Wednesday, July 07, 2010

How to lanolize wool soakers

Crocheting for babies has always been a great love of mine. Now I am crocheting lanolized wool soakers. These are diaper covers that help keep the baby dry by wicking the moisture away from the cloth diaper. You can use these with disposable also. The wool has a natural antibacterial property that neutralizes the urine. Cannot do too much for good ole poo though. :o) There are several styles to use: diaper covers (without legs), shorties (with just a bit of a leg), longies (full leg coverage) and sleep sacks. The sleep sack is perfect for newborn and small babies that do not move a lot. Makes for an easy sleeepytime diaper change with the open end. 
Here are pics of a couple of my wool soakers listed on Etsy.
I sell my soakers, lanolized and ready to wear. This is what keeps them waterproof. Here is simple tutorial on how I do mine.
 I use liquid lanolin, a small jar and a teaspoon. This is my soaker sleep sack. I mix 1/2 teaspoon of the liquid lanolin to hot water in the jar. (The hot water helps melt the lanolin. This is the only time you will use anything hot). This is per soaker. If I was doing 2 soakers, I would add 1 teaspoon. Then shake like crazy. Then shake some more. You want the lanolin to evenly disperse and be a creamy milk color.
Fill the sink with tepid water. Not cold, but definitely not warm. You do not want your soaker to felt or full in water that is too warm. Add your jar of mixed lanolin. Use your hand to mix it throughout the water evenly. 
Place your soaker into the water. Gently push the soaker under water until it stay. Let soak 5 minutes and turn over. Let soak another 5 minutes. Turn the soaker inside out and let soak 5-10 more minutes.
Gently fold the soaker into fourths and squeeze the excess water out. Place the soaker onto a dry large bath towel. Roll the towel and gently squeeze.
Remove the soaker from the towel and place somewhere safe to drip dry. You do NOT machine dry your wool soakers. It will compress the fibers and shrink them up. Drying time depends on many factors: weight and twist of yarn and humidity are the top ones that come to mind. Right now with the hot and humid Indiana weather we are having, I am thinking it might take 3 days. Eeek!
I hope this helps those who had questions about relanolizing their soakers. We need more babies in our family! I am so ready to be a grammy!!!! :o)

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