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Warm Up America Seeks Tiny Hats for Africa

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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. 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. 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?

Stitch Your Favorite Fruit on a Sweater

The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.” 

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them. 

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits. 

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves. 

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit. 

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy. 

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]