A little longie

Having spent so much of this pregnancy both feeling sick and also making myself feel guilty for not completing my last few doll orders and quilt blocks, I kept putting off making things for my new baby. Well, with most of that behind me, I've settled into making-for-baby mode quite nicely over the last month or so. (And too bad I procrastinated so much on the other projects, because this is so much more fun!)

One object that I finished up in the last couple of days were these super cute diaper pants (we call it a longie in our house). This was a fast knit (two days), and I am so happy with the results.

longie1

I'd been trying to decide for quite a while between the Tiny Birds Wool Soaker Pants pattern and the Picky Pants pattern by Little Turtle Knits. Both are so cute, but I finally decided to go with the Picky Pants when I saw Amanda's cute red ones. It was the seed stitch cuff that sold me, I think.

longie3

Anyway, these were so easy and I love the result. (I think the photoshoot would have been more inspired had there been an actual baby to put into them!) The pattern has a ton of different ways to customize it -- for adding extra rise, different shaping depending on the diaper you use, different lengths, and lots and lots of finishing ideas.

Details:

These are the size Small, for 8-12 lbs (there is a newborn size for up to 8 lbs, too, but none of my babies has ever been under 8 lbs at birth). I knitted them on size 7 bamboo needles using Malabrigo Worsted in Forest. This was the yarn I originally wanted to use, but it's so soft and fuzzy that I was hesitant because of pilling. But after ordering, and subsequently returning, three other yarns for this project and not feeling that any of them would be soft enough on newborn skin, I just decided to go with my original instinct, and I'm so happy I did.

Now all we need is a baby to put in them!

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Thanks to those of you who offered to send sweaters after my last post. That very day, I had a friend drop off a whole pile of them, and I think I have an idea about how to go about this experiment. If I still need more sweaters -- and hopefully I won't! -- I will contact those of you that offered. A couple of people emailed me about this project, and I have to say that I have no idea what I'm doing or if this will even work. It is definitely an experiment that involves irreparably cutting up cashmere sweaters, so it's not something I would try on a sweater that you weren't sure you would be OK tossing at the end of the experiment! If I do come up with something that works, I will be sure to share it here!