wool soaker help

[LiamsMommy]

I am a beggining knitter and am trying to do soakers. I got a free pattern from lion brand website and the crotch seems way to small. I knitted almost the whole thing. So at the crotch (smallest part) there are only 18 sts across. This is what the instructions say there should be. Then I supposed to felt it when I am done. YIKES! This thing will never cover a prefold. PLUS it instructs to use aplix closures. Has anyone done a soaker with aplix closures? I am getting discouraged because the other patterns I look at seem too difficult. Any suggestions?

[LiamsMommy]

how many sizes does will shrink when you felt it?

If I knit a soaker based on the size of other covers I currently have how much do I need to consider shrinkage when I am done knitting and I felt it?

[NorthernPixie]

If it's the pattern I'm thinking of, I think I made that a while back - do the directions say to pick up and knit ribbing all round the perimeter of the wrap? I think the one I did had the skinny and funny looking main part, but then I added (according to their directions) about 1.5" of ribbing around the whole thing. Then it would fit. I only partially felted it, and then didn't use it because I couldn't decide/figure out a good way to put closures on it. So I gave it to my sister. I can't imagine aplix would be a good way to go, it would just chew up the wool.

How much something felts depends entirely on what wool you're using, and how much you felt it. It's suggested you knit a test swatch about 4"x4", then proceed with whatever felting process you're going to do (by hand, in the machine, etc.) and see how much it shrinks. It's super hard to guess ahead of time.

A good pattern that's not too tricky, and has excellent directions is the Little Turtle Knits Picky Pants, which can be done as pants or shorts. It's on circular needles, which is not hard, but different if you've only knit on straight needles.