Free Beginner Preemie Hat Pattern for Charity Materials

• Baby Hugs, by Red Heart ® Yarns: 1 ball any color for all sizes
• Red Heart Knitting Needles: 4.5 mm US 7 for light weight yarn; 5.5mm US 9 for worsted weight yarn.  
• Removable stitch marker
• Bent Tip Yarn needle
• Good pair of scissors

It has been brought to my attention that there is a large need for preemie hats at local hospitals. Actually, I had a mom of one of my sons basketball teammates run up to me (knowing that I’m “the knitting mom”) and ask me if I knew where or how she could get in touch with knitters about knitting hats for the hospital from where she works. At a loss, I told here the best best was to look online for local guilds, church knitting groups or stitch and bitches.

Her question lingered with me long after I left the basketball tournament. When I got home, I began to think more about it. Then I asked myself, what if I provided a simple pattern that anybody could follow so that even if you had never picked up the needles before you could make a hat? If I did that, this mom and others like her would be able to make their own hats. They wouldn’t have to go and search for others to provide them! Well, once I got the idea in my head I was on a mission.

I went to my stash and I immediately knew what yarn I wanted to use. Red Heart Baby Hugs is the perfect yarn! Why? Let me tell you. Baby Hugs, by Red Heart ® Yarns, comes in two different weights, Light and Medium. Think of those as sport and worsted weight. It is a 100% acrylic yarn that has the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Certification. The only yarn on the market that has it. This certification gives you the assurance that Baby Hugs is free of harmful levels of more than 300 substances. That’s got to be perfect for little babies who are premature, wouldn’t you think?!? 

What I also love about this yarn is it is very soft and comes in a variety of colors, not just “baby” colors, making it perfect for all projects!

Once I chose the yarn, I had to write up the pattern. As you know, that is part of my job here at MarlyBird.com ;-) I wanted the pattern to come in many sizes and I wanted the pattern to be for either the light or the worsted weight Baby Hugs yarn. Well, that meant that I had to write two patterns.

I also wanted to make sure that I wanted to write the pattern in such a way that, again, true beginner knitters would be able to understand. So, the free pattern isn’t written in a standard format (like most all my other patterns) but it is written in a way that I have found beginners really understand.

Anyway, I wrote the pattern, made the sample, and then I did a step-by-step video tutorial, because what could be more help to a true beginner than a video? By the way, have you subscribed to my YouTube Channel yet?

So there you have it, now you know how this pattern came to be part of the many free patterns offered here at MarlyBird.com. I hope you find the pattern easy, the video helpful, and the giving rewarding. Please share with me the hats you make with this pattern, as I would love to see them. Tag me on social media #MarlyBirdPreemieHat.