Every crafter I know have been confronted by this emergency. Your sister, niece, cousin, friend or neighbour just had a baby, this means you need a baby gift, pronto. Preferably yesterday. Here is my solution to this problem. A really fast baby hat. Sometimes I make a bunch of them ahead of time, but even if I do not have any “in stock”, they take me about an hour to make. They will usually fit the baby until about three month.
A word about the yarn. I love good yarn, and I prefer wool, plus most baby thing should be machine washable, so for me Zara from Filatura Di Crosa is a yarn of choice. Two balls will make three hats.