• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Donate now
  • About Tiny Tickers
  • Media Centre
  • Contact Us
Tiny Tickers

Tiny Tickers

Donate now
  • Support & Info
        • Support & Info

          Wherever you are on your journey, we’re here to offer the support and information you need.

          Find out more
        • What is Congenital Heart Disease?
        • Family Support
        • Are you pregnant?
        • Are you pregnant?
        • Just had a baby?
        • Has your baby got a heart defect?
        • Think HEART
        • Bereavement
        • Useful Resources
  • Professionals
        • Professionals

          We are here to help healthcare professionals improve the detection and treatment of congenital heart defects.

          Find out more
        • Sonographer Cardiac Training
          Our trainer, Niki, with sonographers from Russell Hall Hospital
        • Training services
        • Tiny Tickers' Yorkshire Sonographer Training Project to detect heart conditions
        • Training Resources
        • Cardiac Resources
        • The first Tiny Tickers funded pulse oximetry machine, at Good Hope Hospital
        • Pulse Oximetry Resources
        • Think HEART & Think 20
        • Resources Order Form
  • Get Involved
        • Get Involved

          Whatever your skills and interests, there is a way for you to make a difference to babies with heart problems.

          Find out more
        • Donate
        • Donate
        • Give a gift in your will
        • Our Appeals
        • Challenge events
        • Corporate Support
        • Fundraise
        • Share Your story
        • Play our lottery
  • Blogs and News
  • Your Stories
  • About Tiny Tickers
        • Our Work
        • Our Plans & Ambitions
        • How We Are Funded
        • Meet Team Tiny Tickers
        • Join Our Team
        • Our Values
        • Tiny Tickers’ Annual Reports
  • Media Centre
        • Brand Guidelines
        • CHD Statistics and Research
        • Family Stories
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Get Involved / Our Appeals / Millie’s Knit

Millie’s Knit

*Update March 2023: We’re so grateful to everyone who has knitted bonding squares for our heart families. We have been truly humbled by the amount of knitting our supporters have been up to! In light of this, we are currently unable to accept any new donations of bonding squares for the time being. Thank you for your interest; if you would like to knit for us, please check back again soon! *

Do you love knitting? Are you a whizz with your needles?

Why not use your skills to make bonding squares for heart babies in intensive care?

What are bonding squares?

When a baby is in intensive care, their parents are often unable to give them a cuddle or hold them for long periods of time like they otherwise would. Bonding squares can help parents and babies in this situation feel closer.

One knitted square is kept with the baby and the other on a parent’s body. Every twelve hours they swap the squares over, helping parent and baby to bond by smell.

Millie’s Knit is named in memory of Millie Hope Chandler, who was born with a congenital heart defect on the 1st October 2020 and tragically passed away just over a month later, on the 2nd November. Read her story here.

While in intensive care, Millie’s family received some bonding squares from Helen and Diane (read more about them below) and the idea for Millie’s Knit was born.

Sam says, “We were gifted bonding squares from a wonderful lady I had met through Tiny Tickers, so Millie and I each had a knitted square with each of us from day one. We would switch them every 24 hours, and they helped me to express up until we were able to breastfeed.”

Millie with her bonding square

Sam continues, “We are so incredibly grateful for the support of Tiny Tickers. They aren’t just a charity to help identify the defects. They are a support network for the families. They are now an extended family to us, and have provided Steve and I with help and love and support through our darkest days. We are so glad we found Tiny Tickers when we did.”

The Knit and Chat group, who very generously knitted bonding squares to help heart families.

Using the pattern below, you can knit Tiny Tickers bonding sqaures, to help parents and babies bond and remind them that Tiny Tickers is here for them during their hospital stay and beyond.

Download the pattern and diagram here:

TINY-TICKERS-HEART-KNITTING-PATTERN
TINY-TICKERS-DIAGRAM

When you have completed your bonding squares, please email fundraising@tinytickers.org and we’ll tell you where to send them.

Meet the creators of the Tiny Tickers bonding square

We’d like to say a big thank you to heart mum, Helen, for coming up with the idea and her mum, Diane, for writing the pattern. When Helen was knitting squares to send to Sam, who she met in the Tiny Tickers Facebook support group, she realised bonding squares could help many more families.

Helen, Diane and Oliver.

We add a pair of bonding squares to every support pack we send out to families who have just received a diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD).

Enjoy your knitting and thank you for getting involved in Millie’s Knit!

Footer

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Make a donation

Help us provide a better start for tiny hearts. Make a single or regular donations to help babies with heart defects have a fighting chance.

Donate now

Subscribe to our newsletter

You can change your email preferences at any time. Read how we keep your data safe in our Privacy Policy. 

  • Accessibility
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Fundraising Complaints Policy

© 2023 Tiny Tickers • Registered Charity No: 1078114

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.