Need help with premie blankets.....

[shelain22]

So, My 2 step-daughters are 7 and 8 and they are already wanting to make blankets, lol. They made their first granny square last night and the girls and I came up with this idea...

We can each make the dsame # of squares and cross stitch our initial in the corner and make premie blankets to give to the hospital.

 

My question is this, would a blanket made of all basic granny saquares be to open, could we do it with some basic granny squares and some that are more solid? What is a good pattern for a solid square that a 7 and 8 year old could do? Oh, and what size squares should we make?

 

I have been going to Lillis school every day dureing recess, (because of recent medical problems she cant play outside with the other kids right now) and she has been working so hard on them.

 

thank you fo rall of the help!

Valerie

[crochetfun]

http://members.aol.com/JSchlossma/ezsqa.html

 

This one seems like an easy and solid square. I can't help with the other questions but I am sure others will:)

[crochet.sandie]

My question is this, would a blanket made of all basic granny saquares be to open, could we do it with some basic granny squares and some that are more solid? What is a good pattern for a solid square that a 7 and 8 year old could do? Oh, and what size squares should we make?

 

The best thing to do would be to ask the hospital what size afghans would work best for them and adjust your square size to approximate that. For example if they want blankets 30" square, you could make 6" squares and use 5 across and down or you could use 10" squares putting 3 across and down, etc etc

 

It also depends on how the hospital uses them. If they use it as a visual covering over the baby's cloth blanket, the holes won't make a difference. If they cover the baby with the actual afghan, then you would want to use a small hook for a granny so the holes are not too large and won't get caught up in tiny fingers or cause problems with IVs and such.

 

Hope that helps.

[Jimmie Lu]

My experence has been that Hospitals like a 12x12 for premies I did have a request from the hospital NO OPEN GRANNY for premies. some have so many tubes and wires the holes just get in the way. I do DC 12 in sq and they seem to help. Check out Bevs site she has alot of premie links and patterns. There is also a link for a angel wrap for premies that is very east to do my almost 12 yr old can make them. Or another sug. is to have them make hats. I found hats are always welcome and there are some very super easy patterns to do

[crochet.sandie]

have them make hats. I found hats are always welcome and there are some very super easy patterns to do

 

You can make hats out of granny squares too. In fact, I would think that would be a good pattern to use for hats because sometimes they need to do work in the head area and this would give them access.

 

The preemieghans I make are indeed 12 or 15" but different hospitals have different needs. I had one hospital request them larger (I think it was 30 x 30) because they wanted to use them to cover the isolettes. I noticed some of the Care Wear hospitals also requested larger blankets but these are not all for preemies. The NICU director or a nurse there would be able to tell you better.

[LeslieJo]

How great you have a chance to bond with your step-daughters!! Wow!! I read advice from a hospital on preemie stuff - make sure you use very soft yarn, as preemies are very sensitive and "normal" things feel very rough to them. It was also recommended that the smaller gauge yarns be used, because worsted or even sport weights would feel like rope to a preemie. Think about how small they are, compared to the yarn, and extrapolate that to your size and you will begin to see what I mean. Bless you and your daughters for having hearts for this growing need.