caps

It's Tuesday, and that means it's knitting day, but I don't have a picture of what I've been knitting, so I'm going to need some help from the source...

On November 18, I'll be attending The Yarn Ball, a charity/fun get together of needlecrafters in the Pittsburgh area hosted by a wonderful gal from my Saturday afternoon knitting (er...actually it started as a crocheting) group. The goal is to wear some fancy-schmancy thing you've made but never have any real reason to wear. AND, so we're not fully self-centered, to gather together as many scarves for the homeless and hats for babies as we can.

It's the hats that are the topic of this post. The baby hats are part of Caps to the Capital, a program being run by Save the Children, who report that "simple, low-cost practices...could save newborn lives — like warming their heads with a knit or crochet cap." They also say...

"Four million newborns die each year within the first month of life – half within only the first 24 hours after being born. But a package of simple health measures provided to mothers and babies worldwide, including antibiotics to fight infections, training for skilled birth attendants, immunizations against tetanus, education on breastfeeding and basic care such as drying a newborn baby and keeping it warm (this is where the caps come in!) could prevent 70 percent of these deaths."

To put this number of dying newborns into perspective, we HIV researchers get all fired up about the 2.8 million people who die from AIDS every year. Not to undermine this, but that Save the Children report says nearly TWICE that number of babies don't make it for 30 days. That's something we should take seriously.

And you know what...we've been working on a cure for AIDS for over 20 years. My research project isn't close to saving any person's life from HIV. ...Yet a simple hat that takes a couple hours to whip on and off the needles COULD.

...Never thought it would be yarn that would be the life-force, did you?

In all seriousness, it's a pretty good (in my humble opinion) cause. The idea is for people to gather hand-made (not bought) little baby caps, send them to President Bush with a petition for recognition (e.g. money) for this forgotten population, and then distribute the caps to the babies who need them aroung the globe. I wanted an excuse to practice English-style knitting after my realization that I had to re-learn it properly, so I grabbed a ball of the very first yarn I ever owned - some pretty ugly grey acrylic (I had these thoughts once upon a time of making socks with it. Maybe I still will, but...probably not. It's surely not wool!) - and POOF: a hat emerged. Plus, I'm fairly proficient with the English-style "throwing" now.

So, this is the spot where I wanted to post a picture of the hat as it gets ready to jump off the needles and get its seam sewn, but...alas, no picture. Please, instead, visit the Save the Children Caps to the Capital site instead, and see what you think about this project. Hint: there's stuff to do even if you DON'T knit or crochet!