These beautiful items were made by a dear friend of mine from church.  They were most lovingly created by Rita Larson for the 'Newborns In Need' group, which is now called 'Warm Hearts, Warm Babies'.  This has grown to be quite a large group here in Brighton, and around the state.  Rita loves to crochet, but once she ran out of babies (her own, and nieces and nephews) she stopped crocheteing.  Now she does her lovely work (and work of love) for this wonderful charity. 

The hat and afghan were made for a premie.  They are tiny!  The red is quite dark, but looks so bright and cheery when set in rows of white.  The white makes the blanket and hat really eye catching because of the gold threads woven throughout. 

 This pattern is very simple, yet it looks quite elegant.  You simply chain a strand as long as you want the width of the blanket, using a number that is divisible by twenty.  Then turn and triple crochet accross.  For the rest of the rows, you triple crochet nine, skip two, triple crochet nine, then crochet three triples in the next.  this makes the 'waves' in the rows.

The hat was crocheted in strait rows, then gathered at on side to make the top.  It's so small, and Rita did such a beautiful job!  The rattle was sewn from plastic canvas.  There are also two pictures frames that complete the set.  Rita has made several of these sets in Christmas colors.  They will be turned in to the Warm Hearts group and distributed around the state to hospitals, crisis pregnancy centers, etc.  in time for those tiny Christmas babies born to needy families.  What a labor of love!