The preemie beanies and hats.

So to the preemie hats. I remember back when my daughter was in the NICU the teeny tiny babies in there. She was mammoth compared to those little babies. Like a whale in a pod of dolphins. Nonetheless it occured to me that there were many organizations which made hats for the regular sized babies, what about those tiny babies in the NICU. I decided, "hey, I'll make hats for those little ones!" Easier thought than accomplished. I looked high and low for a preemie hat pattern that I thought I might be able to crochet with my limited skills, to no avail. I did finally find this hat video on youtube it seemed easy enough, but wasn't for preemies. So I watched it a few times and figured out ways to modify the pattern to fit the preemie head. I used this great size chart for head sizes to decide what size baby the hats I made would fit. I tried making these tiny hats using the ring of loops method like in the first video, but the hats were simply too tiny and the "ring of loops" method for starting made for a messy top. So I switched to using the "magic circle" and voila! perfecto! I varied the starting stitches from 4, 5, 6, 7. Using super soft 3 ply baby yarn and an F hook, this made hats/beanies for 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6 pound babies. In the video for the large hat the lady doesn't show how to finish the band, so I just sc around the spiral twice for the boys. For the girls I made scallops around the bottom. Worked out fab!

Next time: the story of the bereavement beanies/hats for the stillborn preemies.

More of the story....

I've only been crocheting for 5-6 weeks now. It was going to be snowy here and I decided by golly I was going to learn to crochet. I was tired of telling people I was "yarn impaired" when it came to knitting or crocheting. First thing I did was a scarf. Then I decided to crochet a hat for my dear daughter (who promptly claimed the scarf which I happened to be making for myself). I found a great youtube teacher http://www.youtube.com/user/tjw1963 this woman can do anything and has some really easy patterns on video. I learned how to use the "magic circle"
from her shell beanie video.

I tried and tried to figure out that hat. Finally I ended up going to the "Crafty Cottage" in town where a lady there showed me how to start the hat. It was an invaluable learning session! Amazing how much easier it is when there is someone there to show you how. From there the sky was the limit...well as long as the pattern was fairly simple.

Crocheting hats for the NICU babies, and stillborn babies.....

I began crocheting hats and beanies for the NICU babies a couple weeks ago, so I thought I'd keep a record of what all I was doing. At least all my info should be in one place this way. I had a really hard time finding a good pattern for preemie hats. I finally found a video on youtube of an easy crochet hat here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cq9ivY-FAw. At least it was a jumping off point. I modified the pattern several ways and finally came up with some preemie hats that were easy to make and fairly consistent to size.