Recently, we received a letter from a colleague, Justin De Graaf, about an organization close to his heart, making beanies and other items for babies in need:

"Late last summer a dear friend of mine gave birth to a 23 week-old daughter, Rosie. Despite the best efforts of my friend, a registered nurse, and the NICU, Rosie died within two weeks.

During her stay in the NICU, a small community formed called Rosie's Cozies, with the sole purpose of making beanies for Rosie. This was led by a wonderful woman named Betsy [Thompson] who posted on her blog about Rosie and the effort to create beanies for NICU babies. Now it's taken off after Betsy shared all of her fantastic designs for all to use and as a result hundreds of handmade, donated beanies have begun to stream in to NICU wards for worried moms everywhere to outfit their tiny babies."

Betsy Thompson--a crochet-fanatic--told us,

"Since I crocheted, I decided to crochet hats for Rosie while she was in the NICU. Megan and Ryan [Rosie's parents] expressed a huge appreciation for this. Megan said it was really the only 'outfits' those teeny babies were able to wear. It was one of the highlights of her day (and the nurses) to pick out Rose's hat for the day. Based off of the huge response from Megan and Ryan I decided to start Rosie's Cozies in honor of their daughter. Rosie's Cozies is a project to encourage people to make and donate hats to either the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids (Rosie's NICU), or for their own local NICUs. I really encourage people to make hats with a bit more character than a basic beanie. Make the hat with a flower, make it an owl hat, a frog hat, add a football applique, or make it a bear. Make SOMETHING that has just a bit more character than the average hats the NICUs receive. Thus, Rosie's Cozies began and more than 1000 hats have been donated from all over the world (Texas, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, Scotland, Australia, etc..)"

If you would like to make hats for babies at Rosie's NICU (Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapinds, MI) or for NICUs in your area, check out pattern ideas on Betsy's blog and on Ravelry.com. For additional free preemie hat patterns on LionBrand.com, click here. Recommended yarns for these patterns include soft, aby yarns, as well as cotton yarns.

Betsy also mentioned, "[Helen DeVos Children's Hospital] highly encouraged making hats with stretch to them, without big gaps or holes. I have made hats with earflaps, but have kept the braided tassles off due to them possibly getting in the way of tubes the babies might have attached to them."

To send your hats to Rosie's NICU (Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapinds, MI), please mail your hats to:
Rosie's Cozies
6026 Kalamazoo Ave SE #119
Kentwood, MI 49508

Learn more about Rosie's Cozies on their Facebook page.

To find a charity organization in your area, visit our Charity Connection database.