woolie bottoms

Another nesty post over here. Preparing for the arrival of the little baby bum that will need to be kept dry. I've been reading a bunch about using wool covers over cloth diapers rather than the nylon-ish waterproofed ones that gave my first babe such rashes. I love the idea of using natural materials over my babies bottoms, and it makes sense that a breathable cover helps to keep away the rashes and red bums. Here is some info if anyone is interested, and Emilie at little nest had a nice post with some links as well. I've also been admiring a bunch of handmade soakers around blogland which inspired me to try it out myself. These are knit using the Pea Patch diaper soaker patterns, and I really liked using it. They knit up pretty fast- even for me- and they look like they will be a good fit. Of course there are no baby bums to try them on just yet. I koolaid dyed some eco wool from my local yarn shop for the orange one. I would do it a little differently next time, but I had lots of fun dying the wool and then watching it knit up into these sort-of stripes. Even after washing and lanolizing it still smells a bit like orange crush though. Wet sheep and orange crush.
After knitting up those two I discovered a tutorial for turning old sweaters into soakers and gave it a try. What fun! I have to go to the thrift shop to find some more soft ones but oh! How quick they are to make! Despite knitting up quickly, these sewn ones take about 1/8th of the time to finish as the knitted ones, and they are still pretty cute. When the baby comes it can do the pee test to see which ones work better.

And until then, Ari will just be wearing them as hats.