rustic heart garland...

As promised, here's a little heart shaped project I worked out over the weekend. I still consider myself a crochet novice so I'm sure there are better versions out there in cyberspace but I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

I used a 4mm crochet hook with dk cotton. They come out about 3-4cm wide this way. If you have finer hooks and cotton you could do truly dinky hearts which would work well for cards, for trims or an even more miniaturised garland.

I wrote this all out long hand to start with and then realised it would be much easier to understand in list form. I hope all will become clear.

Start with a magic ring and crochet 12 half trebles into this, slip stitch to join into a ring and pull circle tight to close.

You should now have 12 stitches (count to make sure) into which goes the following:

1. ch2, htr, tr

2. dtr, tr, htr

3. ss, ch6, ss

4. ss, htr, tr

5. dtr, tr

6, 7 and 8. htr

9. htr, 2tr, htr (this is the bottom pointy bit)

10, 11 and 12. htr

ss to finish, simple!

ch = chain, htr = half treble, tr = treble, dtr = double treble, ss = slip stitch (UK terms)

I used hairy gardeners twine for a rustic look. You could use a cotton chain stitch, ribbon, whatever takes your fancy. Don't look too closely at the close up, this might have been one of the many experimental hearts (I tried lots of variations for the pointy bit at the bottom).