Hearts

I don't really 'do' Valentine's Day. Well, to be truthful, I don't do it at all. But I know lots of people do so, over the years, I've designed various heart patterns. I may not like the day but hearts are quite fun to design and another good chance to play with colours.

My first attempt at a heart pattern was eight years ago (Blimey, that seems a long time - sometimes I forget how long I've been at this lark. Ten years this summer, should you be wondering). Anyway, Folk Hearts are simple knitted hearts with a crochet edging.

That's right, crochet in a knitting pattern. I never mix the two now; there are too many people out there who only knit or crochet, not both and I've found a little bit of another craft puts them off. But I didn't know that then and I think the crochet edges look nice. They also hide any uneven edges which is always good. Notice the buttons I've used to decorate these simple hearts. I am very partial to buttons and will use them to decorate anything that stays still long enough. As we shall see ...

A couple of years later and my heart making skills had developed a bit to allow for a knitted border that's part of the main knitting. I'm still pleased with  Framed Hearts; they're simple and clean looking and I really like that garter stitch frame.

I developed the frame idea a bit further with my Button Quilt pattern which uses leftover sock yarn to knit little round shapes in a square frame that can be sewn together.

You know, I really like this pattern. I must fish my quilt out and add some more buttons to it. I've still got an awful lot of odds and ends of sock yarn lying about.

But of course I couldn't resist decorating the framed hearts a bit. There were buttons and some embroidery ... oh, and a bit of felt too.

There are an awful lot of crochet heart patterns out there so I haven't done much with crochet. It's easier to crochet a heart than to knit one because you can work them in the round, rather than having to knit several pieces and then sew them together.  I did sneak a few little hearts into this pattern though.  

Hearts etc started out as a pattern for little bowls but then there were padded hearts, layered hearts - oh, and a few little, decorated mats too. Some of us just never know when to stop.

It wasn't  until last year that I worked out a way of knitting hearts all in one piece. Hearts in a Hurry are knitted in garter stitch (possibly my favourite stitch of all) and they're very quick to knit. I really enjoyed designing these and had a lot of fun arranging them for photos.

Aren't those colours lovely? I think my favourite patterns are always those with lots of bright colours like this. I'd like to say that I wasn't tempted to add anything to these hearts but that wouldn't quite be true.

I haven't designed any more hearts since these, although a few did sneak into last year's February Mini Quilt,

Maybe it's about time I did another hearts design? In the meantime, I'd love to hear if you've knitted (or crocheted) any of these patterns and what you used them for. 

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.