Adorable Grandpa Teaches Self to Knit Hundreds of Tiny Hats for Premature Babies

Some premature babies are so small that conventional baby clothing is much too big for them, but even the tiniest people need clothes too. Now quick-fingered grandfather Ed Moseley is doing something about that, because the 86-year-old taught himself how to knit, and now he’s devoted himself to knitting hundreds of tiny hats for premature babies.

Inside Edition’s Johanna Li profiled Moseley, who said that he’d never knit before in his life when staff at the assisted living center where he lives started talking about a project to knit hats for premature babies. A local hospital had asked if residents might be interested, because they needed hats to help keep the tiniest babies warm, and hospital staff thought some of the residents might already know how to knit and be interested in donating their time and skills to make some baby hats. Moseley is battling cancer and did not know how to knit at all, so they probably did not think he’d be interested in participating.

Moseley liked the idea of learning a new skill and making something for premature babies, so he told his daughter he wanted to try to learn knitting. She sent him a kit that came with a “how to knit” book to see if he could manage from that. Moseley is a retired engineer and his fingers must be as sharp as his mind, because with just the instruction booklet, he learned to knit in no time. He particularly liked that he could practice his new hobby while watching TV, and in no time the baby hats started piling up.

Moseley told Inside Edition’s Li that when he first started, it took him three hours to make one baby hat, and his initial goal was to make 150 of them for the premature babies at their local hospital. After a bit of practice, it now only takes him about an hour and a half to make one hat, and he’s picked up a lot of help along the way. Once other residents saw Moseley’s piles of hats, they got into the idea, too. Now Moseley and his friends have made 300 hats. They aren’t stopping, either. Together, Moseley and his friends intend to make 30 hats a month for the hospital.

This is pretty fantastic. Knitting like this helps the residents at Moseley’s assisted living center keep their hands sharp and their minds active, while also giving them a goal to work towards and something useful and important to do with their time. And it is useful and important. Even if tiny baby hats don’t seem essential, the parents receiving them care a lot.

As one mother told Inside Edition’s Li in an interview, having a premature baby in the NICU turns a family’s whole world upside down. With all that stress and trauma, it means a lot to be given a hand-knit hat and told that someone out there knows what you’re going through and thought you  might need this little hat for your new baby.

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