Preemie Hats on a Sunny Day

Today was the meeting of a group of machine knitters I've known for about 3 years now.  I really enjoy getting together with these ladies.  We talk about our machine knitting endeavors of the past month.  Share some hand knitting projects.  We have lunch together.  Then we'll either demonstrate a technique or a pattern.  Today the meeting was at Susan's house and she decided we'd make preemie hats for donation to our local hospital.  Susan is great about collecting hats and blankets that we've made and getting them to a worth charity.  Not to mention all the knitting and crocheting she does on her own for charity.  She'll take knitted square donations and turn them into a beautiful lap blankets for charity.  So, when she asks for knitting help I ask, "What do you need?"

Susan set up 3 standard knitting machines for us to work on.  After lunch we got right on it.  Pairing up and using a pattern she provided.  At first I read the pattern to my friend Desiree as she knitted a hat.  As she sewed up her hat I knitted my hat.  Desiree helped me knit on a Brother machine.  I have zero experience with them.  It was a lot of fun picking out a pattern for an electronic machine.  She showed me how to zero in on the part of the pattern I wanted to knit.  Then helped me fix a mistake that was probably made by me, but we blamed it on the electronics.  It doesn't talk back.

After about 2 hours our group had 7 hats ready for some precious preemie baby heads.  My son was a preemie and I still have the little knitted hat he was given in the hospital.  Saving it for Grand kids, but now that I think about it I hope none of them are preemies.  I may have to rethink that and just keep it as a memento.  A remembrance of a serious time in my child's life and the good thoughts sent my way by a sweet stranger.

See my Ravelry project for details on how I made this particular hat.