Hearts of mine..

After noticing a lot of purple knits on the high street recently, my love for purple has grown. So, as part of some Christmas presents I am going to be making, I decided to knit some cute little hearts as embellishments. I have been knitting 2 years now and I have never knitted a heart before, how can it be? But they are pretty easy and so here is my tutorial on how I made my hearts.

The materials that I used for my little hearts are size 4mm knitting needles, applicable scrummy heather coloured yarn (I found it in my stash, no idea what make it is), scissors and yarn needle for tidying up the ends.

Abbreviations:

sts = stitches

m1 = make a stitch from the previous row

ssk = slip, slip, knit

k2tog = knit 2 together

k = knit

Directions for a heart 6 cm across and about 5 cm down

Cast on 3sts

Row 1: K

Row 2: K1, M1, K1, M1, K1

Row 3: K

Row 4: K1, M1, K3, M1, K1

Row 5: K, Tie off at the end.

Then cast on another 3 stitches and repeat these 5 rows. At the end of the 5th row the second time around don't tie off. Your two sections should be side by side on one needle making sure that purl side is facing towards you as you go into the next row.

Row 6: K all the way across the two pieces to join them together, making sure you pull tightly in the centre to keep them together.
Row 7 - 9: K
Row 10: K1, SSK, K to last 3 sts, K2TOG, K
Row 11: K
Repeat rows 10 and 11 until there are just two stitches left. Then bind off and there you go, a cute little knitted heart. Suitable for so many purposes!

To finish, the heart darn the loose threads into the heart, coaxing it into shape if its a little misshapen. A good tip is to slip stitch the first stitch of every row to make a nice boarder, but it's not necessary, I didn't this time around.

To make a wider heart just add more stitches into the first 5 rows where you can, and to make a longer heart add more knit rows before you start the decrease at row 10.

Lovely! x