The American Heart Association is seeking donations of knit, loom knit, or crochet hats for preemies and newborns. They’re for a program called Little Hats, Big Hearts, which strives to put little red hats on the heads of as many babies born in the month of February as possible. While they’re at it, they give parents of these newborns informational packets to help them understand congenital heart defects, a leading cause of death among infants. According to the American Heart Association, approximately 40,000 children born in the United States, or at least 8 of every 1,000 infants, have some form of congenital heart defect.

You can crank out the preemie size Declan Hat in under two hours (even if you’re a slow knitter like me), and then you can visit the Little Hats, Big Hearts campaign page to find out the closest place to donate your little, red hats.

A note on the yarn used in the pictured hat
This hat was designed with 3 strands of Berrocco Folio yarn held together (yes three!). Designed for the Little Hats, Big Hearts campaign which helps raise awareness for infant heart defects by pairing babies born during Heart Month (every February) with little, red hats and info packets on congenital heart issues. I designed this with some stash yarn that happened to be red and discontinued, so I got creative and played with holding 3 strands of the yarn together.