for a very small bottom

Posted on March 25th, 2012 by mountain girl  |  5 Comments »

And it’s not my bottom. Not that mine is that small, these days.

These are some little woolen diaper covers I made for the baby, just to try them and see how they work. You pull them over cloth diapers in place of rubber pants. I know it seems funny that wool would be waterproof, but it actually is: you just dip it in water with lanolin after each washing, and the lanolin coats it, making it waterproof.

One of the advantages of wool to rubber pants is that wool is breathable, and much better for little bottoms. Although it seems like they would be hot and itchy, wool covers are supposed to be quite comfy and temperate for babies, summer and winter.

These covers are called “shorties” (the pattern I used is here) and they can be worn without pants in summertime, or with pants over them in colder weather. The teal color is newborn size, the brown is medium, and the other three are small. I’ll have to experiment with them, but I might turn down the waist for a snugger fit.

I also played with another pattern (from here).  This is the newborn size:

and I made a striped version in the same pattern, only these are “longies” for winter:

The longies double as pants, of course, and they are a size small, since the baby won’t be a newborn once cold weather hits.

The backs are the same except for roomier bottoms.

I used Paton’s Classic Wool and size 6 needles for all of them. The covers in the top photo also required needles sizes 2 and 4 for the ribbing. They are all worked in the round, so I used 5 double-pointed needles at a time.

I’ve been knitting these for the past couple of months, and I think I have a good start on the amount I’ll need. Whew! I’m ready to take a break and make something besides diaper covers!

5 Responses to “for a very small bottom”

  1. jodi says on :

    How adorable! It’s hard to remember that babies start off so itty-bitty. And I’m totally impressed – they look awesome Mia!

  2. mountain girl says on :

    Thanks Jodi!

  3. NgoFamilyFarm says on :

    LOVE all your baby knitting! Beautiful work 🙂
    -Jaime

  4. Allison says on :

    Incredible. I love seeing your craftiness. These are awesome.

  5. Colleen says on :

    WOW! That’s a lot of work!
    Great Job!