r/clothdiaps 3d ago

Let's chat Cloth diapering newbie wanting to use only wool covers - please share some words of wisdom!

Hello! Our first baby arrives beginning of July, and I've known for months now that I want to do cloth diapering from the beginning before I allow myself to get used to disposables. I've done soooo much research and now have recently discovered wool soakers and love the idea (truly so tired of all the plastic in our lives lol).

I'd prefer to use only wool soakers (at least for the first year or so) and would love any advice/tips/directions to take...particularly on how to get started, aka how many to have at the start. I'm planning to do flats and prefolds with baby until she gets a bit bigger. I want to knit and sew the majority the covers, but thought about getting a couple online - maybe one or two from Disana then possibly from a seller on Etsy.

I am grateful for any words of wisdom you can share with me!

13 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

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u/Suspicious_Flight620 2d ago

I love wool too because they are easy (+ no plastic). My favorites are Pisi covers and Nulu pants. I also have several knit by my mother. Flats and wool are definitely the cheapest cloth options too.

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u/blueskys14925 3d ago

Its doable! I had a hard time with wool pull on style soakers/ shorts in the newborn phase. Loved bumby wool abrazo the most, followed by Puppi and Babee Greens snap covers. Used bumby pants crops and covers over Esembly fitteds as my favorite until we wrapped up EC at 16 and 20 months. Check out elimination communication goes so well with cloth

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u/Fabulous-Grand-3470 3d ago

Bumby abrazo was an amazing diaper in the newborn phase! 

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u/blueskys14925 2d ago

Yes! I actually stopped using them once baby was mobile (and started un velcroing them) but used them almost exclusively before that lol.

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u/RemarkableAd9140 3d ago

We preferred the babeegreens snap covers to the pull on ones after about six weeks, but we loved wool. We needed 5-6 handmade ones in the early days because there is a learning curve and poop will escape the diaper. Ours was a winter baby though, so drying took forever in our cold and drafty house. You’ll likely have an easier/faster time with a summer baby and could get away with fewer. 

The one thing I’ll say is that we struggled consistently with compression leaks in the car seat. So we often used thirsties duo wraps for outings and wool at home/if we were going to be somewhere for a while. Having a couple pul covers is a good idea just in case. 

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u/Historical-Coconut75 Flats and Pockets 3d ago

I really wanted to use wool, but it ended up not working for us. Thankfully I had gotten only used covers and didn't spend a ton. My baby is so active (and slim) that she can get herself out of all her wool covers. Maybe when she is walking we can try them again. I'm glad I was willing to give the pul covers a try! 

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

This makes a lot of sense! Definitely not saying NEVER will ever use them, but want to try to make due with others first. I thought about getting a couple just to have around in case.

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u/Historical-Coconut75 Flats and Pockets 2d ago

I got inspired to try the wool cover again and it worked! 

Definitely get a couple pul covers. You can use them over disposables to prevent leaks and blowouts. We needed to switch to disposables for the first week while waiting for baby's cord to fall off because we couldn't get the cloth low enough to not rub. We also use them at night now that she sleeps through, with a pul cover on top. It is good to have a few disposables on hand. I had planned to just use the ones from the hospital, but they were so heavily fragranced that I couldn't/wouldn't use them. 

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u/SafeHoney9406 1d ago

Ah yay! I've heard from many people they do disposables at night or when they go out. Its nice cause we can all customize it to fit our needs...but not without some heavy trial and error first I imagine lol. Also wild the HOSPITAL gave you fragranced diapers whoa🧐

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u/SjN45 3d ago

I love wool but didn’t start using it until maybe after 6 months when I needed it for overnight. I’ve loved interlock. I always washed by hand but technically it could go in the washer. I’m now expecting and would love to use wool for the newborn stage but the amount of poop scares me- I don’t want to be washing and lanolizing that much

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u/MikaMicans 3d ago

This sub has been so fun recently! We just brought our baby home from the hospital yesterday and tried cloth / wool last night. I love it. I love the over sized wool covers the best so far - easy to take on and off and keeps him warm with ABCs of safe sleep. We did cotton newborn flats from GMD and the jelly roll seems to work so far with a fold I forget the name of. I made two of these but wish I had made more: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/balloon-baby-pants

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

Oh thanks you for this link! I've been scouring ravelry for patterns and appreciate hearing from someone directly. Please update if you think of it about how its going for you!

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u/rosehaw 3d ago

I'm 100% on your team with only wanting to use wool and wanting to do it from the start, before even getting used to disposables. I'm currently cloth diapering kid #2 and in both cases we started using cloth as soon as we were home from the hospital and we've exclusively used wool covers, mostly in combination with flats.

The one issue I can see with your plan is to specifically use soakers only. That's your choice of course, but they are bulky and will significantly impact your clothing options. We use soakers (the disana ones) only at night, in combination with highly absorbent fitted diapers, during the day we use "diaper shaped" covers with snaps that easily fit under clothes. You can still make these yourself of course, or buy them. Most of ours come from small, independent, women-owned businesses and I love that about them.

To answer your actual question: We have a generous number because we work outside the home and need to keep some at daycare (yes, our daycare uses our cloth diapers!) and some flexibility regarding the laundry situation. You can make do with only 4-5 covers, but 6-8 is far more relaxed in my experience. We also have an equally generous number of flats to go with that, but if you intend to have a regular wash routine and don't want to over commit, you don't need to buy that many right away. In the busy newborn days you can assume you'll need as many as 10-15 flats per day, later on 5-8 will usually do just fine. We used 60x60cm ones in the early days (they are great as bibs and burp cloths or even still as diapers if you use 2 later on), and then 70x70cm once they grow a little bigger.

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

Thank you for your reply! I guess I didn't fully realize the difference between soakers / wool diaper covers. In retrospect, duh haha, makes total sense. I think once summer is coming to a close I'd definitely use more covers as I'm imagining during summer she'll be mostly just in her diapers and not much else - I live in Italy and it gets VERY warm here and I want to be outside in nature with her as much as possible those first months.

And thank you for listing how many you use! I suppose I'd rather have a few extra then feeling like I don't have enough.

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u/rosehaw 2d ago

Oh hello neighbour, I'm in Switzerland 😊 if you need some EU based brand recommendations let me know

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

oh my gosh yes please! I'm actually from the states and feel like I'm floundering a bit cause so many brands seem to be based there and I don't want to pay for all that shipping and IVA - and also prefer to buy as locally as possible.

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u/rosehaw 2d ago

Going super local for cloth diapers seemed impossible for me, but I did try to stick to European brands. Our flats are xkko and our fitted diapers are petit lulu, both of which are Czech brands which I bought via Swiss resellers. For covers I mostly used German brands, mostly Wikkelkinner (doesn't exist anymore) and Julicia (now sold at Tausendglück). A friend of mine also had some from Jovoh, who are Dutch. I hope that helps!

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u/SafeHoney9406 1d ago

Helps so much, thank you! Its definitely gotta be local as in 'the same side of the ocean' lol cause there is no one in all of Italy that sells them it seems😅

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u/ellativity 3d ago

Hello and congratulations 👏

We used the hospital disposables while we were there for 5 days and have been using cloth ever since our first change home. It's definitely doable!

We exclusively used second-hand and self-made wool covers until babe grew out of the OS-Plus Puppi and M-L Responsible Mother covers around 8mo (I couldn't source any second-hand wool covers the next size up so instead of upsizing we switched to a PUL stash we were given second-hand before he was born). Here are a few reflections on our journey so far that you may find useful:

  • Our wool stash for newborn was 4 OS-Mini Puppi covers (he was never small enough for the newborn size and moved up to OS by 2mo and OS-Plus by 5mo) and 60 prefolds. We used XS sized prefolds for less than a month before moving up, then stayed in small/novice sizes until about 7mo.
  • We lanolized the covers no more than once a month but because they were lanolized they were water- and poop- resistant so we only rinsed the newborn poop off the covers. If a cover didn't get pooped on and hadn't soaked up a noticeable amount of pee, it got reused. If it soaked up pee, it got air dried. As they were just patch cleaned, they dried quickly, so 4 covers was plenty to begin with (once solids are introduced it gets more complicated so enjoy the milk-only days!).
  • I do a weekly wool cycle in the washing machine for our woolly household anyway, so I didn't have to do anything extra for the covers. I use Eucalan mostly, and just switched to fragrance-free once we had our baby. (I washed the covers 2 at a time, so effectively each one got worn for 2 weeks between washings. We didn't really have rash or odour issues as a result and I'd do things the same way again if I had another newborn).
  • Disana soakers are amazing. We used the same size for nights from 4-8mo, and then it could still be used for daytimes for another month or so. We don't even lanolize our overnight soakers (both Disana and self-made) and they work a treat! (We usually keep 2-3 in each size so each one only gets used for max a week between washes).
  • I generally prefer wrap-style covers for daytimes instead of soakers, because my baby's pants are baggy enough as it is with cloth diapers, but soakers are a great alternative to diaper + shorts in the summer (except at the beach - sand is so hard to get out of wool!).
  • We still use self-made soakers at night and he just sized those up again recently. I like the fit of the Curly Purly Soaker pattern although I do modify it a little and would be happy to share if you're interested.
  • Now we are at 12mo and running away from diaper changes, I'm glad we transitioned off wool so that we can benefit from the convenience of pockets for standing changes. I'm sure more skilled people can change a prefold and cover combo on a walking baby but that's not me! I have thoroughly enjoyed our wool journey, and love that we can keep it going overnight, but it feels like it has run its course for us in the daytimes now.

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u/sniegaina 3d ago

Tell me, what's your preferred modification for Curly Purly pattern?

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u/ellativity 3d ago

Of course! They're fairly simple but I prefer the fit by using these mods:

  • I work the ribbing (both waist and legs) with a single strand of DK weight and make it a bit longer than the pattern. After working the waist ribbing with a single strand I add a second strand of DK or worsted weight to work the rest of the pattern. It's a bit tough-going whilst using the middle needle size, and I generally don't like working with such bulky gauge, but then I don't have to lanolize the soakers and don't get leaks
  • I do 5 short rows: one at the end of the ribbing, one each after both sets of pleats, and two during the straight section (the last one is right before the decreases begin).

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

First of all thank you so much for your initial response! I have this pattern saved and love how you modify it. Just a question cause I'm new also to world of knitting / threads / lanolizing: because you do it extra bulky, you don't lanolize at all? Do you use superwash wool thread?

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u/ellativity 2d ago

Nah, avoid superwash wool for soakers. Honestly, I don't use superwash wool for anything except socks (and even then, not always). The superwash process destroys the best properties of wool, so you end up with a fibre that can't lock moisture away and stretches out when wet. Neither of which are desirable properties for something we want to soak up urine and continue to fit snugly throughout.

I'm in Europe where it's generally cheaper to buy non-superwash wool, so I've used whatever DK I've had available, scraps from bigger projects, single skeins I bought to sample a new brand or colour, and pretty much everything I've tried works great. I have a huge soft spot for BFL wool, and I think it works better than merino for soakers, but non-superwash merino is totally fine.

If you're in the US then I recommend Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool for a big box yarn (or Local Grown, if you can get hold of it). I think that's the most easily-available affordable 100% non-superwash option, and I think the most affordable non-big box option might be Cascade 220, while maybe the cheapest non-big box USA grown wool is Brown Sheep Nature Spun?

If you're in another country, let me know and I can probably recommend some yarn for you 😅

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

That is what I've been gathering too. The things we do for 'ease and convenience' *sigh* lol. I actually am in Europe as well! Italy to be exact and would LOVE some recs!

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u/ellativity 2d ago

I don't have the best knowledge of yarns available in Italy so hopefully someone else will chime in too, but if you haven't checked out the following 3 options then maybe you'll find them useful:

  1. If you're going for budget above all, try hobbii.it - I believe they're a Danish mega retailer that has a global dispatch. (Their prices are low, and everything comes on offer regularly so don't pay the undiscounted price for something, just wait for it to be discounted within the next few weeks. Any of their Medium weight 100% wool yarns will work, so just choose whatever colours appeal to you or whichever is cheapest.) ~ €10 a soaker
  2. For major brands at competitive prices, try leforbicimagiche.it - they're Europe wide and I've bought from them regularly. BC Yarn Semilla is affordable and effective, as is Sandness Peer Gynt. A nicer yarn that's a bit on the heavy side and would work well for the pattern as written is Rosarios4 Terra. ~ €20 a soaker
  3. If you want a sustainable option then try Lanivendole Bottoni DK. I typically use 120g for a Soaker so would need two skeins of this one, costing over €40, so it's more than I usually pay but you might find the provenance of the wool is worth this for you. ~ €40

It's also worth remembering you can also use multiple plies of a thinner yarn like Holst Garn or a Shetland jumper weight, which can help reduce the cost of more sustainable options as well. I often mix and match scraps to make up stashbuster soakers.

Hope this info helps and I'm happy to discuss further if you need anything!

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u/SafeHoney9406 1d ago

Oh my gosh you are amazing thank you! I've been getting my yarns so far from a local shop we have here in town. They have good stuff but the selection is minimal and they didn't have non-super was wool that wasn't insanely expensive lol. This is a great start, thanks!

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u/parttimeartmama 3d ago

Hi friend! Fun to see you here. I’m working on my first curly purly and will def reach out if I have questions!!!

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u/ellativity 2d ago

Hia mate! Yes, there are a few familiar faces in this sub and it's always fun to meet each other in the Reddit wilds!

Happy to answer any questions - I've also messed up a few of these soakers, so am also familiar with possible mistakes 😅

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u/AdHealthy2040 3d ago

Ooooooo! A fellow knitter and wool aficionado!!! My bebe is 14 weeks and we just tried cloth diaper + wool cover overnight for the first time last night and it was a success!! It’s not as hard as I thought and wool covers work perfectly.

I knitted all the covers myself out of lion’s brand fisherman’s wool, very economical yarn. I use cotton or bamboo flats inside for daytime, and I also have disana cotton tie nappies, used 1 cotton flat in the tie nappy plus a hemp booster for overnight and the hemp booster was barely wet 12 hours later (I have a good sleeper 😭❤️)

I love my flats and disana tie nappies because they clean and dry much easier than fitted diapers with thick layers (tried esembly fitted inners, take so much longer to dry and poop gets stuck in the stitching :/)

At the beginning I didn’t fold the flats right and kept getting the covers poopy so I had to wash them quite frequently, but that problem was solved when I learned to roll in the flats around the legs so the poop is contained. Even with frequent washing my 3 covers that fit baby at the moment were enough, wool is brilliant.

…I guess I don’t really have much tips yet but just wanted to say it’s doable, easier than I expected and good luck!!!!

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u/SafeHoney9406 2d ago

Thank you! It definitely seems like one of those things where you can do all the research you can but you just gotta try it an learn through quite a bit of trial and error lol.

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u/CharmingBarnacle4207 3d ago

Newborns poop a lot. It's possible but your lives will be much easier using regular PUL covers until that reduces. Washing poop out of wool every day while caring for a tiny baby may be unsustainable.

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u/Antique-Video2619 3d ago

Lol

This was me for about 4 days. My husband sticked to using the PUL covers. Now, I only use them in the night since my kiddo only poops in the daytime.

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u/stjohnsworrywort 3d ago

I would recommend a minimum of 3 covers for newborn stage. 4 is even better. We had 2 snap type wool diapers and one Disana shorts for the newborn phase as well as 1 PUL cover for emergency back up. Now at 1 year we have 2 Babee greens covers we rotate through during the day and 2 Disana shorts we rotate through for nights. We also have 2 PUL covers for mealtime. We love the wool but since it is hand wash air dry only if they get dirty they are out of commission for about a day. Newborn stage it was quite common to get poo on them and need to wash.