Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Another Reason to Knit Red Baby Hats

by

knit little red hats for babiesEarlier this month I told you about the campaign to knit red Santa hats for preemies and other babies in the NICUs in Kansas City for the holidays.

But if you want to help babies in other parts of the country, here’s another project for which you can knit red hats. Looking for more Baby Knitting patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

The Little Hats, Big Hearts campaign began in Chicago and has now expanded to 29 states. The aim is to provide knit or crocheted hats in the color red to all the babies born in participating hospitals during the month of February to raise awareness of heart disease, which is the number one killer of Americans, and congenital heart defects, the most common birth defect.

Hats are being collected through the end of the year, and you can contact a local chapter at the link above to get patterns, shipping addresses and more information.

This is such a sweet campaign and I hope some of you can squeeze in a little extra knitting this holiday season for some special little babies!

[Photo via American Heart Association.]

Next Pattern:

Comments

  1. We’re doing this for the first time in the San Francisco Bay area. Preemie and newborn hats are so quick to knit, crochet, or loom. Check the American Heart Association web page for free patterns and yarn requirements.

Have you read?

Knit a Linen Stitch Hot Pad

Linen stitch is one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns that, every time I use it in a project, I think about how I don’t use it often enough. 

It’s an easy stitch to make, with slip stitches done with the yarn held to the front of the work on the right/front side and to the back on the wrong/back side, which makes the strand of yarn a visible part of the pattern. 

It also makes a fabric that is thick and looks kind of like a woven fabric.

I recently used linen stitch to make a double-thick pot holder, which I worked in a kind of interesting way. I didn’t want to have to do any sewing on the project, so I started it from a crochet cast on and picked up stitches from the side of the cast on to make the hot pad all in one piece in the round with the edge sealed. 

This requires working on two circular needles, which is another technique I don’t use that often and am always reminded how much I like it when I do. 

The combination of double thickness and the stitch pattern makes for a hot pad that’s already pretty thick, but I also added a bit of old towel to the inside before I closed up the end to make it super thick and extra protective for your surfaces. 

I found the engineering challenge of this construction method to be a lot of fun, but you could also just knit it as a tube (casting on twice as many stitches as I did) and sew up the ends by hand when the knitting is done. Either way you’ve got a useful and pretty addition to your kitchen, whether you work it in a solid color, stripes or as a stash busting project will all your cotton odd balls. 

You can grab the pattern over at Our Daily Craft, or check it out on Ravelry. 

40+ Hot Pads You Can Sew For The Kitchen [Sewing]

A Cozy Knit to Calm Your Mind

Double Knit an Infinity Scarf