Christmas at Parkland

As newborn and 0-3 month sleepers and gowns appropriate for this year's Christmas bags are donated, we are putting them aside until the Christmas bag delivery, so they will not show up on current count totals and will show up on the December counts. This is a good time of year to find long-sleeve sleepers, gowns, and outfits on sale, so if you want to pick some up now for the 2009 Christmas bags, we would love to start collecting them early!

Allergens

Please be careful when submitting donations if you have pets or smokers in your home. The tiny babies we serve (especially those in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) are susceptible to complications arising from the presence of dog and cat hair, smoke, and heavily fragranced detergents and fabric softeners. If you do wash new unused items to rid them of allergens, please iron them afterwards to avoid the "used" look that washing can give them. We cannot give items that appear to be used to the hospitals, even if we know they are brand new. We are able to give gently used items to other organizations, but not the hospitals.

Baby Furnishings

Did you know that NIN can accept new and used baby furnishings? We cannot accept car seats, but used strollers, pack'n'plays, baby bathtubs, etc. can be distributed to those in need. Please make sure items are reasonably clean and in good condition.

Important Knitting and Crochet Guidelines

We recommend using soft baby weight (sport weight or 3-ply) yarn for baby hats and booties and saving the heavier worsted weight (4-ply) for afghans. The full worsted weight yarn usually makes very stiff and thick hats that simply aren't as useful on the delicate newborn skin for tiny babies.

Please remember to make the cuff on hats stretchy and of course, booties need to have a stretchy cuff to fit around chubby baby ankles. Please try to keep it loose around the bottom edge of hats and not have a tight, inflexible finished edge. A hat MUST stretch to properly fit over a baby's head!

Please make hats 5-6 inches deep. Preemie heads average 12 inches in circumference while newborn heads average 14 inches. Those little ones have big heads for such tiny bodies and they grow fast! A hat that is a little long can usually be folded up to fit. Very pre-mature babies are often not given hats because their skin is too fragile and they are kept warm in incubators.

We love and appreciate every item donated to us and want to make sure your work is able to be used. As always, the pattern box is available at meetings and we usually have some yarn available as well.