Period of PURPLE Crying

Mercy will be passing out purple hats to the babies born in November along with a special message of child abuse prevention. It is part of the Period of PURPLE Crying initiative which is a program to prevent shaken baby syndrome. This is a normal, although frustrating, period of increased crying all infants experience in the first few weeks and months after birth.

If you would like to donate a hat, please use a newborn baby size pattern and soft baby yarn in any shade of purple. Refrain from pompoms, flowers and other decor. Click for Babies is a great website to get pattern ideas and more information about the program.

Hats can be donated to Jody Timmins, RN, BSN, Mother/Baby nursing director on 2nd floor of the East building at Mercy's Central Campus by October 26th.

Thanks!

Thanks to the ladies at Mt.Olive Lutheran Church for their preemie hat donations! You guys are awesome!

Here is the latest batch. Thanks to everyone who donated! We have a few crocheters on board now too!

Thanks also to the knitters from The Village Knit Wit who knit up a batch themselves! You guys are awesome!

Fixie hats

I was knitting one of these seed stitch hats in the round, and I happened upon this pattern for a fixie hat. I figured it was the perfect way to finish off the hat! After I had knit 5 inches, I increased one stitch so I had an even number of stitches(64). I put half of the stitches on one double pointed needle, and half on another and joined the top using the kitchener stitch. I attached 2 tassles, and voila! Thanks to Larissa Brown for the inspiration and to my daughters for the modeling.

June's Donation

In May, we donated 23 hats to Mercy's NICU. Here are the 52 hats we donated in June. We more than doubled our donation! Thanks so much to all who are donating! The parents and nurses appreciate it so much!

Free Yarn!

I rolled up some balls of Bernat Softee Baby yarn in various colors. The first 10 knitters to drop off one or more hats to the laboratory office gets a free ball of yarn! (It's a clever ploy to encourage the knitting of even more hats :)

To Donate

To donate a hat, make sure you use soft baby yarn. Babies don't like itchy wool! Make sure it is machine washable, and wash it before donating. (If you let me know that it hasn't been washed, I don't mind washing it myself.) My goal is to have a new batch to donate every month. The hats can be dropped off in the laboratory administration office which is the second door into the laboratory hallway. The laboratory hallway is between the main entrance and the chapel on the left hand side. Email me here if you have any questions.

Patterns

In the posts below are some pictures of hats we have knit with links to the patterns. I got the patterns from Bev Qualheim at http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/. She has many other patterns for knit and crochet preemie hats, and patterns for other baby items too.

I like to type preemie hats knit pattern into google's search engine and find new patterns. There are a bunch out there.The web is full of charities who donate preemie hats to NICUs all over the country. Many also post patterns, and are happy to provide them to people who will donate the finished products to charity. I was inspired by The Preemie Project which is a wonderful charity that donates hats to the University of Iowa Hospital's NICU and to hospitals in Michigan.

Toronto hats

Here is a link to the pattern for the Toronto hats. (It is the third pattern on the page.) They are basic stockinette stitch hats, but turn out so cute. To modify them for circular needles, cast on 48 stitches instead of 50 for the ribbing to work out.

Garter stitch hats

Here is a link to the pattern for Bev's stretchy knit preemie cap. It is an easy hat for beginners and works well on two needles. I tried making one on a circular needle and I didn't like how it turned out. Feel free to try yourself, though if you like.

Seed Stitch and Ribbing Caps

Here is a link to these patterns. The patterns are written for straight needles, which work fine. However, if you want to knit in the round, a size 3 twelve inch circular needle works great for these. You need to switch to double pointed needles for the last few decrease rows.

Our first batch

Thanks so much to Jan, Kyla, Michele and Mona for their donations! Aren't they cute!