Baby stuff

At the end of September I am going to become a grandmother. Of course I am looking forward to this and as I frequently have bouts of they-don't-need-me-anymore, this has given me a way to be helpful, which I love.

DD has decided on cloth diapers and as I blog I am neglecting the 34 newborn pre-folds that I cut out last night and am sewing today. For those of you who remember diapers and rectangles that you folded and pinned, something I did for my two boys who became covered in rashes if I used disposables, a pre-fold is a diaper that is made of two rectangles with the centre third padded up with 5-6 layers that are stitched in. I am showing a photo here of a purchased pre-fold we have as a sample. As the top and bottom are serged it is pretty easy and I think I have worked out a fast way to put these together that I will photograph and post.

What goes over the pre-folds is something called a diaper cover, which you can buy at great expense ( I swear some of these eco-babies are going around with $45 of gear on their little bums) but I will make, or, as requested knit.

The turquoise pair posted here are knit from a 1942 pattern of my mother's and the red pair are a newborn pattern I am trying to design myself as a variation. The 1942 pair required seams to be sewn up and as a knitter (and a lousy one) I hate sewing up my knitting. I find the stitches always look messy compared to what I can do with a needle and thread so the red pair were knitted on a small circular needle to the crotch and then divided and one set of stitches put on a stitch holder, and the long crotch piece ribbed. I then cast off the crotch piece with the stitches on a holder together. So seamless and no sewing. Pretty fast too.

I am going to make some refinements and post the instructions if anyone is interested.

Now I had better stop blogging and start sewing and knitting.