After I finished all of the baby UFOs last weekend, I cast on for my first hybrid rib soaker. We are planning to cloth diaper, so how could I
not knit some cute woolen diaper covers? I had originally planned to sew a bunch of woolen covers, but between not being able to find wool jersey fabric and not being very comfortable with the sewing machine yet, I have put that idea on hold. So instead, I purchased the
Hybrid Rib Soaker pattern from
Little Turtle Knits right after Christmas when they were having a pattern sale.
Pattern:
Hybrid Rib Soaker, by Little Turtle Knits in size newborn night weight.
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in color Emerald Blue. I only used 38 g of the skein (about 82 yards) so I should easily be able to make another. I ordered the yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool.
Needles: I used a size US 5 addi turbo 16" circulars for the ribbing, a US 7 inox express 16" circulars for the rest and a size G crochet hook.
Okay, I cast on for this project and finished it less than 24 hours later. It probably took me 6 hours to knit which included learning how to do short rows with wraps, brushing up on the kitchener stitch and learning how to do single crochet.
So what did I do next? I cast on another soaker of course! I decided that the 1x1 ribbing at the waist on the first soaker could have been a bit tighter, so I dropped down to a size 4 for that part. I also decided to save myself a couple of ends to weave in when dealing with the leg gussets. When it was time to single crochet around the leg openings, I started with the first stitch of the leg gusset. That way when I finished crocheting, I could simply do one more single crochet to join the circle and use that stitch as my first picked up stitch of the leg gusset. This worked perfectly.
This time I made a size small and newborn out of a single skein of Malabrigo. I still have 16 grams leftover too, so I might have been able to make a larger size. That is good to know...
Pattern:
Hybrid Rib Soaker, by Little Turtle Knits in size newborn & small night weight.
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in color Citrus. The newborn size used 34 g (about 74 yards) of the skein and the small used 42 g (about 91 yards) . I ordered the yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool.
Needles: I used a size US 4 addi turbo 16" circulars for the 1x1 ribbing at the waist, a US 5 addi turbo 16" circulars for the rest of the ribbing and the leg gussets, a US 7 inox express 16" circulars for the rest and a size G crochet hook.
Since I only ordered 2 skeins of Malabrigo from Jimmy Beans, I had to check out the
Yarn Barn to see what they had in stock. I bought two more color ways of Malabrigo and this super soft Berroco Jasper yarn. It is self-striping so I thought that would be fun for a change. I think the yarn is as soft as Malabrigo, but considering the yardage it is definitely more pricey. After knitting the size small citrus soaker, I figured I could eek a size small out of one skein of the Jasper. So I cast on again.
Pattern:
Hybrid Rib Soaker, by Little Turtle Knits in size small night weight.
Yarn: Berroco Jasper in Blue Bahia. I used 92 g (about 90 yards) of the skein . I bought the yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool.
Needles: I used a size US 4 addi turbo 16" circulars for the 1x1 ribbing at the waist, a US 5 addi turbo 16" circulars for the rest of the ribbing and the leg gussets, a US 7 inox express 16" circulars for the rest and a size G crochet hook.
So that's it. Five days, four soakers and still no baby. I am obviously addicted to knitting these guys. I think the genius of the pattern is that as soon as you might start to get bored with one part, it's time to switch it up. 1x1 ribbing getting you down? No worries, it's time to start stockinette in the round. I love to watch the way the variegated yarn falls in this section. Will it pool? Will it stripe? Or will it blend beautifully like the first soaker did? I think I could be happy knitting these for months.
My knitting bag has the rest of the emerald skein of Malabrigo and the two new skeins of Malabrigo as well as the pattern and all the needles I'll need ready to go to the hospital. I plan to continue to churn these out until the baby arrives or I get bored. I think the baby might come first though.
So there's more knitting to share!
I wanted to knit up a cabled hat, but wasn't quite sure how to handle the decreases. So I purchased a pattern and went on my way.
If I were to knit this pattern again, I wouldn't knit as much ribbing. It was almost soul crushing and the cables are the fun part, right? I'm not sure if it's just because I'm relatively new to cables or because the yarn wasn't very elastic, but the first purl stitch after each cable came out really loose. Unfortunately, I couldn't fix it when blocking.
