Product: one hat for anencephalic baby
Materials: two size 8 needles, 2 size 8 dpns, about an ounce of pink yarn. Maybe.
- Cast on 46 stitches, k2 p2 with one k at either end.
- After about an inch, do two rows of reverse stockinette
- Begin again with one k on either side and then reverse the ribbing for p2 k2 so the ribbing will lie flat against itself.
- Go up about two and a half inches. Mess up the decreases. End up with three stitches remaining. Do about an inch and a half to two inches of i-cord. Tie one knot. Sew up the back. Turn up the brim.
- Have a hat that would fit a plum. Offer it up on the anencephaly support group for anyone who wants it.
- Be really, really sad because that’s probably the right size, although you hate to admit it.
- Final step: procrastinate on offering it on the support group for months. Feel bad about that too.
Products for the tiniest babies are so hard. I used to make fetal demise pouches.
Take two pieces of satin ten inches square.
Cut one in half to make two triangles and set one triangle aside from the next.
Line up three corners and sew the two edges, right sides together.
Turn inside out.
Trim the edges with bias tape and lace.
Sew a bit of ribbon to each corner so the piece can be tied closed around a baby so small and frail that he or she can never be put into real clothing.
Slip in a hairbrush to check the size.
Have a good cry in sympathy for the family.
I can’t do them anymore.
My heart aches for you and for them.
It’s the little practical details that bring it all back sometimes, Jenni. Making the hat was easy. Looking at it was not. That’s one reason I kept putting off making the offer on the anencephaly support group.
Ivy, I couldn’t do those pouches at all. What got me through making the blue preemie blanket and hat set last year was thinking the child would probably survive.