Helping others

This will take a minute, but bear with me a minute while I explain... Several months ago I purchased Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Hats to make a football helmut for my great nephew. Loved the pattern and the book, which of course led to me learning more about Susan and her wonderful designs.  Which led me to her "I Just Want to Knit" blog, which led me to her "Spud and Chloë" blog, which then led me to a Ravelry fan group - Itty bitty knits.  Still with me?  Of course, I joined the group, enjoyed the discussion and wouldn't you know it, there was a charity knitting thread asking for members to sponsor a month.  I read the guidelines and asked to sign up to host July for Halos of Hope.  That being said, I feel compelled to contribute to all the other months as well, only fair right?

February's recipient is the Regina General Hospital Neonatal Unit in Saskatchewan, Canada.  Not being familiar with our friends to the North I google mapped Regina and found it to be about half-way between Calgary and Winnipeg.  Basically it just sounds cold.  They need hats.

For the orange hat I used a partial skein of Berroco Comfort in, wait for it....Pumpkin (really, that's the colorway name). The pattern is available for free from Through the Looking Glass.  The hat is knit with size 6 dpns.  Stitches used are knit, purl, and k2tog.  The stem at the top is a knotted i-cord.

For the blue hat I used a partial skein of Sirdar Snuggly Kisses DK in Skippy.  My first time using this wonderfully soft yarn.  It's yummy.  The pattern is available for free from Blue Sky Alpacas.    The hat is knit with size 5 dpns, but I've ordered some circulars to use next time.  I do not like the ladder effect I end up when using double points (no matter how hard I try).  Stitches used are knit and k2tog.  This hat could not be simpler.

For the pink hat I used another color of the Snuggly Kisses, Princess Pink.  The hat is knit on size 5 dpns.  I originally started out using the Fresh-Picked Baby Hat by Leslie Clarkson, but could not make sense of the decreases. So, I frogged it back to the stockinette and simply divided the total by six, and did a standard crown decrease. When I had six stitches on my needles I returned to the pattern to create the little stem.  Stitches used are knit, purl, and k2tog.