Wool soaker/longie alternative?

[marcusandila]

The story:
-I'm planning to Cloth diaper my baby & LOVED LOVED LOVED the idea of crocheting my baby some diaper wraps, soakers, and longies.

The Problem:
-I'm allergic to wool!

The Question:
-Is there an alternative that will still be absorbant?? I know that nothing will be nearly AS absorbant, but I'd still like to crochet some for him. I love the look of crochet/knit for my baby's hiney. lol Plus, I'm a basic sewer and sewing a diaper [with velcro! or snaps! yikes...] is intimidating to me to say the least.

Any ideas? Suggestions? I'm all ears eyes.
 

P.S. If this is in the wrong thread, just let me know & i will move it. Sorry.

[marcusandila]

bump...

[Alexus1325]

Have you checked out alpaca wool? It has all the same properties of wool, but comes from alpacas, obviously You could use cotton yarn, but I don't think it would be quite as absorbent.

Also, is it possible that you're allergic specifically to merino wool? I've read that some people can handle things like corriedale wool, but any scraps of merino in there will make them red and itchy. I also read somewhere that alot of people are allergic to lanolin (I think it was on the fibre arts board), so stripping out the lanolin from any wool products you may need to use could help.

Another alternative is to get old sweaters from the thrift store in cotton (or wool, if you touch it and nothing happens cuz it's been washed so many times), and sew up some covers out of the sweaters. You could even make them two-layered with an old t-shirt on the inside and the sweater on the outside, the t-shirt being a first line of defense.

Best of luck and congrats

[marcusandila]

Thanks. I'm not sure what kind of wool im allergic too. I just know that everytime i touch a "wool" anything i break out in red itchy blotches and hives. not cool. i thought about just sucking it up and crocheting them up anyways & then attaching an outter & inner layer of something else. you know, sandwiching the wool in between two fabrics. idk if that would affect an allergic reaction on a daily basis tho.

thanks for your suggestions hun! I really appreciate it. i'm going to have to do some "testing" on the various wools i guess. i didnt even know there was diff. kinds of wool.

[leighi123]

Acrylic works, maybe not quite as well but it does. 

Fleece is also good. 

[chayla]

Cashmere works too.  I have made soakers and longies from old cashmere sweaters.  Also fleece like someone else mentioned 

[lil_abi]

Hemp is supposed to be super absorbent.  See if you can track down some hemp yarn or fabric. 

[kjlutz]

Not sure if this is style helpful, but as far as I know acrylic will make diaper covers that are waterproof (but will need to be washed way more frequently than wool). 

I'm not sure if you can lanolize anything else to make it waterprrof and absorbant, but there might be information elsewhere on the web about that.

[carmenmarie]

I had a few polar fleece overnaps that I use at night to stop leaks and they work well.  They were like bid bloomers with elastic waist and legs, if its any help to you.