Preemie Baby Beanie Free Crochet Pattern
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Are you looking for something quick and easy to crochet as a donation item? This preemie baby beanie pattern is both customizable and quick so that you can crank out donations to our local NICU with record speed. Join me!
Preemie Baby Beanie Free Crochet Pattern
This is the first pattern in the 2025 Donation Crochet Series, a new year-long crochet series during which I’ll publish one new pattern each month that we can make to donate to local homeless shelters, NICUs at the hospital, to the local long-term care facility etc. All new patterns in the series are released on the second Friday of the month. This is going to be great!
My boys were both born full term, but I personally know several parents of preemie babies, including my very own cousin. Her oldest boy was born at just 27 weeks gestation, and weighed less than 2 lbs. He was teeny tiny back then and now he’s over 6 feet tall and a full blown adult. ♥
I can tell you that from my experience with my oldest son, Caden, who has a rare heart defect, that in the three months that we were in the PICU after his two open heart surgeries in 2007, the handmade items we received felt like tangible prayers. Those gifts or items were there because other members of our family couldn’t be.
Because I have felt the very real effect of such items, I am pouring all of my prayers and well wishes into each and every one of these little hats.
These littlest of preemie babies are fighters, and if you’d care to join me in creating oodles of tiny hats for donations, I’d love to have your help! Together we can offer a warmth and love that only handmade items can provide.
What kind of yarns work best for preemie beanies?
Because of the very delicate nature of prematurely born babies’ skin, we want to use the softest yarn we can find. This means to stay away from animal fibers (we never know who is allergic to what) and certainly no scratchy yarns.
Great yarns for sensitive skins (such as premature babies or chemotherapy patients) include the Shine yarn line and the Comfy yarn line from WeCrochet. Both are available in different yarn weights. I’ve also included a comprehensive list of yarns that are generally considered safe for sensitive skin.
Great yarns for sensitive skin:
Shine Sport or Shine Worsted
Comfy Sport or Comfy Worsted (this line also has a fingering weight and a bulky weight!)
Lion Brand Basic Stitch
Lion Brand Feels Like Butta
Lion Brand Heartland
Lion Brand Pima Cotton
Premier Everyday Worsted
Premier Cotton Sprout
Premier Puzzle Cotton
Premier Sweet Rolls
Red Heart Soft
You’ll never want to use anything labeled as “sparkle” or “metallic” or “chenille”. If you are in doubt of which yarns will work best, reach out to the hospital or charity for which you’re crocheting and see if they have any guidelines for you before you start.
For this pattern I am using Shine Sport, a gorgeous 60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal blend that is extremely soft and the colors are gorgeous and vibrant. If you’ve never used this yarn before, you’re going to love it – and so will the babies! A single skein of Shine Sport can produce four beanies. Look at all of these beautiful colors!
I made some of these hats with a 3mm hook, some with a 3.5mm hook, some with a 4mm hook, then with a 4.5mm hook. The smaller the hook, the smaller the hat. I like to use various hook sizes to make my preemie beanies because the babies vary greatly in size. You never know which sizes the NICU will need so having a variety is key.
Same pattern, same number of rows, just a different size hook:
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This pattern is written to be a bit longer than a traditional beanie. This is so that the hospital can roll up the beanie when the baby is brand new, then unroll the beanie as the baby’s head grows. This allows the same baby to use the same beanie for much longer than what would otherwise be the case.
If you need help reading a crochet pattern, make sure you head over here and check out this detailed post.
Note! Definitely get in touch with your local NICU to make sure they accept handmade preemie beanies before you start.
Preemie Beanie Pattern:
Round 1: Magic circle (Alternately you could ch-3, join to form a circle) Ch-1, 10hdc in ring. Do not join, work in a spiral marking the first stitch of each round with a stitch marker. (10)
Round 2: 2hdc in each st around. (20)
Round 3: *hdc in next st, 2hdc in next st * repeat between * * around. (30)
Rounds 4 through 13: hdc in each around. (30)
Sc in next st, sl st in next st. Fasten off and weave in ends.
That’s it! These work up so quickly that by the time you’re in the groove its time to start another one. One beanie takes me between 15 – 20 minutes, and I can get four beanies out of each Shine Sport skein of yarn.
I hope you that you love this easy and quick pattern, and that you’ll join me in this year-long series for donation items we can crochet. I can’t wait to see what we come up with in the 2025 Donation Crochet Series! New patterns in the series are released on the second Friday of each month.
More free crochet patterns:
Hair Towel with a Twist {FREE Crochet Pattern}
Scentsy Travel Tin Air Freshener Holder for Car {FREE Crochet Pattern}
Aldi Quarter Keeper {FREE Crochet Pattern}
Pencil Wall Hanging for Teacher’s Classroom – FREE Crochet Pattern
