Wool Soaker
I took a hiatus from the Raspberry Knit Baby Blanket and started designing a wool soaker. For those of you who don’t know, a wool soaker is a diaper cover made of wool. Wool is naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, which means it can get wet with urine and once dry it won’t smell or “grow” anything. It also absorbs 30% of its weight in liquid without feeling wet. This makes wool a wonderful and natural option for diaper covers.
My original intention for Joven’s product line was not to get into soaker making because there’s a lot of competition and I’m focusing my services on accommodating ECing families who wouldn’t really have much use for a soaker. However, I made a pair for the new baby because I do use diapers with covers when we’re out of the house. (It’s hard for me to stay “in tune” with the baby’s elimination needs when we go out because the older kids are always running around like maniacs so busy.) Making the pair gave me some ideas for a pattern of my own and now I’m experimenting with them.
The design that I’ve been working on so far is crocheted in the round until you divide the front and back for the leg holes. The ribbing and the cuffs are k2, p2 ribbing. When I was designing it, I thought I was being so original having a crocheted soaker with knit ribbing and soon found that about 3 other soaker knitters were doing the same thing.
The color scheme was inspired by the Raspberry knit baby blanket. The yarn is Patons Classic Merino Wool in Rich Red (I’m loving this color as much as Raspberry), Sage, Maize and Dusky Blue. The soaker looks great except for one thing, when you change colors there seems to be a stair step effect which seems inherent with crocheting in the round.
Someone gave me an idea to try to avoid this. If this new idea works, I’ll just focus on standardizing sizes. If it doesn’t, I’m going to try a soaker crocheted flat. I just can’t accept this kind of imperfection on something I’m going to sell.
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