Knit A Hat, Save A Baby…..

Now your handmade cap can help save a life!
Baby caps are a simple and effective tool that can keep babies warm and ultimately contribute to reducing newborn deaths in the developing world.

In many developing countries, something as simple as a knit or crocheted cap can help the baby keep warm, which is key to helping newborns survive.

Nearly 4 million babies die each year in their first month of life – half within their first 24 hours – mostly from preventable or treatable causes. But by giving mothers and caregivers a package of simple tools, including guidance on healthy newborn care practices, the majority of these deaths could be prevented. Items crucial to saving more babies’ lives include:
• antibiotics to treat infection
• immunizations against tetanus
• skilled birth attendants at every birth
• counseling on breastfeeding
• information on basic newborn care such as keeping the cord clean and keeping the baby warm

This is where you can help by making a cap! Your caps will be sent to Save the Children’s newborn health programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Download your Caps for Good Action Kit for free patterns, shipping, instruction and more ways you can help at http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/good-goes/caps_for_good_kit.pdf.

Add your photo in support of the project to The Great Wall of Good Facebook application: http://apps.facebook.com/greatwallofgood.

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

Looking for more Baby Knitting patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

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