Knitting Newborn Hats for Hospitals

March 3, 2011 by Beverly

I love to find quick little knitting projects that I can do in an evening. I previously shared my Favorite Knit Dishcloth Pattern which has received lots of positive comments, so I thought I would share another one of my favorite fast projects – a newborn baby hat knitting pattern that can be finished in just a couple hours.

A needlecraft store near my home (Country Needleworks for any of my local readers near Hudsonville, Michigan) has different service projects listed on their website that knitters can help with. I decided I could help by knitting some newborn hats that are used by the maternity ward of our local hospital. But their website didn’t include any pattern, and after doing some internet searching and not being quite happy with anything I found, I mixed and matched ideas and came up with my own pattern.

My starting point for this pattern, believe it or not, was the baby hats my own two kids came home with from the hospital almost 30 years ago. I’m not usually one for keeping too many trinkets as keepsakes, but I did keep those two precious little newborn baby hats all these years. I guess being a knitter made me extra sentimental about them.

I used these two little vintage baby hats as my template and came up with this pattern that’s quick and easy to make, even for beginning knitters. Although many hats are knit in the round on circular needles, for these very tiny hats I decided to create a simple straight needle pattern with a seam, again, following how my little vintage knit hats had been made. I’ve also created this pattern to use the yarns labeled as “4” weight, and that’s been helpful for using up some of my yarn scraps too.

Since I first created this pattern, I’ve had a couple grandbabies come along and have been happily knitting for them too. I’ve made them knit afghans and little knit sweaters, and of course these hats, that were just the perfect size for a brand new baby!

When I knit these to give to my local hospital, I try to follow their request to knit the hats in either blues or pinks to make it more specifically for a little boy or a little girl. However if I’m knitting just a solid color hat, I like to try to find a yarn with a few little flecks of color or other interest to it. But this isn’t always easy! I used to be able to find a fun yarn at Hobby Lobby called Lil Britches (the blue hat pictured below) but now I can no longer find that yarn. However I did recently (June, 2017) find a pretty yarn at Michaels under the Poppy brand name (the pink hat below) that was a “4” weight and also came in a pretty shade of blue.

Most of the time I like to add some stripes to give these hats a little pizazz and and then I top them off with a pom pom using the pom pom maker I bought at the craft store. I’ve included more info on how I make the stripes and the pom poms below. I also usually try to use a yarn labeled as “soft” such as Red Heart Soft or Red Heart Soft Baby Steps yarn (just make sure it is a “4” weight). By my calculations it only takes about 35 yards of yarn to make one of these hats so you can get lots of hats from a skein of yarn!

Here’s the pattern and I’ve also included a free pdf printable of the pattern too.

Easy Knit Newborn Baby Hat

Print This Pattern

Size 6 Needles – American (equals size 8 UK needles)
Medium Weight (4) Yarn (I like to use a soft yarn like Red Heart Soft)

Gauge: 4.5 stitches per inch (or 2 stitches per centimeter)

Cast on 48 stitches

Work in Knit 1, Purl 1 ribbing for 1″ (about 6 rows)

Then knit in Stockinette Stitch (knit 1 row, purl 1 row) for 3″ inches. End with a purl row. Piece will now measure 4″ from the beginning.

Begin Decrease for top of hat:
Next Row: Knit 2 together across row (24 stitches)
Next Row: Purl across
Next Row: Knit 2 together across row (12 stitches)
Next Row: Purl across
Next Row: Knit 2 together across row (6 stitches)

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail for sewing up seam. Thread the tail of yarn through a large eye needle and then pull through the stitches to remove them from the needle. Pull stitches tight to gather. Sew seam down side of hat with remaining yarn. Make pom pom and fasten to top of hat.

Ideas For Striped Baby Hats

Here are a few ways you can add stripes to the knit newborn baby hat pattern. I find it usually takes me 18 rows to make the 3” body portion of the hat after the ribbing. Therefore all these stripe patterns are for 18 rows but they are simple patterns that you could easily adjust as needed. I always do the ribbing in the main color, and then proceed on to do the stripes,

Note: MC = Main Color CC = Contrasting Color

Wide Stripe Pattern:
Free Knitting Pattern - Quick Knit Newborn Baby Hat. Easy for beginners too! Do Ribbing in MC
Then in stockinette stitch:
4 rows: MC
4 rows: CC
4 rows: MC
4 rows: CC (break off contrasting color)
2 rows: MC
Continuing in main color, begin decrease rows and complete the hat.

Skinny Stripe Pattern:
Do Ribbing in MC
Free Knitting Pattern - Quick Knit Newborn Baby Hat. Easy for beginners too! Then in stockinette stitch:
2 rows: MC
2 rows: CC
2 rows: MC
2 rows: CC
2 rows: MC
2 rows: CC
2 rows: MC
2 rows: CC (break off contrasting color)
2 rows: MC
Continuing in main color, begin decrease rows and complete the hat.

2 Stripe Pattern
Do Ribbing in MC
Then in stockinette stitch:
4 rows: MC
2 rows: CC
4 rows: MC
2 rows: CC (break off contrasting color)
6 rows MC
Continuing in main color, begin decrease rows and complete the hat.

Making the Pom Poms

To finish off the hat with a pom pom, I always use my pom pom maker that I bought at the craft store several years ago. I have the Susan Bates brand pom pom maker, although my old one looks a little different than the version they are selling now.

To use a pom pom maker, you wrap the yarn around two rings of plastic. You then snip the yarn apart around the edges, pull the two rings slightly apart, and tie things together with another small length of yarn. Once it is tied in the middle, you can pull the plastic rings off and fluff up your pom pom.

Snip away any uneven or long pieces to even out the pom pom. I try not to obsess for too long on this step because you can ALWAYS find a few more pieces to snip away on! 🙂

I then use the two long pieces from tying the pom pom together to attach it to the hat. I often use two colors of yarn to make the pom poms for my striped hats.

I hope you enjoy this pattern too. They’re rather addicting to make and before you know it you may have a whole pile of these newborn knit baby hats laying around! Here’s the link again to print the pattern:

Printable Pattern for Easy Knit Newborn Baby Hat

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