Valentine's Day Heart Bookmark

Well, I've been noticing a distinct lack of creative show-n-tell in my blog. It was one of the reasons I wanted to have a blog, to show what I've been working on or been inspired by, etc. So, in light of that, here is what may seem like a blast from the not so distant past. This is the "Valentine" I made for my girls for Valentines day. My daughter girls and my girlfriend girls, too.

I found a knitted heart pin pattern from frugalhaus.com and turned it into my own little bookmark valentine. Aren't I crafty?

The pattern for the heart is at the bottom of the blog.

For the other parts of the heart, I used a really nice ribbon I found at the fabric store and sewed it to the bottom corner of the heart. I folded it over twice to tuck in the raw edge and bind it, then used a little button as a detail. Another option would be to sew the ribbon into the heart as you are sewing the two sides together. I wasn't ready with the ribbon and was involved with a little heart factory for a month or so to get all of these done so I didn't do it that way. But I might have if I had the chance to do it all over again. One note on ribbon, don't scrimp. I was making a lot of these and of course ribbon costs by the yard so maybe I did scrimp on a few of them. Bookmarks require length, so plan ahead.

I looked for some nice beads to add a bit weight to the end of the bookmark but was unable to find anything I really liked that didn't cost too much since I needed a lot of them. I think I made about 12 all together. What I came up with was making my own "beads" out of Sculpey clay. I bought on white and one glitter red, and out of that came pink. I made all sorts of different shapes for the beads; corkscrews, free form hearts, cubes, cylinders, etc. Then I used a straw to make the hole the correct size, baked 'em up, and cooled them down. Good to go.

Makenna's bookmark

Here are a few examples of what I made. Makenna's bookmark was made out of the yarn that she used to knit Grandma a scarf this Christmas. There was a bit left and I thought she'd like to have something special to remember that project by. This was the first full out gifty knitting project she ever finished and on a deadline, too! Go Makenna!

I used a cotton yarn for my bookmark which, in my opinion, did not work out as well. The hearts were nice, but a bit more woolly or fuzzy type yarn seems to work best. That's my bookmark on the lower right there, see what I mean? It's not as soft and lovely.

After I made all the bookmarks I taped them to a piece of heavy gauge watercolor paper and water colored my Valentine's message right on there. Voila! And that is my Heart Bookmark for Valentine's Day Project. Enjoy.

Knitted Heart
Ok, gauge, yarn and needle size are basically all variables that don't really matter here. Find a nice yarn in a color that seems like what you want. I didn't like the novelty hairy yarns, the heart gets a bit lost for my taste, but you may like it. Woolly or fuzzy work best.
Needles: any kind - single or double point sizes 2 or 5 - I used 3 needles for the top of the heart.
Yarn and needles will change the kind of heart and size of heart you like so just play a bit.

Directions:

Cast on 1 st.
Row 1: Knit into front and back and front of st., for 3 stitches
Row 2: (and all even rows) purl across.
Row 3: Knit into front and back of first st., K across to last st., knit into front and back of last st.
Row 4: Purl across
Repeat rows 3 and 4 until there are 11 sts. on the needle, ending on row 4.
Next row: Knit across, binding off center stitch, turn purl across 5 stitches, *turn, K 2 together, K 1, K 2 together, turn. Bind off.*
Join yarn at center (wrong side)and purl across
Repeat between *'s above.
Repeat from beginning to make another heart piece.

Finishing: Sew sides together, back to back, stockinette side out, stuffing lightly as you sew.