This week the birthday fun is continuing as I gear up to celebrate my baby's first birthday! She was a big surprise last year, coming a full six weeks early and having to spend a week in the NICU before we got to bring her home.
I realized pretty quickly that the things I'd knit her weren't going to fit for a while, but I didn't have much energy for knitting, so I made her a couple of hats and some legwarmers and that was about it before she (very quickly) got to normal-baby size.
But in honor of her smallness this week we're going to look at some patterns made for preemies or with preemie sizes available, so I thought I'd ask if you've ever knit for preemies, whether your own, a friend's or family member's or for charity. This one allows for multiple answers.
If you have a favorite pattern or thing that you like to knit for extra-small babies, I'd love to hear about it!
Comments
I use the “Preemie Caps” pattern on knittingdaily.com.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Anna!
I was a preemie myself – due on November 11th and born on September 11th, weighing just 2lbs. So my mum and I have always knit hats and blankies for the local NICUs – both here and back home in Ireland.
I modified a baby “learn how to knit” hat kit for the first ones I made, trying to fit an Orange because I’d heard that’s how small some of them needed to be. Then I joined Ravelry and found Bev’s country cottage group and web site.com. She has wonderful patterns, ideas for useful projects and a hat table that tells measurements for hats of all sizes.
I think she started knitting for a Grand premie, but it might have been her own, my memory fails just now. The hat I like the best is a k2p2 rib that is very soft and will fit several sizes. Important, as one of my grandsons, tho not a premie had some temp control problems so received a gifted hat. Unfortunatuly he was born with a big… head so the hat wanted to pop off.
No health problems caused the head size, it’s just bigger than most. I gifted my hats to my sil who is a nurse for the mothers in the baby area of her local hospital. They were happy to get them, small and bigger. I did learn to make them as tall as the diameter of the hat so they did not perch on top of the head.
bevscountrycottage.com