Preemie Hats - Let's Make Some!

From a blog called Calvin's Hats, the purpose of creating tiny baby preemie hats is summarized here:

Calvin's Hats is offering to grieving parents a gift which can bring a small amount of comfort and peace... a hat tiny enough to fit right on their precious child's head and something to hold on to when their child is no longer here.

Our wish is for these hats to bring a small amount of healing."

A couple of weeks ago, Raveler Annie said this:

When Calvin's Hats first started in February of 2009, it was with the hope that we could provide some hats to families who were leaving the hospital with empty arms. We had one knitter (Sarah DuVal) and a website with a limit of 3 pages. We were sending out one or two hats per month and thrilled to be blessing those families.

About 6 months ago, something changed. I'm really not sure what it w as that spurred it on, but our goal of getting hats into hospitals was finally working. Since that point, we've sent out a large number of hats. ... but never once has my hat drawer been completely empty. I don't suppose tiny knit hats can really compare to the Bible story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread, but that's how it feels sometimes.

If you want more information about Calvin's Hat , Annie's blog can be found here, along with some easy preemie hat patterns.

Here is my first finished hat that took only 90 minutes to complete.  It would fit on a tangerine.

Chemo Hats and Interpreting Sickness in a Unique Way

This is the second one off the hook:

The same pattern of crocheted hat finished this week from this free Bernat pattern:

Here is another:

These hats are, of course, for my daughter Julie.  Julie had her first chemo treatment this week, along with the requisite anti-nausea drugs.  After three days post treatment, she is still not keeping anything down. Sigh.

And speaking of sickness and how we deal with it, I am borrowing this from Abigail at Abigail's Alcove:

...When I found out that my newborn needed emergency abdominal surgery, I immediately asked to have her baptized. If my baby girl had to undergo all of that suffering, I wanted it all to mean something. I wanted her incorporated into the mystical body of Christ. I wanted her hurt to save souls.

A birth defect is different from the ordinary effects of sin. My baby girl didn't get hit by a bullet or poisoned by an environmental toxin. The Creator of the World, the One who lovingly knit together my baby's body in the womb decided in His infinite wisdom to drop a purl stitch in the formation of my baby girl's intestine.

Futher reading can be found here by Abigail about her infant daughter's sickness.  It is well worth the read, and gave me pause after digesting her interpretation of why this birth defect happened to her child.  I hope you take the time to read it.

Lettuce and a Summer Recipe

Here is a clever idea with lettuce growing in containers attached to exterior house siding:

These are my little pots with leaf lettuce now ready for the picking.  Each clay container will make maybe two large salads at two week intervals.

Along with fresh fruit, this salad will be delish on newly harvested lettuce leaves:

Here is the website for Strawberry and Mozzarella Salad with basil.  Our basil won't be ready for a while, however.  The leaves are still very young: