you know it's time to wash them and re-lanolinize them.

Oddly enough, the wool soakers are practically leak-proof as well.  Gabe still occasionally wets the bed at night, so I made him a soaker to use over his night-time undies, and although the night-time undies might be thoroughly soaked (a three-year-old can make a lot of pee), the outside of the wool soaker feels dry to the touch.

There are lots of patterns out there for wool soakers, but I chose this one.  I'm a little concerned that the leg openings might not be big enough for a baby with chubby legs.

The two I've shown in this post are most likely for a newborn size, so when I get around to knitting a few more I'm going to knit them in a larger size and make sure I leave a lot of leg room.  A ribbing around the opening should catch anything that might drip, hopefully.

I also decided to crochet a tie instead of knitting an i-cord tie.  Crochet is a bit thinner (reducing bulk at the waist) and less likely to slip.  (Also I hate knitting i-cord.  It's tedious beyond belief).

 

I love the finished look of a sewn tag, so I made tags with fabric paper that you can use in the printer and put the size and washing care on the tag.  This is nice for several reasons, but mainly because it keeps me from guessing what size it is and also if I decide to gift it to someone they'll know the materials and how to wash it (as some types of 100% wool are machine washable and some are not).

I wonder if it's some indication of my mental state that the very first thing I knit for my unborn baby is related to pee?  It's as though I can't quite grasp the coming reality of little chubby fingers and toes, but I can quite readily imagine an oncoming deluge of feces. 

 

I need a psychiatrist.

And a nap.  

Preferably the nap first, although I've heard the chairs in the Psychiatrist's office are very comfortable so perhaps I could multi-task . . .