**Turn in a project and get a 10% off coupon
Please join us for the Bi-Annual Knit & Crochet Baby (Not Just) Hat Drive to benefit DC-DMV PAIL Net, the area’s Pregnancy and Infant Loss Network, in collaboration with The Solace Foundation and Stephen’s Heart.
fibre space™ will be collecting donations of hats, touch blankets, buntings and/or prayer shawls for the drive through April 15. We also will be holding an all-day stitch-a-long on Sunday, March 22.
Donations collected from the drive will be made to at least 10 local area hospitals throughout Virginia, DC and Maryland, including INOVA and MedStar hospitals.
Who will receive your donation?
For those volunteers that choose to knit a baby hat, small touch blanket or bunting, your item will be received by a family that has experienced miscarriage, stillbirth and/or neonatal loss. Your item may be kept by the family as one of their precious keepsakes from their baby’s short life, or the item may be used by the family for their baby in memorial picture-taking, visitation, cremation or burial. Your donation is extremely important to these families, and will serve in a lifetime of memories.
For those volunteers who may choose to make a prayer shawl, these will be used to support the mission of The Solace Foundation to provide comfort to bereaved mothers experiencing perinatal or neonatal loss.
Crafted with love
If you would like to tag your work with a small note saying something such as, “Made with Love for you by _____,” you are welcome to. DC PAIL Net will keep the tags on and pass them on to the families. These tags can be very meaningful to show someone cares about the loss they are experiencing.
Project parameters
Items needed: Hats, Prayer Shawls, Touch Blankets, Buntings (for miscarriage)
Styles: Traditional baby hats, may include hearts, animals, etc.; not flamboyant. Keep in mind that parents want things that are very much indicative of a baby, but also in accordance with the circumstance. Suggestion of soft yarns for all items. For the comfort shawls, The Solace Foundation suggests to not use pastels/”baby colors.”
Colors: All traditional baby colors, plus any pretty but not overly-flamboyant hats for Valentine’s Day, Easter, spring colors, fall colors, winter theme/snowflakes, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.
Yarn: Any fiber may be used/no fiber restrictions, typically DK or worsted weight.
Suggested yarns: Spud & Chloe Fine, Debbie Bliss Eco Cotton Sport, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Sport, Berocco Weekend DK or Worsted, Berocco Vintage DK or Chunky, Spud & Chloe Sweater, Rowan Softknit Cotton Worsted, Berocco Remix Worsted, Rowan Pure Wool Worsted, and Shepherd’s Wool Worsted Super Wash.
Head sizes: In DK, cast on 60 stitches for preemie, 72 for newborn, smaller for smaller circumference. Please calculate a stitch count for cast on for your project based on yarn gauge. (Note: These are estimations.)
- Newborn: 12 inches to 14 inches
- 30 weeks: 10 in (preemie size 10 inches to 11 inches)
- 20 weeks: 6.6 in (small/micro preemie 7-inch to 9-inch hat size)
- 16 weeks: 6 in and smaller
**The greatest need is for the last two sizes – 7 to 9 inches and 6 inches.**
Project ideas
Hats
The Tiny Knitted Bonnet With Eyelet Brim by Christine M. Woolley, for the tiniest of premature babies, uses fingering-weight yarn.

Preemie Hats for Charity by Carissa Browning is out of sport-weight yarn and offers five different designs on the same pattern. Note: The pattern is for an 11- to 12-inch size, but you could easily alter this to make smaller versions, too. Or, use a lighter weight yarn to help with sizing.

Here’s a the teeniest of crocheted bonnets, the Micro Preemie Striped Pixie Bonnet by Myshelle Cole, part of a series of six designs for this size using sport-weight yarn. To give you a size reference, yes, that is an egg this is modeled on.

Bunting
The Angel’s Pocket by Jackie Q is the perfect size needed for this project – for preemie or smaller. The free pattern calls for fingering-weight yarn. Some previous projects have used lace weight or sport weight, too. The finer the yarn the smaller the pouch, but the pattern also includes four sizes.

Prayer shawls
The crocheted ‘Margaret’s Hug’ Healing Shawl / Prayer Shawl by Heather C. Gibbs is a free, DK-weight shawl (yes, it’s from the U.K. but the author included both English and American crochet instructions on the pattern).

This knitted prayer shawl, the Double-strand Whelk Stitch Prayer Shawl by Louis Chicquette, uses a DK-weight yarn held doubled. The free pattern is knit on size 13 needles so it should work up fairly quickly.

More information
If you are a bereaved parent and would like information on a knitting-based support group, please contact Heather Thompson at hthompson@knitwell.org for more information.