Click for Babies

This post is going to be short and sweet as I don't have a lot of time to write at the moment.  For any of you who watch Katie (jetgirl1313) from Knittin' On the Fly, you know that she collects hats for the charity, Click for Babies.  The idea is to knit purple hats and donate them so they can be distributed in hospitals for all the new babies that arrive.  The charity and hats are meant to bring awareness to The Period of Purple Crying.  Essentially this all relates to infant crying and the risks Shaken Baby Syndrome.   Babies born in the month of November each receive a purple hat.  Click for Babies is specific to certain states, but I know that when my daughter was born in November, in Iowa (even though we aren't a Click for Babies state), she received a purple crocheted hat, along with a bunch of information about the Period of Purple Crying.

So Katie hosted Click for Babies and received an amazing number of hats that she donated in Maine.  Last year I didn't get the chance to knit a hat, but this year, I did!

I used the Otis Baby Hat pattern, which has 3 cables evenly distributed around the hat, which come together at the top in a really neat way.  The hats had to be at least 50% purple, which wasn't a problem for me since I had a couple different options to choose from.  I'd won a giveaway awhile back and received some Universal Yarn Bella DK in a light lavender purple, so that's what I used.  The hat turned out very soft and sweet.

I booked it to the post office (I finished the hat just days before the deadline) and rushed it out to Maine, along with some sheepy stitch markers for the giveaway Katie was hosting in conjunction with the charity drive.

I'd really like to knit this hat again as the cables really add some visual interest.  I'm really impressed with the way the cables were brought together at the top without interrupting the pattern.  Very slick.

Okay - time to fly!  Lots to do today!!

Lost Banner Hat

Continuing on with my Ravellenics projects, today I'm sharing the Lost Banner Hat.  This is a Susan B. Anderson pattern and qualified for our team prize drawing during the Ravellenics.

Susan knit this hat for herself from her own gradient handspun (a Loop batt maybe?) and eventually included a picture wearing said hat in her blog banner.  Her daughter wore it to school one day and it was lost, hence the name.  This was a pattern Susan never intended to publish, but instead something she whipped up for fun.  She had an overwhelming response to the hat, finally relented and released the pattern.  I'm glad she did because I really enjoyed the knit!

With a long, ribbed brim, this hat is really cute because you can flip all that ribbing up over the stockinette portion.  I knit this with my own handdyed, worsted yarn in Snowcone and Lollipop Guild. I then mailed it to Carol to be donated with the other charity items collected.  It should make for a fun kid's hat with all the bright, vibrant colors.  I'd really like to knit another hat for myself out of some gradient yarn.

I put the hat on Lovebug and tried to snap a few shots, but she would have none of it.  (She's very anti "things-on-my-head" right now.)  Squishy modeled it for me briefly, but he too wouldn't leave it on his head.  He is still very attached to his green apple hat from Debby (knittinggrandma) that we received in a swap a while ago and doesn't think he needs another at the moment.

Cold Feet

A friend of mine on Ravelry asked our group if we would help her.  This is what she wrote:

            “I belong to a Blue Star Mothers group (military mom’s support group) and we have the honor of co-sponsoring an Operation Shower baby shower in early July.  The goal is to show support for military moms-to-be or new mothers by showering them with gifts.  Especially since many of these moms are going through their pregnancy without the support of their husbands due to deployment or job assignment.  The event is rather a big deal with many big name sponsors involved, such as the PGA.  We are all excited and consider ourselves lucky that we can be involved and show our support to these new moms.  After all, our group is mom centered."

Pat asked for baby booties and socks in red, white and blue or any combination thereof to be gifted to 35-40 mothers.  As always, our group responded with a resounding YES! 

Here is a photo of all the completed booties lined up with one another.   They are all so stinkin’ cute!

(Photo by Pat (aka Plynn))

I made two pairs of baby socks using a favorite pattern of mine, Baby Mitten Socks.  Before Lovebug was born, I had knit her a pair of these with some leftover fingering weight yarn, with the hopes of her wearing them as a newborn.  They were one of the only pairs of socks I could keep on her tiny feet! 

I knit one pair of socks with Tanis Fiber Arts in Peacock as per the pattern. They’re tiny, but should fit newborns or smaller babies. 

But, after knitting this pair, I realized the Peacock color was more teal than blue, so I knew I needed another pair.  Pat still kindly accepted the first pair, and reassured me they were “blue enough.” :)

The second pair I made using Knit Picks Simply Cotton Sport in Wave Heather and Prussian Heather.  The heals and toes are contrasting to the rest of the sock.  Because this was sport weight yarn, the socks are larger, perhaps 6-12 month size?  It’s better to be too big than too small, right?  Again, I followed the pattern as directed, just with a heavier weight yarn.

I’m still new to knitting socks, even baby socks and don’t completely understand the construction.  I know there is a cuff and leg, a heel, the foot and the toe, but there are so many different ways to work the heel, you can do toe-up, top-down, two-at-a-time, etc. etc.  It’s a bit overwhelming and I get nervous with the idea of changing the cast on number because I don’t yet know how to accurately divide for the heel (which is the most complicated part of the sock). 

These socks were a snap to knit up and only took me a few hours.  And I was happy to be able to contribute something to Operation Shower.  

A Tiny Bit More for Charity

When I was knitting a few hats for the February Charity KAL on the Itty Bitty Forums, one of the hats that I made came out large (in my opinion).  So I decided to hold that hat back and send it in for the March Charity KAL.

The March KAL is for the Good Samaritan Hospital Antepartum Unit in San Jose, California. The antepartum unit is where moms who have lost their babies (either due to extremely early pre-term labor or stillbirths at any time up to full-term) are cared for.  The hats are used for tiny, tiny babies, and serve as mementos for the family after their child has passed.

The hospital also has a NICU where they can use hats 0-3 months in size (they take other sizes, but the coordinator for the swap said they need the 0-3 month size the most).  Because this hat is on the larger side, I thought it fitting to send to this charity.

I knit the Very Basic Baby Beanie pattern.  I chose to knit in stripes because I hadn't done so in a while.  The hat is knit with Caron Simply Soft in Limelight and Blue Mint. It's supposed to be 2" of ribbing, then stockinette stitch for the remainder of the hat.  My hat has about 2 1/2" of ribbing, I think.

The stripe pattern is 8 rows blue, 8 rows green, 6 blue, 6 green, 4 blue, 4 green, 2 blue, 2 green.  Then, the crown decreases are all in blue.  This happened to work out to almost exactly 5.25" as called for in the pattern.  The idea was to knit the ribbing on US 5 needles, then switch to US 7 for the stockinette.  Whoops, I forgot.  Until I was halfway through the hat.  So it's all knit on US 5 needles.

I think it's a cute little hat and I'm glad I can contribute to another charity.

Regina General Hospital’s Neonatal Unit

As I mentioned on my last WIP Wednesday, I wanted to finish a few charity hats to send to Jill, for her month's charity KAL.  February's charity was the Regina General Hospital's Neonatal Unit.  I thought today would be a good time to share with you the finished hats and the patterns I used.

My first hat was Little Boy Blue Ribbed Hat.  The recipe for the hat is simple, a simple 2x2 rib pattern.  I probably could have figured out the math of the decreases on my own, but it's so much simpler to read it from someone else's pattern.  This is a free pattern offered on Ravelry and goes by so quickly.  I picked out 100% acrylic yarn, as per the norm for many charity donations.  The yarn for this hat is Caron Simply Soft Brights in Blue Mint.   I don't mind pastels for babies, but I just feel like vibrant rich colors are terrific.  Why not use bold colors so adorn your baby's head? :)

I love the way this hat turned out.  It's teeny tiny cute.  Knit in a newborn size, there is still a lot of flexibility because of the ribbing, so it could easily fit an older child, or be appropriate for a preemie.

The second hat I knit was Swirl Hat.  This pattern calls for fingering weight yarn.  I don't have much of that on hand and I wasn't going to buy more when I had three 315yd skeins of worsted weight acrylic to work with.  So using the recommended needle size (US 3), I cast on 64 stitches.  This is 8 stitches fewer than the preemie size given in the pattern.  But using the measurements and numbers the pattern gives, I modified the sizing and stitch count very easily.  Hopefully this modification has yielded me a hat this is somewhere between preemie and newborn.

I did struggle with this hat, and it wasn't the fault of the pattern.  My stitch count and pattern was off and twice I had to tink back.  There's a small mistake on the crown shaping, where a I missed knitting into a yarn over, but after the hat was finished, I was able to go back and close the hole - sort of.  I don't think anyone will notice.

I really enjoy the swirl ribbing on this hat.  I know the pattern can be for boys and girls, but I just think this adds a little more feminine touch than your basic ribbing.  This was knit with Caron Simply Soft Brights in Watermelon.  (Wow, this is pink!)

Now would be a good time to mention that all the hats were made from Caron Simply Soft Brights using 3 different colors: Limelight (green), Blue Mint (blue) and Watermelon (pink).  I chose these colors because they were bright and cheerful and reminded me of spring when the color comes back. We need some color after the gray winter days.

The final pattern I used was Preemie Hats for Charity by Carissa Browning.  This pattern actually comes with 5 variations on a hat.  The versions include eyelets, hearts, diamonds, stripes, and ribbed.  Again, because I'm only using worsted weight, I figured these would come out big, so I modified the stitch count.  I wanted to knit all 5, but didn't have time, so I've only got 2.

First, I knit the the eyelet hat.  I cast on 64 stitches because it starts with 6 rows of 2x2 ribbing, so I needed multiples of either 4 or 8.  After I finished the ribbing and started the main body of the hat, I included an extra 2 stitch increases (2 kfb stitches), so that there would be 66 stitches.  I did this because when you get to the crown decreases, the decreases are done in multiples of 6. (The original cast-on number was for 72 sts.)  

I really like how this hat came out.  I picked green because I thought, 2 pink, 1 green, 1 blue...I've got 2 hats for each gender.  Then DH & Mom both told me the green was sort of a girly color.  So be it.  The eyelet pattern is a bit more feminine as well.  But in the end, it's the nurses at the hospitals that will be picking the hats for the babies and I'm sure the parents will appreciate whichever hat they receive.

The second hat from this set was the hearts pattern.  I couldn't resist the little hearts ringing this hat.  It's not immediately noticeable (in my opinion), but if you're close up, you can see the hearts right above the ribbing.  Again, I cast on few stitches to accommodate the heavier yarn. 

Once I got past the hearts, this hat went super quick because it was all stockinette stitch.  This hat screams girly, in pretty much any way possible.  The hearts on their own could be subtle, but when paired with this hot pink, it's sort of like a light flashing over your head saying, "I'm a girl, I'm a girl!"

I really enjoyed making these little hats and I like knowing they are going to a good cause.  They really don't take long at all.  I knit up 5 hats in a week.  So I encourage you all, if you have a little time to spare, to consider picking up your needles or hook and knitting, or crocheting, something for a local charity or hospital.