Mandy Fuehrer is looking for a few good knitters and crocheters to boost the ranks of her corps of volunteers who create hats given to every newborn at Mercy Regional Medical Center.
“In all these years, I don’t think we’ve ever run out of hats. Sometimes, I’ve had to make a few special deliveries,” Fuehrer said.
The Durango Mad Hatters, which began in 2006, has a core of about a dozen knitters and crocheters committed to the mission of providing Mercy newborns with their own unique hats, but Fuehrer said it never hurts to boost the ranks to ensure a good inventory is in stock to keep the newborns’ top sides nice and toasty.
The Yarn Demons, a group of Durango High School knitters, also provides hats, and occasionally, employees at Mercy add to the Mad Hatters’ stock, Fuehrer said.
It’s hard to predict just how many babies will be born any month at Mercy, but Fuehrer says she tries to provide between 60 to 100 hats monthly to the hospital.
“Once in a while, I’ll get a call from Mercy: ‘Mandy, we need more hats,’ but usually, it’s because I’ve forgotten to make my delivery,” she said.
Jennifer Hyson, director of the Family Birth Center at Mercy, said the hospital delivers 1,000 newborns a year, but the monthly totals can vary widely. The state of the economy, Fuehrer said, is one clue that helps hint at the number of newborns coming.
“I don’t know if you have kids, but they are expensive,” she said.
Hyson said the hats have become a tradition at Mercy that is beloved by the Family Birth Center Unit and the families of newborns.
“We just love when they make deliveries,” she said. “We love going through the new caps to see what they brought, especially now during the holidays. Some have an elf or a Santa on top. It’s a great gift from the community, and that’s the part I love.”
If anyone needs help with patterns or knitting or crocheting tips, Fuehrer said she’s glad to help. She has some plans ready to go and an information sheet to provide her knitters.
She said she can also help teach people to knit in the round – the technique needed to complete a knitted hat.
Janet Reichl began knitting for the Mad Hatters to use a stash of yarn she inherited after her mother passed away. She is partial to making hats in Broncos colors for both boys and girls. “You can do things for girl’s caps like adding some frilly things,” she said.
The Mad Hatters taught Marsha Pfeiffer to knit, and she said it has helped her crocheting skills. Pfeiffer is partial to camo hats, and said she tends to knit boy’s hats because when she started, they had a surplus of girl’s hats but a shortage of boy’s tops.
It’s the fathers who get to pick out the caps, and the knitters say they keep that in mind in designing caps – aiming to appeal to masculine sensibilities.
The hats should be 5 inches to 5½ inches tall and about 12 inches in circumference, Fuehrer said, and she again emphasizes she can help people who are new to knitting hats. The hats should not be made of wool, with cotton or acrylic preferred. Wool is too itchy, Fuehrer said. Also, hats should not use yellow as the primary color, and yellow should not be used at the base of the cap as it shows up badly against newborns, who are frequently born with a bit of jaundice.
Other than those basic guidelines, knitters and crocheters are free to design hats to their heart’s content, Fuehrer said.
Of course, miscues happen.
“Occasionally, I get a dark gray or a black hat, and it’s like, ‘what were you thinking? This is for a newborn,’” she said.
At one time, the group had a regular meeting night to socialize and knit together, but that has fallen by the wayside.
Currently, Fuehrer said knitters and crocheters drop off hats at collection boxes at Yarn, 755 East Second Ave., and at Stitch: A Quilt Store, 153 E. 15th St.
Knitters should include their name and contact information with the hats they drop off at Yarn or Stitch, as Fuehrer would like to keep a good roster of active knitters.
So far this year, Fuehrer estimated the Mad Hatters have donated about 800 caps to Mercy, and since 2006, the group has donated more than 9,000 hats.
“We’re always looking for new knitters. People go on vacation. People get busy,” she said.
And as President Donald Trump has been eager to tout, the economy’s doing great.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
To help
Contact Mandy Fuehrer at (505) 490-3452 or at durangomadhatters@gmail.com if you wish to help knit or crochet hats for the Durango Mad Hatters.
Volunteers can drop off hats at collection boxes at Yarn, 755 East Second Ave., and at Stitch: A Quilt Store, 153 E. 15th St.
