mini knitted hearts

As Valentines day is almost upon us I thought I'd share a favourite knitting project of mine - these knitted hearts make perfect gifts for loved ones on Valentines Day, or any day!

It's also a super quick knit - I made one yesterday using some of my hand dyed yarn and it was done within the hour.

I've shared the pattern below if you'd like to try one out.

Knitted hearts

Yarn and needles 

I recommend DK wool and side 8 (4mm) needles as a starting point, but you can experiment different weights and sizes if you want a larger or smaller heart.

Instructions

Cast on 2 stitches.

For the bottom of the heart:

Row 1: purl

Row 2: kfb in both stitches (4sts)

Row 3: p

Row 4: kfb, k to last st, kfb

Repeat rows 3 & 4 until you have 20sts

Purl 1 row

For the top of the heart:

Row 1: k10, then turn

Row 2: p2tog, p6, p2tog

Row 3: k

Row 4: p2tog, p4, p2tog

Row 5: cast off

Repeat the above 5 rows for the remaining 10 sts on needle.

Finishing up

Weave in loose ends.

Sew up and stuff.

Now leave them on pillows, hide them around the house or tuck them in coat pockets - they'll be a nice little surprise for whoever you choose to make one for.

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colourful crochet

I've made a bunch more crochet squares for my stitch library. Every time I think I've run out of different colours of wool I manage to dig out a couple more balls from my yarn basket.

A couple of these were made from the wool I received in my recent Fibreshare package. It was lovely to make use of them so quickly! 

Of these ones I think the embossed circles is the most interesting (and surprisingly easy to crochet too!) although the colour I used for the crossbill stitch also make that one a firm favourite.

I actually spread all my squares out on the floor on Saturday and I think I do have enough for a medium sized blanket. I'm tempted to go large and try out some more stitches though. 

We'll see!

weaving

It took me a while but I finally finished my first handwoven piece at the weekend.

I started it way back in January last year using a loom Ben bought me for Christmas. We'd just been on a new year trip to Iceland which provided inspiration for the tapestry.



Weaving is something I really enjoy when I sit down to do it - I just found that I didn't get round to doing it very often. Although I quite enjoyed having a project on the go that I could pick up every few months and add to - slow crafting!

I'm really happy how it turned out though, especially as I feared it would all fall apart when I eventually came to take it off the loom.




I'm definitely going to make another. Perhaps inspired by our garden.
Maybe I'll have something for show and tell in 2017...