Purposeful Crochet

Our youngest son, Baby L is now seven months old. He was born in late August with seemingly no complications. However, the day after we brought him home from the hospital he was readmitted after a routine checkup showed some concerns. We originally thought he had an infection, but later found that he had some neurological issues. God has been so gracious to us, and our little one has made a miraculous recovery from the brain injury with very minimal delays. But in the first couple weeks of Baby L's life, we had no idea what his future would hold.

You can read about our NICU journey here:
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He's Home!!!

The eleven days we spent in the NICU were absolutely the darkest days of my life. Watching the heart rate and oxygen levels of our infant drop, praying that he would somehow maintain his body temperature, tubes and wires stuck through him everywhere,...not knowing when or how or if he would recover. And our story was nothing compared to most of the other families in there. This was our life for only 11 days...others were there for literally months. My heart still aches for them in a way that only a mother who has been there can understand.

One day while in the NICU we received a wrapped gift from a mom who's little one had been in the NICU a year prior. It was so sweet to receive this gift. Also, while I was there I kept myself busy crocheting hats for Baby L since staying warm was something that was hard for him to do. From the moment I came home I knew I wanted to somehow minister to the families who were going through what we went through.

Last month I announced to our homeschool group that I was hoping to get at least 35 homemade baby blankets to donate by the end of May. There are 25-35 families in the NICU at any given time, so this would allow us to give a blanket to each family. We are also collecting crocheted hats, preemie/newborn clothes, diapers, and $5 gas cards for the families. I'm teaching a group of girls at our our homeschool co-op to crochet and have hosted the first of three one-day "Crash course in crochet" classes. All of the kids and moms attending are working on blankets as well.


To kick it all off, my sweet friend, Marcy gave me a big bag of crocheted baby hats and blankets that she and her mom had made to donate when she was working as a nurse at the hospital.

Here are well over 20 hats all made by Marcy.


And nine blankets (most with matching hats) made by Marcy's mom. I wish you could see these in person...they really are beautiful.


Here's the first blanket preemie that I worked up. I used this free pattern.


Both hats I made are based on this free pattern.


I wanted an easy pattern for beginning crocheters, so I have been showing them how to make a simple 9 inch by 9 inch double crocheted square. After they complete four of them, they can sew them together and add a border. I made the teddy bear separately and sewed it on.


The border is a round of double crochet (brown), a round of single crochet (blue), and a shell pattern (yellow).

I'll keep you updated on all the blankets we collect!

By the way if you're interested in helping, leave me a comment with your email and I will send you the info on how to get the donations to me.