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.]

Next Pattern:

I know knitting a dress sounds like a major time commitment. And that’s before I even tell you that this particular dress, the Sixth Ave Skater Dress by Briana Luppino, is worked in light fingering weight yarn.

But would you just take a moment to look at it and tell me if it doesn’t look like it would be worth all the time you would spend knitting it? And it’s miles of stockinette stitch so it’s actually beginner friendly and a great semi-mindless knit you can take with you on your travels this summer and wear when it is done.

The dress is worked from the top down with tank straps, a scoop neck, waist shaping and a flowy skirt for a fun and comfortable fit.

The pattern has 10 sizes, with finished bust measurements ranging from 28 to 64 inches, or 71.5 to 163 cm. The sample shown was worked with 4 inches/10 cm of negative ease at the bust, and the designer says most people like between 2 and 6 inches/5 to 15 cm of negative ease in the bust and around 10 inches/25.4 cm positive ease in the hips.

(To refresh your memory, negative ease means the measurement of the garment is smaller than your actual body measurement, while positive ease is bigger than your body.)

To pick a size you’d work from the bust measurement because you can always add more or fewer decreases as you need to get your desired fit at the waist and hips. And because it’s worked from the top down you can try it on as often as you like to make sure it’s the perfect fit.

The I-cord edgings give the dress a super casual feel, and I think this would be a great one to add to your summer rotation. (Yes, even with a wool blend yarn.)

You can see lots of cute finished versions and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself on Ravelry.

[Photo: Briana Luppino]

Book Review – Knitted Tanks and Tunics

How to Knit a Simple Sweater Dress

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