My new new project

I'd love to be crafty, but I just can't be bothered. I don't have the patience for scrapbooking, the knack of sewing, the talent for painting or drawing or pottery. So, I knit.

I started when I was pregnant with Elliot. I knitted a little matinee jacket in lovely pale yellow (we didn't find out the gender of either baby until they were born). And in true 'me' fashion I never finished it. My mum is a good knitter (though she rarely knits, only when babies are about!) and she made a couple of much nicer matching sets of booties, jacket and wee little hat. So he wore them a couple of times and then within a couple of weeks they didn't fit because he'd turned into the Michelin baby!

I started using cloth nappies when he was about 5 months old. I always wanted to use cloth nappies but got talked out of it by everyone (why would I want to make all that extra work for myself?). Once Elliot was born I thought I'd give myself time to get over the c-section before venturing into the wide new world of cloth nappies. I started off with the old school terry flats and pilchers but after a week of horrible plastic pilchers I started looking around on-line for some alternatives for waterproofing. And I found wool! Sounds insane, but it works! I got out the old knitting needles and gave it a go!

Woollen covers only work if they are made from pure wool. A blend of no more than 30% acrylic will still work, but the more wool the better. The woollen pants absorb the wee and evaporate it away. Despite being made from pure wool, soakers, shorties and longies are incredibly easy to use because they only need to be washed and lanolised every 6-8 weeks depending on how much they are used. Obviously if they are dirty ie toddler food messes or those delightful poo-plosions they need to be washed more frequently. It is such a simple process too, and in a week or two I'll take some pics of the process in another post.

Getting started on Archie's brand new, never worn by anyone else longies.

My first couple of pairs were a soaker style, and I quickly realised they were ok, but not what I was after. I wanted something that El could wear out as shorts with a t-shirt, and I quickly found this easy and cute pattern for little shorties. The pattern is basic, so it is so easy to customise with stripes, different cuff and body colours, patterns within the knitting etc. The pattern was also really easy to customise into longies too! Awesome!

I've since found a great pattern for longies that is made by knitting two identical pieces and sewing them up the middle. The only copy I have though I hand wrote from the net somewhere and now I can't find the link! Oops! One should always bookmark anything of interest!

I've been feeling like I've been neglecting Archie a bit lately, he has so few new clothes (Elliot just got an entire wardrobe full of the next size up) and I've not knitted anything just for him. I recently found this pair of longies I made for Elliot but he never wore them because they were too small, so he's been wearing them. But it's not the same, poor wee man.

He's such a happy little man, he obviously loves his hand-me-down longies!

So I'm putting aside my previously posted about shrug for myself and I'm going to concentrate on making him a few pairs of longies to wear over winter, and maybe some matching hats/beanies too!



The Australian Nappy Network has heaps of info on cloth nappies. Can you tell I love cloth nappies?