Back in the day, when knights were bold, and the French ruled the love scene, a poet named Thibaut wrote a poem about giving your heart away. And to clarify things, an artist drew a picture of a lady who actually handed over her heart, beat by beat. It was the year 1255 and the first time the red heart appeared in a manuscript.
Thanks to Thibaut and that clever artist, we no longer have to be heart surgeons to show someone we love them. We can simply knit or crochet a heart as a gift. And what better time than February to whip out our needles and hooks and make some heartwarming presents for our sweeties? So, as Valentine's Day approaches, we've put our hearts into overdrive and come up with some super simple patterns you can make during your lunch break, on the go, or during a crafty night in.
Heart-shaped Crochet Basket
The charming little basket is a versatile decoration, suited to grace any shelf, table, or bathroom. It can be filled with an assortment of sweet treats or hand-selected crafting tools, making it the ideal gift for your favourite crafter.
The basket is crafted using a simple crochet technique, requiring just a 4.5 mm hook for the base and a 4 mm hook for the border, along with a darning needle. By using a smaller hook size for the border, the yarn will have greater stability, resulting in a more refined finished product. With approximately 100 grams of cotton yarn and techniques including chain stitches, single crochets, and slip stitches, the heart-shaped basket can be completed in a matter of hours.
The design begins by creating the base in a circular fashion, starting with the centre of the heart.
- Chain 14
- 4 sc in the first 4 chains, starting with the 2nd chain. The first loop serves as the first stitch.,
sc3tog. = single crochet 3 stitches together, 4 sc, 3 sc in the last chain.
- Now turn the work and crochet the return round on the other side of your foundation row.
- Ch 1, 5 sc starting with 2nd st., place 3 sc into the next stitch to shape the bottom of the heart, 5 sc, 2 sc into the last st.
- continue your rounds, always decreasing and increasing into the same stitches.
- When your base has a diameter of ca. 20 cm, connect the rounds with a sl.st., cut the thread, and weave the tail in.
The border starts here:
- Begin by stitching a row of slip stitches on top of the base.
- With the smaller hook in hand, create the border wall by inserting the hook underneath the first slip stitch and single crocheting along the perimeter of the heart. Note that there is no requirement for increases or decreases in this stage.
- As an optional final step, you may choose to incorporate two decreases at opposing points of the heart, which will slightly curve the border inward and provide added stability.
- If a lid is desired, simply craft another basket with a lower border, but add an extra round to the width to ensure it fits snugly on top.
Pour your Heart(s) out
These charming knitted hearts have endless uses. They can serve as keyring holders, be transformed into decorative pins for flower pots, used to create a cheerful garland, as window decorations, or given as a stress-relieving toy to a dear colleague. And of course, you can craft them in all sizes, and add extra decoration such as fair isle colourwork or stitched flowers.
Our hearts are worked in the round from the bottom to the top. Our hearts are crafted through a seamless process, starting from the bottom and working toward the top. We utilized Symfonie double-pointed needles in size 3.5 and worsted-weight yarn, though feel free to experiment with different yarn types and needle sizes. To create this pattern, one must be familiar with the technique of knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, as well as increasing and decreasing stitches. The increase method utilized in this pattern is the "knit front and back" (Kfb) technique, where after knitting a stitch, the right needle is passed through the top stitch on the left needle, and another stitch is knit without slipping the stitch off the left needle.
- Cast on 4 stitches and distribute them on two dpns
- Knit 1 round
- next round: Kfb in every stitch = 8 st., 4 on each needle
- next round Kfb in the first and last stitch on every needle = 12 st.
- Add a third dpn for easier maneuvering and continue to increase by 4 stitches each round until your heart has the desired diameter.
- Knit 1 or 2 rounds without increases depending on the size of your heart
Divide the heart into two halves, and distribute the stitches of each half onto two needles. Knit each half separately now.
- In each round, knit the first 2 and the last 2 stitches of each needle together, until you only have 2 stitches left on each needle.
- Bind off.
- Repeat the process with the remaining half.
Cut the yarn, and weave in the ends, leaving a small space in the middle
Fill the heart with cotton or yarn scraps, then sew the centre together using the whip stitch and weave in the end.
We hope you have fun reworking these patterns using your KnitPro tools and would love to see the results of your efforts on your social media profiles. Please don't forget to tag us in your pictures and reels.
