Knit Hat Patterns (and a BIG link to other great stuff)

My sister makes me the best hats for my angels.  Darling, soft, perfectly knitted, and STRETCHY.  Stretchy is the key, folks.  It's super important when trying to get these on to fragile heads to have some give.  I've received a few crochet hats that are reasonably so, but I have found that hands down, the knit ones stretch the best.  Amy shared her patterns with me.  I'm not a knitter, so they're meaningless gibberish to me, but hopefully some of you smart knitty type people will understand it.

Small Hat With Basket Weave
(5.5 inches in diameter)
Fingering weight yarn, #2 or #3 needles.
Cast on 48 stitches.  K1 P1 first row.  Repeat 7 rows.  K2 P2 one row, repeat on second row.  P2 K2 one row, repeat on second row. Repeat this pattern 2 more times.  K2tog, P2, repeat to the end of the row. K1 P2 one row.  P1, K2tog, repeat to end of the row.  P1 K1 one row. K1 P1 two rows. K2tog, P2tog one row.  Bind off.

This pattern can be made larger by adding on stiches in multiples of 4, and making extra rows before decreasing.
Medium Small Hat
(6.5 inches in diameter)
Fingering weight yarn, #2 or #3 needles.
Cast on 56 stitches.  K1 P1 first row.  Repeat 7 rows.  Knit with stockingette stitch for an aditional 1 and 1/4 inches.  Begin decrease.  K6, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round.  K5, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round.  K4, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round.  K3, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  K2, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  K1, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Bind off.

Medium Hat
(7. inches in diameter)
Fingering weight yarn, #2 or #3 needles.
Cast on 64 stitches.  K1P1 first row.  Repeat 8 rows. Knit with stockingette stitch for an aditional 1 and 3/4 inches.  Begin decrease.  K6, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round.  K5, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round.  K4, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round.  K3, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Knit one plain round. K2, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  K1, K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  K2tog, repeat for the rest of the row.  Bind off.

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I was forwarded a GREAT LINK today to a newsletter from Care Wear that is chock full of fantastic knit and crochet patterns for hats, booties, buntings, gowns, bonnets, and blankets.  Go take a look!

Featured Pattern: Sleeper Sacks

A friend brought my attention to these two patterns, and I love them.  They're essentially the same, just one for crocheters and one for knitters.  We have difficulty finding things for the especially small babies, the 18-22 week gestation angels that are well under a pound.  Any of you crafty ladies and gentlemen out there that can whip some of these up, I will make sure they get put to good use.

Pardon the ugly front-seat-of-my-van backdrop.  I picked these up from Angela (HUGE THANKS to her for staying up in to the wee hours to complete these in one day for a family in need), and went right to the post office with them.  I mailed the blue one along with sewn gowns of each size of my pattern for a little babe with a chromosomal problem that makes extra those angels extra small, so I wanted the parents to be able to have something in each size range to be prepared for any time that he chooses to be born.

This size is absolutely perfect and fills an unmet need for babies that are 18-22 weeks gestation, in the 8-12 ounce/8-10 inch size range.

I'm a very visual person when it comes to size comparisons.  I slid this little sleeper sack over a standard size water bottle and it fit absolutely perfectly.  I adore the matching hat.

Something that I am going to reiterate over and over again, and I am particularly bringing it to your attention on this first post because of the photo in the crochet pattern, is that rainbow yarn doesn't look very good with babies that have bruising and other skin discoloration.  In black and white photos it just comes out looking blotchy.  Stick with simple, muted, solid colors like blue, pink, purple, white and cream.  I actually like the stripes in the knit pattern photo, and little touches like a nice decorative edging are great.  But fuchsia, turquoise, yellow, orange, green, royal blue...just trust me when I say they don't photograph well either next to angel skin.

Measurement wise, many of the babies I have photographed in this size range are 8-10" total length from head to toe, with roughly a 6- 6 1/2" wingspan.  It's better to ere on the side of making the sack a little bit longer, so completed sacks that are 6" wide from sleeve tip to sleeve tip and 10" long, and ones that are a little smaller, 5 1/2" wide and 8" long would be great.  Make the sleeves large enough in diameter to comfortably pass your thumb through so that it's not difficult to ease their little arms in.  Even short sleeve sacks would be welcome.  If you really want to make me faint with happiness, make a matching hat small enough to go over a large plum to small apple size head.

Click on the following links for patterns:

Sleeper Sack - Crochet Version
Sleeper Sack - Knit Version