12 Purple Hats

This week I was challenges (via one of the ravelry challenge groups that I'm in) to make hats or squares for charity.  The challenge ran from January 5 - 11, but I read about it on the 7th.  So I took out some purple yarn and got to work making my favorite baby hat pattern.  This pattern is a lot of fun to make, probably because I enjoy making front and back post stitches.  If you haven't tried them, then you should.  They are easy to do.  I used Cascade Pacific, Cascade Pinwheel, and Caron's Simply Soft yarns and a size I crochet hook to make them.  Each newborn hat uses about 40 to 50 yards of worsted weight yarn.  I will be donating them to A Child's Light which is my local chapter of Click for Babies. 

The mission of A Child’s Light, Inc. is to prevent the abuse and neglect of our children and includes all forms of abuse and neglect, whether physical, sex.

CLICK for Babies is a grassroots public education campaign organized by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome (NCSBS) in partnership with hospitals, public health and child abuse prevention groups to create awareness of the leading trigger for infant abuse, frustration with infant crying.
During the campaign, communities all across North America donate handmade caps stitched in all shades of purple. Along with these caps, new parents receive a video, booklet, and bedside information describing the Period of PURPLE Crying (a period of time when infant crying increases; beginning when babies are about two weeks old, peaking in the second month and ending around the third to fifth month).
The collaboration and coordination it takes to make the caps, distribute them to hospitals, and deliver them to parents provides a fantastic opportunity to bring the whole community together in an effort to raise awareness about this important issue.