Chunky Little Crochet Hearts

As February approaches, so do many many hearts all over the place. The 14th has long been Valentines Day - a day for lovers to express their affections and for secret admiration to be chanced at with anonymous cards. A day of hope that weeks or months of flirtatious advances might be mutual and one of the only days that you sort of hope to have a stalker. 

In my last relationship, I long pretended that I did not care for the day, for - and it is true - there shouldn't be just one day to share affections, particularly in a relationship, agreeing it was purely commercial garbage. But, in other truths, having grown up with Disney fairy tales and always ready to throw myself at any special occasion going - I do care! As ever, it's uplifting to make someone else feel good and rather lovely to be made to feel good yourself and to be thought of (bar any awkward moments where you are the party adored and need to side step advances gracefully). I'll admit though, to date,  the majority of my valentines cards have been from my father - but even those have stopped, very much appropriately so! So, I shall not be expecting any this year. 

And alas, for the singletons out there, it can often be a sad day of self reflection (woo!). When you don't have a stalker, or the affection hasn't been mutual. You can try and channel Bridget Jones, walking across London Bridge with the wind in your hair, but now - there is an extra commercial opportunity for us! Gal-entines Day - 13th Feb. The celebration of friendships between strong independent women - because that's all we should need right?!

Anyhow, as always, I have diverted. Let's get to business. 

These hearts can be crocheted from anything chunky with 12mm hooks. I've done some in Stitch and Story's chunky merino and Hoooked's Zpagetti. To keep the shape, I've threaded some craft wire around the edge. You can find some on the link here. I think I'm going to stick them onto blank gift cards and flog them at the market. You  could make a few and chain them together for bunting or little bauble type things or start with this heart, and keep on going and see what you end up with!

Before we get confused with US/EU crochet terms, this is what I'll be meaning:-

SC - Single Crochet - hook into stitch, wrap, pull back through, wrap, pull through 2 stitches
DC - Double Crochet - wrap, hook into stitch, wrap, pull back through, 2* (wrap, pull through 2 stitch)
HTC - Half Triple Crochet - wrap twice, hook into stitch, wrap, pull back through, pull through 1 stitch, 2* (wrap, pull through 2 stitch)
TC - Triple Crochet - wrap twice, hook into stitch, wrap, pull back through, 3* (wrap, pull through 2 stitch)

​I believe  this is US notation, but I prefer it - as single, double and triple wrapping once you've pulled through makes sense to me. 

Row 1:  Slip knot, chain 4, connect ring by joining in the first chain. (4) 
Row 2: Chain 1, 2 SC in each stitch, connect ring by joining with the first stitch (8)
Row 3: Chain 1, 2 SC in each stitch, connect ring by joining with the first stitch (16)
Row 4:

(- = move to next stitch)

Chain 2 DC - HTC TC - TC - TC TC - HTC - DC SC - SC - DC chain 2
- DC - SC - SC DC - HTC - TC TC - TC - TC HTC - DC Chain 2

connect ring by joining into first stitch and secure off. 

Your completed hearts will be about 13cm in diameter. 

Go spread them through-out the world, drop them into the bags of frowning strangers and send them to all your friends with packets of chocolate buttons and all the reasons why they're super great!

---