Orange hat appeal

Some babies need extra monitoring and support after birth. As part of the 'Keeping mothers & babies together' initiative, we came up with the idea of providing knitted orange hats for these more vulnerable babies. The orange hat helps the team easily identify which babies need extra care; allowing them to take timely observations, blood sugar tests and extra support to establish feeding so that mothers and babies can stay together.
This initiative has proved so successful that we now need more volunteers to help us knit hats for our newborns. So if you have some spare time and orange wool handy, please support this worthy cause by knitting hats for us.

Knitting pattern

• Use double knitting wool.
• Using 3.1/4 m.m. (10) needles.
• Cast on 71 sts and work 8cm (3ins) in rib finishing on 2nd row.
• Change to 4m.m. (8) needles and work 12 rows in stocking stitch.
• Shape crown.
• 1st row K1*sl.1, K1, p.s.s.o. knit 5 repeat from * to end.
• 2nd row and every alternate row, purl.
• 3rd row K1*sl.1, K1, p.s.s.o. knit 4 repeat from * to end.
• 5th row K1*sl.1, K1, p.s.s.o. knit 3 repeat from * to end.
• 7th row K1*sl.1, K1, p.s.s.o. knit 2 repeat from * to end.
• 9th row K1*sl.1, K1, p.s.s.o. knit 1 repeat from * to end.
• 11th row K1*sl.1, K1, p.s.s.o. repeat to the end.
• Break off wool and thread wool through stitches, draw up tight and fasten off.
• Sew hat up, folding rib in half.

You can use WI premier acrylic yarn orange lot no. 2038 from craft and haberdashery shops.

The colour may vary from batch to batch but as long as its bright ORANGE its fine.
Please send in your creations to Royal Free Hospital or Barnet Hospital delivery suites.
If you are on Twitter, follow us @MumBaby2gether and share your creations online.