Knit Little Red Hats for Preemies

You may not know this, but my little girl was a preemie, born six weeks early. We were lucky and she didn’t have any major health problems, and only spent a week in the NICU.

But a lot of families have babies who are in the hospital much longer, and it can be difficult to feel like celebrating holidays when your little one isn’t home.

One awesome photographer in the Kansas City area has rallied a bunch of people to help make Christmas a little more special for families with babies in the hospital, by providing them with little red hats and a visit from Santa. (Just thinking about this makes me cry a little, so if you’re a sap like me do not watch the video. You’ve been warned.)

Jessica Storm of Believe in Preemies is collecting hats for local hospitals again this year, and they’re needed by December 7. You can email believeinpreemies @ gmail.com to get the pattern and shipping address. It’s asked that all hats be knit in red with white trim so the babies match Santa, and hats of various sizes, from teeny to full-term are needed.

We’re pretty close to Kansas City and a local yarn store is collecting hats to send, so I’m definitely going to have to stitch some up. (While Santa can only visit a couple of hospitals, all the hats are distributed to local NICUs, so all the hats will be used to spread holiday cheer.)

Let’s overwhelm them with tiny red hats, why don’t we?

[Photo via Believe in Preemies.]

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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