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Photo by Doodlebug Photography, Pants made with Treliske organic wool yarn
Photo above by Danielle Dykhuis of Doodles Jewels (beautiful stitch markers for knitting!)
Tiny Birds Wool Soaker Pants Patterns and Yarn/Pattern Kits
Free wool leggings/longies pattern below for size medium (18-25lbs, 29-34”tall, inseam 8.5-9”)
(24 stitches per 4 inches, and 32 rows per 4 inches, suggested needle size 3 - 5):
Each side of the pants will be knit separately and then joined together by seaming up the inside of the legs and then the middle of the front and back.
Cast on 48 stitches with two tail method (note if this cast-on is new to you, please watch the free video at http://www.fiberartshop.com/knclbg.htm)
Row 1 (waist ribbing):  *K2, P1* repeat from * to * (last stitch of row will be purl).
Row 2 (waist ribbing):  *K1, P2* repeat from * to * (last two stitches of row will be purl).
Rows 3 through 8 (waist ribbing): alternate rows 1 and 2 above
Row 9 knit across
Row 10 purl across
Row 11 knit across, then add one stitch at the end of the row (increase one stitch total this row).
Row 12 purl across
Row 13 knit across
Row 14 purl across, then add one stitch at the end of the row (increase one stitch total this row).
Repeat rows 9 through 14 until you have 61 total stitches on your needle.
Continue in stockinette (alternate knit and purl rows) until you have approximately 72 rows, or until garment measures 9 inches in total height.
Wrap a small piece of yarn around the first and last stitch of row 72 after knitting it.  Later you will use these markers as a guide for measuring the legs and also sewing up the seams.
Begin leg shaping as follows:
Decrease (K2tog or P2tog) at the beginning and end of the next two rows for the crotch shaping. 57 stitches should be on your needle after these two decrease rows.
Continue in stockinette until the leg is approximately 4 inches long (measured from the yarn markers you placed above at the beginning of the leg).
For the next row, begin decreasing to taper the legs by knitting (or purling if you are on that side) two stitches together at beginning of the row and the end of the row (decrease 2 stitches) so that 55 stitches remain.
*Knit/purl four more rows in stockinette and then decrease 2 stitches again on 5th row*
Repeat from * to * above until 45 stitches remain.  Continue in stockinette until leg measures approximately 7.5 inches, or until the legs are long enough for your baby.
Begin ribbing rows for ankle (the ribbed portion will be folded up for now to allow for room for your baby to grow), as you did for the waist ribbing (alternate rows of *K2, P1* and *K1, P2*).  You can add anywhere from 1-2 inches of ribbing, or however much you’d like the legs to be folded up at the bottom.
Cast-off using stretchy cast off method as shown in the photos and description given within the “knit in the round” section of this pattern, but start with a longer piece of yarn if you want to use this same piece of yarn to sew up the leg seam.
After casting off, begin sewing up the leg seam until you reach the top of the leg where you placed the yarn markers earlier.
Next make the other side of the longies the same as the first side (if you’re a row or two in the body section don’t worry too much though because you can adjust for that while seaming the pants).
Once you have both sides of the longies completed, begin seaming at the crotch, making a few diagonal stitches at the crotch to secure that area firmly.  Sew up the front and back both beginning at the crotch.

Download PDF file of longies pattern (large file)
I have included pattern instructions for both standard needles (all sizes included - newborn through size large) and knitting in the round (for newborn size only).  I'm sorry we are unable to print this pattern for customers due to the high cost of ink.  If you can't find anyone able to print the file, you can send a check for $5 to:
Tiny Birds Organics
2591 Sam Bass Road
Round Rock, TX  78681
and include a note requesting the printed copy of the pattern. 

Recommended yarns for pattern:

Treliske Organic Merino Wool Yarn: available on our yarn-page
and
O-wool yarn:

Organic Merino Wool Yarn (100g skein).  For the longies pattern, you will need 2 skeins of this wool.  This U.S.A. made yarn is perfect for a full range of projects, including stripe baby hats and socks, cloth diaper soakers and pants, and many possible felting projects.  It is available on our wool yarn page.

The pants below are made with a very soft organic merino wool yarn from TreliskeOrganic.  This yarn is a lot softer than any I've ever used before, and you can dye the wool with Kool-Aid or natural dyes before knitting them.  This is the wool I've chosen to use for my business Tiny Birds Organics.  I love these pants especially for night-time when I like her to wear something very very soft.  The do get very pilly after awhile, but I just pull the fuz balls off before washing them and they look fine again.  The softness can't be beat compared to all the other yarns I've tried, even other merino yarns.  I also buy organic products whenever I can since I'm not a fan of pesticides (whether they're put on the sheep or put on our food, cotton, etc.)

Here's a close-up picture of the pilliness of the organic wool after I recently pulled off the biggest fuz-balls (she wears this blue/purple Koolaid dyed pair a lot - I love them for the softness and don't mind pulling off the fuz balls - my husband accuses me of enjoying it actually when he catches me doing it)  Update Sept 2004: photos of these pants after using the fabric shaver (I can't believe it took me this long to buy one!)

My other favorite wools for soaker pants are Araucania Nature Wool and Cascade 220, both which I get at my local yarn store Hill Country Weavers in Austin, TX.   These yarns are a bit scratchy compared to merino, but still soft compared to many other wool yarns.  Here is Becky in a blue pair of pants knit with Nature Wool:

You can also get organic wool from Full Belly Farm (pictured below), and its softness is similar to the Nature Wool.  We have a pair of pants I made with the Full Belly Farm yarn and it looks really beautiful dyed with Koolaid.

Below is a purple pair of pants knit with Paton's Classic merino, color 212 Royal Purple.  Paton's Classic merino isn't as soft as the Treliske organic wool I like so much, but it's still the softest thing next to that.

Below is a picture of a pair of hot pink pants I made with Lamb's Pride Worsted wool (85% wool / 15% mohair).  The color is M-38 Lotus Pink. The problems I had with the Lamb's Pride is that the yarn would sometimes break when I was sewing up the seams.  I also didn't realize until after I bought it that Lamb's Pride wool is permanently mothproofed with pesticides (I prefer not to have pesticides applied to baby clothes - it makes me worry too much). The Lamb's Pride also feels more scratchy to me than the yarns I'm used to.  When I'm knitting with it, it feels soft, but then when I put the pants on my lower arms for a little while (my test for scratchy feel) they do feel scratchy to me.

The hot pink pants below (can you tell I like this color!) are Wool-Ease yarn from Hobby Lobby.  You can get 2 balls of the yarn for under $5, so if you're on a tight budget this is a very economical way to make some cute pants.  Even though they're only 20% wool, they seem to work fine.  I don't wash them any more often than my 100% wool pants, and they don't seem to smell.  Apparently even 100% acrylic would work since Karen has tried it for a soaker and it worked fine.  Visit Karen's web site to learn all about cloth diapering.  And look at our soaker page to see the awesome Kool Sheep soaker Karen made for us with Becky's Chinese name on the back!

For those who prefer my older pattern (though the rise was shorter and there was no ribbing), here it is:
(roughly 5sts=1" and 8rows=1"):
Left leg: cast on 54sts, knit 65 rows, then decrease 2 each row (one each side) for 5 rows, knit 61 more rows.
Same for right leg.  Then sew together inside of each leg and sew two pieces together from front middle down under crotch and up to back middle.  Add a drawstring about 4 rows down from the top.  (or make them taller and fold down over elastic)

I also have a free soaker pattern available.  Happy knitting!

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