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Warm Up America Seeks Tiny Hats for Africa

September 13, 2017 by Sarah White

knit tiny hats for premature babies in AfricaWarm Up America is known for providing blankets and other warm goods to people across the United States, but it supports other initiatives as well, and this year it’s helping bring awareness — and hats! — to the issue of preterm birth, especially in Africa.

The group is seeking tiny hats for the East African Preterm Birth Initiative, and aims to have 1,117 hats to donate by World Prematurity Day (which is 11/17, thus the number).

More than one million preterm babies worldwide die in their first month of life, often because of an inability to keep warm. Hats are vital to protect these precious bundles, and, as a bonus, are really easy to make because they are so small.

Warm Up America is asking for hats to fit 3 or 4 pound babies, with head circumferences ranging from 10 to 12.5 inches. There are patterns on the website linked above to get you started.

Hats should be mailed by Nov. 5 to:

Warm Up America!
ATTN: Tiny Hat Campaign
3740 N. Josey Lane, Suite 102
Carrollton, TX 75007

The East African Preterm Birth Initiative is a project of the University of California, San Francisco, and is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Hats will be collected at their conference on World Prematurity Day and distributed to newborn healthcare facilities in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

This is such a great project and an easy way to help little ones. Because my daughter was born six weeks early I always want to do what I can to help preemies, so I will definitely be contributing to this campaign and I hope you will, too, if it moves you.

[Photo: Warm Up America.]

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Comments

  1. Dot says

    September 14, 2017 at 12:34 am

    Thanks for posting this. I have some soft acrylic that will be perfect for these hats. Someone gave it to me, and I was wondering what to do with it!

  2. Dot says

    September 14, 2017 at 2:02 pm

    On the site you linked, there are instructions for knit and crochet hats. Also on that site is a “Learn more here” link, which is to a PDF file which has different instructions! The needle sizes in the PDF seem more reasonable to me. For example, the main site suggests size 10 for worsted weight; the PDF suggests size 7.

Have you read?

Knit a Garter Stitch Blanket with a Twist

When I first started knitting again after a long absence from the craft (which has now been almost 25 years ago!) I really didn’t like garter stitch that much. I found it super boring, somehow even more boring than knitting stockinette stitch in the round, even though it’s exactly the same thing.

Over the years I’ve softened my opinion, and even grown to like garter stitch. There’s nothing wrong with being plain, and actually the texture of garter stitch is more interesting than stockinette.

Also there are fun things you can do with garter stitch to make it more interesting if you want to, such as adding stripes, working on the bias, or doing fun effects to change the look.

That’s the way with the Bernat Twist My Way Garter Knit Blanket. Using combinations of casting on and binding off creates what they call a Swiss cheese effect along two sides of the blanket. This is a lot of fun in the self-striping ombre yarn they chose for the pattern, but it would also be fun in a solid color or making your own stripes.

Despite the dramatic effect, this pattern is rated easy. It’s worked from side to side (if you consider the “cheesy” edges the top and bottom) and has an eight-row repeat that involves binding off and then casting on again to make the holes. They’re kind of like giant buttonholes.

Once you get the hang of it it’s a pretty easy repeat to remember, and it will be smooth knitting as big as you want to make it.

You can download this pattern from the Yarnspirations website for free, or you can buy a kit direct from them that includes the yarn you need (and knitting needles if you need those, too). Bernat Sport Ombre Twist, which is what is used in the pattern, comes in 12 self patterning colors and is a DK weight acrylic yarn.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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