Wednesday, August 31, 2011

How to Wash Wool Diaper Covers (and socks!)

How to Wash Wool Diaper Covers (and socks!)

  • Gather all wool to be washed. 
  • Fill sink with warm water. 
  • Add a capful (or 1/2 teaspoon) of Naturally Luxe wool wash.
  • Place wool in water and squeeze gently to allow water to flow through the garment.
  • Let sit in wool bath for approximately 5-10 minutes. No longer. Sitting in dirty water is not going to get your garment cleaner. 
  • Add a cup of white vinegar to wool bath if you notice the water color changing (usually red...)
  • No rinse needed. 
  • Gently squeeze water out, do not wring or twist. 
  • Lay flat to dry (or hang over your shower curtain rod if you lack space to dry flat). 


I've read that washing wool, or being afraid to wash wool is one of the many reasons other cloth diapering parents shy away from using wool.To prove my point that wool is easy to care for...if not easier then "regular" clothes...here's how a wool wash goes at our house.

I gather all wool to be washed and fill my kichen sink with warm water. Water temp does not matter as much as you'd think. Agitation is what you should make sure to be aware of.

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For wool wash I prefer organic wool wash from Naturally Luxe. Today I used a scented wool wash but we usually use unscented. Everything I sell is washed in unscented wool wash unless otherwise noted in the listing.

I have several pieces of wool to wash at one time, but I wash them in small batches according to color. I usually know what wools are going to bleed by looking at them but to be sure red longies only bleed on other red longies and not onto our Wild Child Woolie soakers I wash them sparately.

I had socks my mother knit for Ben and Garrett to wash and since they were new/unused/not-actually-dirty, they got washed first.
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Next in the wool bath was our pale colored Wild Child Woolie soakers. Interlock wool gets dingy looking and I've found that rubbing the dingy parts together lightly gets them a bit cleaner looking. These are really easy to wash as a little agitation isn't going to do anything to this nice thick interlock. A trip through the washer and then dryer...shrinks them a full size, just ask my husband.
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Next up are our "without red" knit pieces. I squeeze them all gently to get water to flow through the fibers. Avoid rubbing the items against each other. 100% wool rubbing against 100% wool causes felting. Agitation is what make the fibers open up and "stick" to each other. Which causes the garment to loose stretch and thicken, which in turn causes shrinkage (otherwise known as felting).
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And lastly, the red batch. One pair of these has been known to bleed so I had my white vinegar on standby incase the water turned red...but it didn't. Adding a cup to the wash bath sets whatever wool is bleeding (at least until the next wash). We've been using AIO's and disposables so these woolies haven't seen too much pee. My educated guess is that is why they didn't bleed.
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A clean pie of wool. In less time then it takes to just wash a load of clothes. :)
Our woolies for the week are done. Just in need of some drying time.
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In a perfect world I'd have enough cooling racks to lay them on...but I don't. So the socks got the cookie treatment and the woolies were hung over the shower curtain rods to dry.
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Autumn Owl Booties

Finished these sweet booties today.
Ravelry Project Page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/melissalaurel/eviepants-all-in-one-booties-4

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

On The Needles 8/30/11

A second Autumn Owl bootie to match this one
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Ben's sweater vest, needs ribbing around the arms and a re-do of the neck ribbing
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Exploring the Woods

The property behind ours is a wooded acreage filled with gorgeous trees, a stone wall, and lots of wildlife.

We took an impromptu walk through the woods this afternoon taking in all the beautiful scenery the woods had to offer.

Desclaimer: I am not a professional photographer. Nor do I ever want to be a professional photographer...BUT I do like to pretend to be one.
I'll apologize now for the tacky'ness of my photos but I love trees and light and love seeing if I can capture what my eyes see with my camera.

Toadstool
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Birch Tree
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Room to Play
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Wild Blackberries
+7\222

Rock
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Stone Wall
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August Sun
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Welcoming Path
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Admiration
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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Maggie's Rainbow Cake

I'm staying up late soaking all the electricity I can so I don't feel deprived when Irene takes it away from me tomorrow...and stumbled across this blog post thanks to facebook (how else does anyone find out anything without facebook!!).
http://beneaththerowantree.blogspot.com/2011/08/cake-saga-in-eight-layers.html

Ack! I feel so bad for her...all that work...such a mess. :-(

I realized I never blogged about the rainbow cake I made for my Niece Maggie's 1st Birthday Party. I didn't have a camera at the time so I had to use my stupid phone (no smart phones here) to limp along and the other photos are courtesy of my dad.

I will start by saying I'm very thankful to have a bit of cake decorating experience (I worked in a local grocery store bakery forever ago...nothing fancy) under my belt.

I used two boxes of white cake, made two batches of real buttercream frosting and a third batch of shortening/sugar frosting for the pink decor. I split the two batters into 6 bowls and added Wilton's food gel colors to each. Just a bit, a little gel goes a looong ways. I had no idea where my cake pans were (we moved earlier this year...I'm still lost) so I bought a 2pk at walmart. I should have bought more. That would have really sped up the process.

Progress photos (stupid phone pics)
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All decorated, this cake was HUGE. Way too big for a 1yo...
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I used the left over batter to make funky cupcakes.
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And now I want to bake another one so I can take pics of it.
I wonder how it would look with chocolate frosting...

Friday, August 26, 2011

Billy

He wasn't in the mood to have his picture taken so he put up an old pic of himself on his DSi and held it up.
His sense of humor...it makes my heart happy.
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More Mary Jane booties!

I've finished a second, and started a third pair.

This pair was listed on Etsy today.
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http://www.etsy.com/listing/80537150/natural-beauty-newborn-mary-jane-booties

Here is a good comparison shot between the newborn and 6-12 month size.
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6-12 month size for Maggie
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Thursday, August 25, 2011

FYI: Don't photograph booties on windy days.

Or you'll end up with a photo of one bottie, and not two.
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After catching the second bootie you'll never be able to get them both to stand up before one tries to take off again.
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So you lay them down and now the colors are too dark but at least both booties are in the shot. :)
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Monday, August 22, 2011

Garrett

My sweet, always-has-a-dirty-face, Garrett.
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Do you see it?? (Milestone for Declan)

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Yes. Declan has graduated from highchair to real chair. He has been able to climb into it when the tray is off so we had been just keeping the tray on. Until the other day I was standing at the stove cooking dinner and asked him if he was hungry. Big mistake. He ran over and climbed into the highchair on his own. Holy heart attack batman. I couldn't scream at him to sit and I couldn't RUN to him as I knew it would have startled him...surely sending him falling to the floor. I secured him in with the seatbelt (which he can undo...) and sighed. My baby is too big for his highchair. He ate breakfast with his big brothers the next morning at the kitchen table.

I told the boys to look at me and "Give me cheese!"...Garrett gave me cream cheese. lol
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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Laurel Love "Lime Semi-solid" & Wildflower Whimsy "Wise" Soaker

Aran BFL = My absolute favorite base to knit and use for diapering woolies.
Soft and sturdy with a sheen that melts my yearn loving heart.
This soaker will also be available for purchase Sept 2nd at www.bittyfluff.com
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/melissalaurel/snapdragon-soaker-56

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Yarnoodles "Earth Candy Rainbow" Longies

I love this colorway SO much. It's my first time knitting with yarn from Yarnoodles and it was fun to branch out from my usual. I already have a pair of booties planned but may have enough yarn to do a hat.
These will be available for purchase Sept 2nd at www.bittyfluff.com
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/melissalaurel/earth-candy-rainbow-longies
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Friday, August 19, 2011

Mosaic Moon "Dragon's Lair" Soaker

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/melissalaurel/snapdragon-soaker-55

I've had this skein of cestari for a while. I was going to stretch it into longies for Declan but I've since found two skeins on BFL so I knit this up for Laurel Love.

I knit it on US5/US7's so it's a nice dense soaker.
Would be a perfect overnight woolie option.

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