help!!! can I resize preemie hat to newborn?

[lovingmommy]

ok, i just made this pattern. Joann's preemie hat except that i wanted it bigger to fit a new born. i made it out of chunkier thread and a bigger size needle. result??? a tiny little hat!!!!! it doesn't even fit my girls' tiny baby doll!!!!!!

 

it is a easy pattern that i can problably repeat over and over. i have a bunch yarn that is just dying to be crocheted into something, my goal is to make a bunch of them and donate them but i need it to be for newborns. any one know how to change the pattern? so it fits a newborn??????

[hudelei]

I'm so bad with hats that I probably shouldn't comment on any hat question ever, but I think someone was saying that a newborn's head is the size of a grapefruit (and a preemie might be an orange? Or I could be remembering that wrong). I'd say you need a test head made of a citrus fruit.

[deneen]

If you go to Bev's Country Cottage she has wonderful, easy hat patterns for preemies, newborns, etc. She also has a head chart for sizes for the hats. Usually if you go up a hook size and add a few more rounds to a preemie, it'll work for a newborn. This site is very helpful and, if you hate doing hats in the round, it has a pattern (I have done a gazillion times) for a baby hat that is whipstitched together.

[TepperWear]

I've made tons of hats, but that's sort of an odd pattern so the rules I usually follow don't really apply. I guess I would try it with starting with an extra chain or two. So instead of having 12 dc after the first round, you would have 14, etc.

[Aggie May]

May I respectfully suggest that you do not make new-born or premmie hats out of chunky yarn.

If you imagine how small their heads are and how big the stitches are, they would be like laying on wire netting.

Very fine soft baby yarn is the best and done in SCs or at most DCs so they are smoother.

You can take a pattern which is made in a thicker yarn, for a bigger head and make it in finer yarn and smaller hook and it will come out the smaller size. When you have made one, you can make a note of what you have done then add or subtract sts to make bigger or smalle hats. Even 1 stitch less on the first round will make a lot of difference to the finished size.

The yarn may be slightly more expensive but you should get lots out of one ball.

It is a very important job you are doing so keep it up.

My Great niece was 6 weeks prem but was not too small so we were able to make her wee hats almost newborn size. She did not wear them for long so we were able to pass them on to the New-born Unit along with some baby blankets for the new mums who did not have much for their babies.

It is a great feeling to be able to help give a new life a hand up.

Have fun.

Colleen:hug

[Sabra]

I have actually measured a grapefruit, so I know that it is, indeed, the size of a newborn's head.

 

From a quick read of the pattern, it appears that there isn't nearly enough time spent increasing. What I would do, is do round one & two as it says, then increase evenly (in the third round, 2DC in 1 st, 1 DC in next st around, then 2DC in 1st st, 1 DC in each of next 1 sts around--that formula) until it will more or less fit on a grapefruit (or anything else round you've handy with a circumference of 14"), then do the decorative stitches that the pattern calls for.

 

I can just look at that pattern and tell it's too small. That's about my favorite crochet soapbox, in fact. It is probably best to avoid all "personal" free patterns, unless you see a photo of an actual baby wearing it!

 

And Aggie May is certainly right to say you need to use baby/sport weight yarn, preferably with an F or G hook, and make sure the yarn is very soft to the touch.

[neenas3]

try using a hook a few sizes larger, and maybe a bulkier yarn