Nappies

Looking back on my expectations while expecting I smile. I assumed I'd be using cloth nappies like my mother did. When other mothers learned of this they started giving me piles and piles of cloth nappies - all flat cloth squares of terry, muslin, flannelette, brushed cotton. Some worn, some in fair condition. We used them for the four weeks my husband had off work, then baby and I were in and out of hospitals with complicated mastitis for a month. Our main priority after that was to regain our sanity so cloth nappies fell by the wayside.

Recently I came across my local cloth nappy support group Oz cloth nappies. I was impressed by how clever their nappies were. All the difficulties I had encountered before were suddenly surmountable. Modern Nappies could be as fancy or as simple as you liked.

So preferring knitting to sewing I started making knitted pilchers (or covers or soakers, whatever you call them). I liked the idea of pocket nappies that you can stuff with regular cloth nappies and do them up as easily as your average disposables, but finding the materials and time to sew daunted me. My favourite patterns as I write this are: The curly purly soaker, The punk knitters knitted cover, Tiny Birds Wool Pants <- This site also has a soaker pattern knitted flat. But if you want more I recommend the Wool Soaker Group

I have tried washable wool, hand wash wool and acrylic. There is a difference. At the moment I'm favouring the hand wash only wool, especially for night time use. It soaks up water brilliantly and doesn't smell for quite a while. The acrylic dries quickly and the washable wool seems much lighter weight. The hand wash wool is felting up without any conscious effort on my part - I like the effect.

Pookey Pockets has pocket nappies and nappy covers made from cotton, hemp, polar fleece. I've used the polar fleece velcro covers with a terry flat folded into a pad as the easiest cloth nappy.

Must try to get some photos up on this page.