Pledge Updates - "Pay it Forward" and Blogiversary

Last year, shortly after my 4th Blogiversary, I commented upon a post on "Knitting in the fastlane", a favored blog written by the charming and talented Olgalyn Jolly/O!Jolly!. (She also writes another blog that I haunt: "Crafting Fashion".)

The post that intrigued me? : "Handcrafting and Pay it Forward".

Basically, Olgalyn had promised to, within 365 days, create and send to three people who left a comment on that blog post a surprise - something handcrafted by herself. The comment-ors must be active bloggers/crafters, and must "Pay it Forward" - within 72 hours, blog an offer to create and send something to three folks leaving comments on the comment-ors' blog {who then becomes the comment-ee {wry grin}}.

By leaving a comment, and by being a {relatively} active blogger and crafter I became part of a Craft it Forward cycle as the 3rd comment-or on Olgalyn's Pay it Forward blog post.
The very next day, I created my own "Pay it Forward, Handcrafter Style!" blog post, offering to create something handcrafted for 3 blogging/crafting comment-ors.... you get the gist of the cycle, yes?

In April (well within the promised 365 days), O!Jolly! surprised me with this:
{As always, please click on the photo to enlarge.}

And whilst taking pictures, Gryphon surprised me with this:

{sigh}
{No cats or lovely hand-crafted surprises were harmed during this photo-shoot.}

It is clever, charming, tactile, and...well, perfect. I believe it is all hand-knit - even the flower.
{{happy grin} Thank you again!}

For my July 6th 5-year Blogiversary, I pledged to {learn how and} make a preemie hat for each of the comments left on that blog post. ;-)
Two lovely souls left comments on that blogpost: DrLeonesse and Sara.
Two! Two preemie hats to Knit!

I saw DrLeonesse a few weeks later and she brought me (!!) these wee knitted preemie treasures:

The largish one has a button at the top to allow for medical wiring and such.

 

The preemie collection was well and truly started! {Thank you again, DrLeonesse!!}

Extra-inspired, I perused Ravelry to find preemie hat patterns to knit.
I found several, but decided to start with the "Perfect Knit Preemie Hat"...which I promptly altered to knit in the round on 2 circular needles.

{On size 6 needles, cast on 32 stitches & divide between 2 circs. Knit a K2, P2 round on the 6s and then switch to size 4 needles and K2, P2 until hat measures 4 inches. Do the usual hat decrease round, plain knit round, decrease round, etc. until you're down to a cinch-able number of stitches. Weave in ends.}

These are very tiny (about 2.5 inches across) and I wondered if they would actually fit a human child, even a premature one. I was knitting the 2nd hat in a shoe store while the DH was trying on new sneakers. The sales lady asked what I was knitting - I explained and expressed my doubts about fit. She thanked me for knitting them and assured me it would fit fine. She knew because both of her grandsons had been born prematurely.
{Wow. BTW - both are fine and a 3rd grandchild is also on the way.}

The two above knit up very quickly so I tried another preemie hat pattern that had caught my fancy.
It had ears:

This one used a heavy worsted weight yarn and the ears were supposed to be knit with regular worsted, but I couldn't find a color in my stash that worked with this periwinkle yarn.
So, I knit the ears out of the same yarn and then...I knit two more hats with ears:

Out of periwinkle yarn, I tried Gigi's Preemie Hat formula (of the Knitmore Girls). {Pardon, it is likely that hat link only works when you are logged into Ravelry.}

Followed by the Lace Edged Preemie Hat pattern:

I'm well past my initial comment-matching of 2 hats. And there are 7 more preemie hat patterns I marked to try in Ravelry. {grin}
I've started inquires as to where I can take the hats from DrLeonesse and myself {and possibly from Sara...who is pondering preemie hat-making!}. If you-all know of where I should deliver these hats, please let me know. Thanks!

Oh - and I've also cast on the Looped Preemie Hat: