Hi everyone. I’ve been so busy over these last couple of weeks that I’ve only just had chance to check my blog properly. I have to say a huge thank you and WOW lol…you have all come from far and wide to see my little Pug Rug; From Brazil to Japan and many other far flung places in between. So again…Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope my future posts fly as far.
So these past couple of weeks for me have been full of mermaid tails; Pug Rugs and as its the season…lots of little love hearts 💖 (and a few pom-poms lol).
My nieces’ school are having a special afternoon as its Valentine’s this weekend so I offered my craftiness to help with decorations. My sister-in-law set off with my pom-pom makers and lots of lovely yarn I picked up from Hobbycraft…
…and I opted to make a Love Heart garland….which somehow along the way has increased to 3 garlands ha ha.
Now there are so many free patterns around for love hearts and its simple enough for most intermediate crocheters to come up with their own method…but as always…I was in a fix for time so after a quick hunt through the infamous search engine we all know…I found a lovely blog with a fantastic guide over at Craftaholics Anonymous for a simple crochet heart that even the newest to the craft would find easy to follow.
Linda at Craftaholics introduces us to one of her contributors Luliana; who has provided a full set of pictures with a pattern in a step by step layout, with every stitch simply explained. Big Thanks to both Linda & Luliana.
You might want to brush up on the ‘Magic Ring’ before hand, a good guide for this method of starting on a round can be found here over on the Craftsy Blog.
If your not too confident on the Magic Ring then you can chain 3 or 4 and join them with a slip stitch to create your ring…then carry on the pattern from there….you will end up with a hole in your heart with the chain ring method though.
I found that by varying the yarn thicknesses and adjusting your hook size accordingly, this pattern works for virtually any yarn or thread. Now bear in mind; my tension is quite tight, so you may find going up half a hook size may work better for the looser hookers (lol sorry hee hee).
Some of the smaller red hearts are made with King Cole Glitz DK (Around £3.79 per 100g ball) with a thread of Bergere de France Sirene (Around £5.60 per 50g reel) worked together on a 4mm hook. The largest heart so far has been on a 6.5mm hook with 2 strands of the glitz, 2 strands of the Sirene and 2 strands of another of Bergere De Frances’ Range; Lumiac, which is basically sequins on fine coloured thread (Around £5.50 per 25g reel)…Think ‘Super Chunky’ when judging the yarn thicknesses and should you should be about right.
The pink hearts are made from a mix of Hobbycraft’s WI Acrylic DK (£2.20 per 100g – 3 for 2 offer) and Sirdar Snuggly Pearls DK (Around £3.50 per 50g). The Womens’ Institute yarn is a standard DK for a 4mm hook (US Light Worsted) and the Sirdar, a Baby DK weight for approx 3.75-4mm hook (US Sport weight).
So then how to string them together? I decided on using 2 strands of the Sirdar Snuggly Pearls DK and worked that with 1 strand of the Sirene on a 5mm hook (around worsted weight).
I started with a Standing UK Treble/US DC (a good video tutorial for both left and right handers can be found over on Moogly’s Blog; Just click here) on one side of the first heart, followed by 7ch, then another UK tr/ US dc in the other side of the heart. I left a gap of ch3 between the hearts as I went along….but adjusted the chain stitches where needed for the varying sized hearts….Just check peridocally how the hearts are hanging.
So after 50 small hearts….a larger centrepiece heart and a few slot in odd ones (ha ha ha), I ended up with a garland nearly 2m long! All in about 3 hours with a few small breaks. If your after a quick to do Valentines decoration…then this shouldn’t take you long to do at all.
So now to finish the other two garlands in time…I love deadlines! Not! 🙂
It would be nice to see your versions of the hearts…If you want one of your makes to be featured on the blog over easter; Just pop me a quick message…or email…I’m on all the popular social media networks (Links are all below). I’ll also be opening my Facebook page up for likers to post so that should simplify things a little.
So I hope you all have a fantastic Valentines…till next time 🙂
Lea x
Lovely & Soft Diadem DK Yarn – perfect for silky Love Hearts
Diadem Solid DK Yarn
from: Knit Picks
The Cosmic Blog 