Knitting for the NICU

Updated: Free Pretty in Pink Princess Preemie Hat Pattern

Pretty in Pink Princess Preemie Hat has now been re-written, with faster, easier to follow directions, more detailed instructions, and a no-special-equipment Pom pom photo/written tutorial.  Also available as a free Ravelry download..

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Updated Mickey and Minnie, the Famous Mice Patterns

As part of my New Year's Resolutions, I'm organizing, updating, and posting new free patterns at least once a week.  Both Mickey and Minnie patterns have been updated here on the blog:

Mickey, the Famous Mouse

Minnie, the Famous Mouse

and are also both available as free downloads on my Ravelry page (links on the individual blog pattern pages).

Great for anytime, they're particularly popular hats in NICUs during both Valentine's Day and Halloween.

Had to add this pic of my niece, Myia, in her Minnie Hat:

Valentine's Day 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!

These little lovelies are what our happy knitters having been stitching up for our NICU Velentine babies this year.  We have red Scoobys, the popular Angry Birds, Mickey & Minnie, and hand-made Velentine's cards made by a 6-year-old NICU graduate.

 These adorable 5" holographic heart Valentine's card with ribbons to hang them, were made by Jude, a NICU graduate from Fayetteville, Arkansas.  They have messages like "I love Mommy", "My Daddy rocks",  "I love my siblings", etc.  Huge hugs and Thank yous to Jude for sharing his heart and his talent with us, as well as hugs and thanks to Jude's Mom and Dad for sharing theirs as well with our NICU babies and their parents.

The hit of the NICU, everyone was thrilled by the popular Angry Birds and Scoobys with their heart button beaks and mouths--such clever designing from Kathy, one of our PFT therapists.  Mucho thanks, Kathy!

 

Pretty Princess Hat knitted from yarn donated to the NICU by a NICU family a few weeks ago and worked up into this beautiful girly girl hat.  For the pattern, please click:   Pretty Princess Hat.

The famous mice, Mickey and Minnie. I made two sets of these and although I can't take pictures in the NICU, I can tell you that they were all mega cute on the little Littles who received them.  For patterns clicke here:   Minnie   or    Mickey.

From our knitting stashes to all of you, we wish you a chocolate and flower-filled

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Pretty in Pink Princess Hat

Thank you to the NICU family who donated this yarn pack to our efforts.  With the pink fluffly yarn we will "pay it forward" to a little Little Princess this Valentine's Day.

This pattern, sized Small-Medium-Large Preemie and Newborn baby is a basic beanie in #6 bulky baby yarn from Baby's Breath by Bernat , sporting and oversized easy-to-make pom-pom, and a commercially made 2" wide floral hair barrette available from stores like Claire's Accessories.  Being able to take the barrette out is perfect for frequent washings.

 

 This pattern is also available as a free Ravelry download:  Pretty in Pink Princess Baby Hat

                       

Pretty in Pink Princess Baby Hat

Copyright 2013 by Glenna Anderson Muse

 

Sizes:

(Micro Preemie, Medium Preemie, Large Preemie, Newborn)

 

Finished Measurements:

(8", 10", 11", 12")

 

Abbreviations:

CO = cast on

K = knit

K2tog = knit two stitches together as if one, to decrease

P = purl

 

Materials

Less than 1 skein Bernat Baby's Breath #57200 Baby Pink yarn (or similar #6 bulky weight such as Bernat Softee Chunky #11981412 "Baby Pink") 

Size #8 double-pointed knitting needles or size needed to accomplish gauge

Optional size #10 double pointed knitting needles or 2 sizes larger than needles needed to accomplish gauge

One 2" wide silk flower decorated children's' hair barrette

 

Gauge: 12 stitches x 22 rows = 4 inches

 

Pattern notes:

Casting on using needles two sizes larger than the needles used to work the hat will create a stretchier, more comfortable, hat opening for the babies.

 

Directions:

 

Using larger needles and spaced evenly over three to four needles, CO (24, 30, 34, 38).  Join together to knit in the round, placing marker between last stitch of first row and first stitch of second row.

Row 1: Knit around.

Row 2: Purl around.

Row 3: Knit around.

Continue knitting all rows until total length measures (2.5", 3.5", 4", 4.5")

Decrease:

Row A:  K2tog around  (12, 15, 17, 19) stitches remaining.

Row B: K2tog around to last stitch, K1. (On Micro Preemie there won't be an extra stitch to knit singly.  (6, 8, 9, 10) stitches remaining.

Cut long tail, thread onto yarn needle, draw tail through remaining stitches.  Pull tight and secure.  Weave all loose ends in on underneath side of hat.

 

Pom Pom:

To make large pom-poms without commercial pom-pom maker: Wrap yarn around 3 (Micro Preemie) or 4 (rest of the sizes) fingers 50-60 times.  Carefully remove from hand and tie a double strand of yarn around middle of loops.  (I also use a small finger diameter rubber band to secure prior to tying with the strands of yarn.)  Tie as tightly as possible and triple knot.

 

 Cut through all of the loops.

 

 To trim, gather all of the loose ends up in your hand and trim the ones that stand up significantly higher than the rest of the ends.  It doesn't have to be perfect.

 

 To make the pom-pom fuller and  fuzzier, place a fork through the center of pom-pom and steam over boiling water, a couple of inches above water,  for approximately 45 seconds on each side.  You'll be able to see yarn ends starting to separate and appear fuller.

 

To finish hat, using yarn needle, draw long yarn ends through to underneath side, approximately 1/3 of the way down from the center top.  Secure underneath by securely weaving ends into hat underside. 

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If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected].  If you would like to be featured on my blog, Knitting for the NICU,  please send pics of your little person wearing her Pretty in Pink Princess Hat!

 

 

 

Minnie, the Famous Mouse

 Love this sweet Minnie Mouse. I was looking for something extra special to make for our little Littles for Valentine's, something that would be just as cute on boys and on girls.  No, we're not going to put the Minnie Mouse hats on boys, the Minnie design just came to me first and then the Mickey pattern will follow.  I've got a couple of sets made up right now. I'm keeping my fingers cross for a set of twins around Valentine's Day that we can outfit to match.

Wouldn't that be fun?

This pattern is available as a free Ravelry Dowload. 

Minnie, the Famous Mouse Hat

Copyright 2013 by Glenna Anderson Muse

Pattern copyrighted 2013 by Glenna Anderson Muse.

Sizes: (Micro Preemie (up to 2.5 lbs), Med Preemie (2.5-4lbs), Large Preemie (4.5-5.6lbs), Newborn (6-8lbs))

Finished hat circumference measurements:

(8", 10", 11", 12")

Abbreviations:

CO = cast on

K2tog = knit two stitches together as if one, to decrease

 Gauge: 

15 stitches x 20 rows = 4" square

Materials:

Less than 1/2 skein of any Bright Pink, non-animal fiber #4 Worsted Weight Yarn that meets gauge requirements.

Less than 1/2 skein of any Black, non-animal fiber #4 Worsted Weight Yarn that meets gauge requirements

#8 Double pointed needles or needles to accomplish gauge

Optional #10 double pointed needles or 2 sizes larger than needles used to accomplish gauge.  Note: Casting on using larger needles creates a stretchier, more comfortable hat opening.

Yarn needle

Commercially made pink bow hair barrette (The barrette shown is from Claire's) 

Directions:

With larger needles and pink yarn, CO  (32,40, 44, 52) stitches spaced evenly on  3-4 needles.  Change to smaller needles.

1)  Knit around, joining into a round, and place marker between last stitch of row and first stitch of next row.

2)  Purl around

3)  Repeat rows 1 and 2,  3 more times.

Change to black yarn.

Knit all until total length measures (3", 3.5", 4", 4.5")

Decrease:

Row A:  K2tog around.  (16, 20, 22, 26) stitches remain.

Row b:  K2tog around.  (8, 10, 11, 13) stitches remain.

Cut 10" tail.  Draw tail through remaining stitches with yarn needle. Pull tight, and weave yarn securely onto underneath side.  Weave all loose yarn ends into under side of hat.

 

To make large pom-poms without commercial pom-pom maker:

Wrap yarn around 3 (Micro Preemie) or 4 (rest of the sizes) fingers 50-60 times.  Carefully remove from hand and tie a double strand of yarn around middle of loops.  (I also use a small finger diameter rubber band to secure prior to tying with the strands of yarn.)  Tie as tightly as possible and triple knot.

   
                   

Cut through all of the loops.

 

To trim, gather all of the loose ends up in your hand and trim the ones that stand up significantly higher than the rest of the ends.  It doesn't have to be perfect.

 

To make the pom-pom fuller and  fuzzier, place a fork through the center of pom-pom and steam over boiling water, a couple of inches above water,  for approximately 45 seconds on each side.  You'll be able to see yarn ends starting to separate and appear fuller.

To finish hat, using yarn needle, draw long yarn ends of pom pom, separately, through to underneath side, approximately 1/3 of the way down from the center top.  Secure underneath by securely weaving ends into hat underside. 

Add the bow on a clip.  Girls' barrettes make great hat decorations since they can be removed easily for washing.

___________________________________________________________

Thank you for using this pattern.  If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected].  If you would like to be featured on my blog, please send pics of your little person wearing his or her new knitting.

 

 

 

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Valentine's Day in the NICU: 2012

For Valentine's Day, girls are easy!  We've been so blessed with lots of hats knitted by folks who just hand them to us: other RT's at work, Lisa Ellison's gals out at One City Market, Lisa Wilburn from Fayetteville, and our own leftovers from other holidays...  this was the perfect time to dress those little noggin numbers up for Valentine's. 

Niece Jordan and I recently took an overnighter to The Landing in Branson to celebrate my birthday and her high school graduation. While shopping, we found some great deals at Claire's for ourselves, of course, and some cute add-ons for the babies.  Claire's had all of their flowers on alligator clips on sale so we immediately thought they would make really cute additions to the baby hats AND perfect for laundering since we could pull the clips off to launder and not worry about the flowers holding up in the wash!  It was a NICU hat "AHA!" moment.

We also had a lot of little hats that my friend/and fellow Knitting for the NICU group member, Yung, knitted with adorable crocheted and knitted flowers as decorations.  For these, I sewed little cutesy heart buttons to the flower centers--voila!

Girls are easy; boys are hard--at least at Valentine's Day! (and yes, I'm ignoring the double entendre from that sentence).

 A word about the buttons.  You have to be very careful or extremely confident in your cement-like sewing abilities (I use yarn whenever the button holes are big enough) to put buttons on anything for an older baby or toddler since they chew on everything, but for preemies it's not a problem.  They can hardly coordinate breathing and peeing at the same time yet, although I'm often amazed at their ability to zoom in on the nurses' feeding tubes or my breathing tube with super strength and inhuman canniness, the little thumb-munchers.

Next year for the boys I might go with more boy hats like these:

The hearts were completely made up on the spot as I knitted my normal basic hat pattern.  The one of the left was a two-needle free-form heart that I then sewed onto the cap and stufedf with a tiny amount of fiberfill to make it poof out a bit, and the one on the right was a simple row of hearts 5 stitches wide that I simply divided the number of total stitches by 7 (2 stitches between each) and cast on 42 stitches on size 8 needles for about a 3lb-er.  Loved the blue bamboo camo yarn--handsome AND soft.

Next up:  St. Pat's Day. Jordan and I found lots of cute add-ons for St. Pat's and thanks to all the great people I listed before, we have tons of different green colored or green variegated colored hats!