Thursday, June 29, 2006

Carmen Miranda-izing the Babies of California

We have been challenged!

Stephanie mentioned an effort by a lovely woman named Jeanne in California, all about bringing breastfeeding education and support to low-income families in her area. Part of her plan includes handing out adorable knitted fruit and/or vegetable hats to the wee ones in the hopes of instilling smart nutritional values for life. (My own personal take-away lesson: always put your food on your head, because Mom's face is just so much more fun when you do.)

Jeanne's plan seems to be a pretty large one, and she could use the help of cheerful knitters to send some hats to simultaneously warm the noggins of babies and make them look like Carmen Miranda's littlest fanclub. I totally dig breastfeeding (been on the receiveing end, but not yet on the dispensing end), and I think Jeanne's effort is amazing. All the more so because who doesn't love babies wearing fruit-shaped hats? It's bound to succeed.

Because I'm so all over this, I've made a list of links to free patterns of baby hats that look like fruits and veggies for you to peruse and use. (I know you have the ability to head over to Knitting Pattern Central and check it out yourself--I don't think you're dumb in any way--I just like to be helpful and to pretend that I'm organized) (Hello 23 days until my wedding!)

And even though I found the bunny, squid, egg & kitty hats to be adorable, I'm vegan/vegetarian and don't want kids to think that it's okay to eat the squid, so I didn't include them in this list.

Warning: the pictures with actual babies in them may cause you to flip out from cute.

Apple Hat (I must make one of these)


Tart Hat (it wants to be a raspberry, though! Can you see it?)


Pineapple Hat


Pumpkin Hat


Tomato (or perhaps Strawberry) Beanie (so very cute!)


Watermelon Hat Pseudo-Pattern (by none other than Harlot Herself)

At press-time (ha! I find myself endlessly amusing!), Stephanie said folks could email her to find out where to send the knitted adorableness. So go do it. And leave me a comment if you're joining in the foodie fun. Hooray!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for the patterns. I'm going on a three week car trip soon and this will be great thing to work on . . . it is either that or tranquilizers!

Anna said...

Breast milk is so "not vegan". But it's also the one thing a veggie like me totally believes is best for babies.

Anonymous said...

That raspberry tart(let) hat is the cutest thing ever!