for the baby's booty
Pattern: #366 miss priss diaper pants, by wendy williams
Size: small
Yarn: (from left to right) peace fleece worsted in patience blue; ella rae classic in grey; 100purewool worsted merino single in brown lilac
Needles: US4; US3; US5
The waistbands are made from scraps of malabrigo & 100purewool I had left over from other projects. I did a regular rolled cuff on the navy & grey pants and a fancier seed stitch on the brown ones. The pant seat of the blue ones seems rather enormous. They all look a bit big, and may not fit the baby right away, but I really like the idea of them working as soakers and warm pants at the same time.
These are to be soaker covers for the cloth diapers we plan on using for the little one. We've gotten all set up with a batch of small-sized unbleached chinese cotton pre-folds and I've been knitting, knitting, knitting covers out of soft, water-repellant wool. There is an incredible wealth of information about cloth diapering all over the web, with all sorts of arguments about the environmental impact / personal benefits of using cloth versus disposables. To put it very simply (as I do not yet have a baby or any first-hand experience with diapering just yet), I feel convinced this is the best choice we can make for diapering. I felt mightily overwhelmed by all of the options available for diapering systems and such and decided to start out with the very basics: a traditional pre-fold with wool soaker covers (which, quite magically, are water-repellent, don't get stinky, and don't need to be washed more than once or twice a month. magic.)
Pattern: curly purly soaker (free!) by marnie ann joyce
Needles: US5 w/ the merino; US7 w/ the BFL
I really liked the way this pattern was constructed, with the levels of ribbing around the waist and snug little leg holes. They knit real quick, usually I could do one in a day. I'm not sure if one of the merino brights pairs will be so useable, as I accidentally grafted too early and the leg hole openings are super small. The elliebelly BFL was super lush to knit with -- I had one of those experiences with that yarn where the minute it came in the mail and I squished it in my hands, I knew I had to knit with it immediately. It is such a beautiful yarn, and the color knit up wonderfully with no pooling and just the right variegation. I've read wonderful things about using BFL yarn for soakers, so I'm pretty excited about this pair in particular. The merino brights, well, I like merino a whole lot and had read that this particular brand knit up similar to the noro kureyon colorways, which it does, but its not terribly soft, feels a bit felty, actually. But I do like the way the color moves.
At this point I've got three short soakers and three pairs of long pants and will just have to see how we manage in the experience itself. I feel a bit uncertain about the sizing -- I knit the BFL in newborn and the other two in size small -- they look a bit big, and may not be quite the right size right away. But I was hesitant to knit a bunch of super teensy soakers that would only fit for a couple of weeks. I'm planning on a real fat baby, you see.
Baby, we got your booty covered. You may come any old day you please.
