In which I make tiny condom-ish hats for babies

So Cynthia, the owner of my favorite LYS ever (that would be Two Knit Wits in Oak Ridge) has started a charity knit project for the NICU at Alamance Regional Hospital. Participants in the project were provided with a variety of patterns from which to knit or crochet wee hats for premature babies. I figured I'd give it a try. I've had a partial skein of baby-melting acrylic yarn (acrylic being preferred for these projects b/c of ease of care and low chance of allergic reactions) in my stash for a while, and I am on a quest to decrease the size of my stash this year.

Ahem. There will be no snickering about my quest. I'm serious. Stop that snickering! Yes, I realize that one of the keys to decreasing the stash would be to stop adding to it, but another key would be to knit up yarns that are already in it. So there.

Anyway, I grabbed a pattern and began to knit. I am one of the rare knitters who has never knitted anything for an infant. I've done my share of cooing and squeeing over adorable baby patterns, but I've knit nary a bootie. This is largely because Gomez won't wear booties, I suspect. Thus, as I knit on this tiny hat, I was totally unprepared for the result:


Yes, that's a quarter sitting next to my first finished hat. Yes, it's a tiny hat. It's for a tiny baby. What strikes me is the condomy look of this thing. What's with putting stems on tiny hats? I asked on Ravelry's LSG group (because those hoars know everything) and I am assured that yes, it's supposed to look like that. Someone suggested that the stem gives a pixie-ish look to the hat. I just see reservoir tip.

I've made two more wee condomy-looking hats, and plan to cast on a couple more hats tomorrow. (I knit these things via ML, two at a time, the same way I do socks. I'm impatient that way.) I'm going to use a different pattern, though. Preemies have enough to contend with without having knitted condomy-looking things on their heads.