Wool Vs. Acrylic

[natural_mama89]

I know that you have to wash acrylic after every use, but how does the water-resistance of acrylic compare to that of wool? I have tons of acrylic yarn ( that I got for free) and was thinking of making some soakers, but I want to know how well they will work before I spend all the time to make them.

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by natural_mama89

I know that you have to wash acrylic after every use, but how does the water-resistance of acrylic compare to that of wool? I have tons of acrylic yarn ( that I got for free) and was thinking of making some soakers, but I want to know how well they will work before I spend all the time to make them.

I've not used them myself, but I found this while searching for soaker patterns in general:

http://diaperpages.com/soaker.php

I've also been experimenting with using acrylic yarn (Red Heart brand). I think acrylic works as a soaker because it is essentially plastic and doesn't absorb water. So as long as the knit is tight enough to prevent contact of the diaper and the outer clothing, it performs reasonably well as a water-resistant barrier.

The advantages of acrylic are that it's machine washable and dryable, doesn't need lanolizing, is super-soft, and since the yarn is more slippery, makes for a stretchier fabric. However, it doesn't have the anti-bacterial properties of wool, so it needs to be washed more often, and I think it gets pillier in the wash over time, but probably hand washing would alleviate some of that.

And here are some pics of the acrylic soaker. It passed the four-hour diaper test with no wicking or leaks. Julia is a great model, isn't she? This yarn was fun because the repeat on the coloring was almost exactly the same as the length it took me to knit one round, so I got vertical stripes of color rather than random patches. Kinda cool.

[TrishWSU]

I made some longies out of an acrylic/wool blend {80/20} for DD and she could wear them all day without a problem {no leaking or wicking.} I don't think I washed them every time either. Maybe every 2-3. If you are concerned about making them more water resistent, you could add a little fabric softener to the load that you wash the longies/soakers in.

[kbstanley3]

I love my acrylic soakers/longies. They work great and my little guy is a super soaker!

[joyful mother]

Acrylic works just fine, I have quite a few that Grandma made. If you leave them to air out between diaper changes they will last for a few diaper changes. If you had 2 to match the outfit you could just exchange those back and forth for the day I would think!