Do they have to be made from worsted weight wool? That seems awfully hot for summer. And not very soft.
My mom made them for my son (32 years ago) but they were pretty heavy.
Your thoughts knitters? Thanks.
Diaper Covers
I have not made any diaper covers, but I agree that a wool cover seems warm for summer. I’d just let the baby wear the diaper without a cover.
A quality merino can be very soft. Malabrigo is very soft, but is a single ply and pills quickly and is not machine washable. Some of the superwash merinos are also very soft and seem much more practical for something that is going to need to be washed often.
candice
I’m working on one right now that is a sport-weight wool. So long as you get your gauge or can fudge it… since I’m using a thinner wool, I went to the largest size of the pattern (XL) and it’s winding up to be about a Med. Since I don’t care about size just now, that’s fine. Just be aware that a lighter weight wool soaker is only good for daytime use. The lighter the wool, the less absorbency there is.
Wool does breathe though, so little bottoms don’t overheat like they do in synthetics.
And don’t use superwash, or you loose the entire point of using wool.
Why no superwash? It still absorbs. Just curious.
candice
I haven’t knit any soakers but I made some out of wool sweaters from the thrift shop (my pre-knitting days) and DS wore them all summer. Wool is very breathable. And I treat the soakers with lanolin to help kept the moisture from soaking through to pants, sheets, laps, etc… I do this by melting Lansinoh in hot water and soaking the soaker in it for 15 minutes or so. This softens the wool a lot! If/When I have another baby, I’ll be knitting the soakers. Hope this helps!
Nothing “has” to be done with a certain type of yarn. Remember what you knit with should always be your prefrence. I think cottons would be great for soakers because its cotton, less irritable for baby and absorbs well.:cheering: You can hand wash cotton and lay flat to dry. Girl go outside the box and do what go’s with your gut :woot:
Mary;)
Soakers aren’t meant to “soak” up the urine but cover the cloth diaper to prevent leakage, hence wool which has lanolin in it and makes it repel fluid.
Cotton would cause a lot of wicking and leaking. Plus wool is antibacterial so it doesn’t need to be washed often unless solids get on the soaker. If it is just wet from urine, hang it to dry and it will be good to go the next time around. Wool is the perfect soaker fabric. Supposedly even the Bedouin’s (desert nomads) clothes are made from wool.
Honestly I think cloth diaper itself would seem kinda hot for summer - except that often all my babies wear is a dipe and t-shirt. If the soaker is only covering the diaper, and not longies over the legs, I really don’t think the child will be bothered, and I would think that wool, which “breaths” will at least be cooler than a PUL or nylon or other cover that doesn’t breath as well.
Btw, I’ve cloth diapered all 3 of mine, and no over-heating in the summer yet 
I made some out of regular acrylic yarn and they seem to work just fine. I do want to try some in cotton and see how those work out.
Just go for it.
There is a cute pattern on punk rock knitters.
:cheering:Yeah to all you Moms for using cloth diapers. I actually enjoyed washing and hanging out cloth diapers when my boys were babies (20 years ago now) and I’m so glad to hear some people still use cloth diapers—its seems overwhelming how many people use disposables.
The problem with using superwash is that the chemical process that makes it washable also removes the anti-bacterial properties and removes all of the lanolin. At that point you might as well use cotton.
As for acrylic, it can work to prevent leakage, but it doesn’t breathe like wool does. You might as well put that bottom in plastic pants. Especially during the summer, you’re trapping heat against that sensitive skin.