Wool Soakers Day 3:

I'm getting close to being finished on my "Just Jussi" wool soaker. I decided to knit the soaker using my kettle dyed eggplant merino yarn and for the accent color I used Knit Pick's Palette yarn in Fog (light grey). I first started the middle colorwork pattern in a diagonal pattern in the deep eggplant, the grey "Fog", and a light purple "Hyacinth" (another Palette yarn) but it looked too fussy for a diaper cover. So I switched to a houndstooth pattern that is worked on a multiple of 4 stitches. It turned out fabulous! Exactly what I was going for.

The houndstooth pattern I used was worked so the grey color would be on the outside of the 16 stitch panel. I started with the grey color first and over 16 stitches I repeated this 4 row pattern as many times as necessary (G=grey or accent color of choice and P=purple or main color).
This is worked in stockinette stitch with right side knitted and wrong side purled.

Houndstooth Pattern:
1. GGPGGGPGGGPGGGPG (right side)
2. GPPPGPPPGPPPGPPP (wrong side)
3. GPPPGPPPGPPPGPPP (right side)
4. GGPGGGPGGGPGGGPG (wong side)

When I got to the end of the piece and was casting off I found on the blog called Grumperina a stretchy cast-off that she uses on her socks. I was going to use the cast-off but since I had U.S. 5 needles next to me and I used U.S. 2 needles for the 1x1 ribbing, I just used the larger 5 needles for the cast off. It has tons of stretch and it looks a lot neater and cleaner than the stretchy cast-on that I used in the beginning. Perhaps I'll try the stretchy cast-off on another project.

After my cast off it was on to the leg ribbing... the pattern has you making the leg ribbing as a flat piece and seaming it up with everything else at the end. But if you know me, you know I HATE SEAMING!!! So using mattress stitch (tutorial from knitty.com) I seamed up the sides from the markers that the instructions had you place. I then picked up stitches with circular needles and made the ribbing in the round!! Much easier (and quicker!) When I am done (not quite...), I will cast off in the round and voila - I'm done!