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.