Homemade Friday: Wool soakers. Cause I’ve lost my mind.*

(I justthisverysecond realized that it is Thursday, not Friday.  I've been working on this post since 9:30 this morning.  I ... don't know what this says about me.)

The writing has been a bit sparse around here and I’m almost positive that the 10 people who read this regularly are disappointed.

(Not really.)

I just haven’t felt like doing anything.  As I said before everything is just a little blah.  Still. 

My day started this morning at 5 a.m., which was entirely too early, and it’s been going as full force as I can make it go with my energy level. 

But I’ve still been knitting, somewhat. 

Remember that post I wrote about hippie-cloth diapers and wool soakers?  I started knitting pretty soon after it, when I finished dying some plain wool yarn with teal koolaid (yep – story for another Friday.)  I’ve got one soaker completely knitted with that and another one almost done with some stash yarn. 

You know what happens when you try to take a picture
of a super-busy 1 year old who REFUSES TO BE
STILL EVEN FOR DIAPER CHANGES?

I used the Curly Purly pattern, which was sort-of simple to follow, in spite of the aggressive ‘warning’ from the author to read the whole damn thing before asking her any questions.  The tone was a little off-putting and would have made me look for another pattern except I couldn’t find a better free one.  Which may be why so many people continue to use it.

This is what happens.

The good thing is that it doesn’t require much yarn so I have just been able to use what I’ve got and not buy any more.  That doesn’t stop me from dreaming about walking down to our local yarn store and picking some more up in lots of different colors.  I think a rainbow one is in order soon!  Maybe polka-dots?  I’ve never knitted anything polka-dotty but I’m sure I can figure it out.  (How in the world is ‘polka-dotty’ recognized as a word?  That one surprises me.  I thought I made it up.)

Also this.

The prefold diapers are on their way so I’m almost set.  (Edit - they arrived and they're the wrong damn thing!  UNBLEACHED!  I DID NOT ORDER BLEACHED DIAPERS!)  I do want to felt the soakers slightly, which I’ll have to do by hand since I don’t know if my fancy washing machine can handle it.  I think it will just entail agitating them in hot water until they tighten up.  We’ll see.  I’ll also have to lanolize them a bit, which will help with the waterproofing.  I haven’t exactly figured out how to do that either, but I think it’s pretty simple.  I just have to buy some lanolin.

Daddy stepped in to help.  Thank goodness. 
Please ignore the strings hanging down. 
I haven't woven in the ends yet.  Classy.

I’ll need a few more and I’d also like to make some longies (basically a wool soaker with legs) for winter but I think I’ve got enough to hold me over until I can get everything together.

*I’d also like to mention that it’s my late grandmother’s birthday.  Clara Martha Hamilton Rattazzi – Granny – would have been 89.  I think a lot of her grandchildren got their creative bug from her.  She sewed much of her kids’ clothes and a baby quilt for me that I have used for each of my children.  She set me down when I was little to quilt by hand.  I still have the couple of squares somewhere that I had the patience to finish.  Her button jar was a thing of beauty and would occupy me for hours.  Her green thumb was a thing of legend and something I wish I had. 

She’s still missed every day. 

I think I got my eyebrows from her ...