Happy St Valentine's Day

I decided to make a garland with my Valentine hearts, simply strung together with chain inbetween and here it is decorating my fireplace.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I wrote you a rhyme,
But I'm not very good at it

That's about how seriously we take Valentine's Day in our house, we don't really do much for it because all the restaurants are crowded, flowers are overinflated cost-wise, plus I don't really approve of the fact that they've been flown halfway round the world and used up precious water in countries that are short of it that could've been used for food production. So ... having poured cold water all over it, I do have my heart garland and I can say with some certainty we will definitely have a lovely dinner and open a bottle of wine.

Happy St Valentine's Day!

Red, pink and purple crochet valentine hearts

I've been using up some of the leftover colours from my rainbow spiral blanket crotcheting these simple little valentine hearts in red, pink and purple.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, I had it in mind to make enough to yarn bomb one of the trees in my garden but I may have to scale things down a bit. Maybe a little wall hanging instead although it has to be said I am eyeing up a houseplant with bad intent! I don't know yet, depends on how much time I get, all will be revealed on Valentine's Day!

For anyone who wants to make some themselves, they're really easy, here's how I did it using a 4.0mm hook and double knitting yarn, they came out at 3inches tall and 3 inches wide.

Abbreviations (UK terms)
ch - chain
ss - slip stitch
dc - double crochet
htr - half treble
tr - treble crochet
st(s) - stitch(es)

Ch 4, join with a ss into a ring

Row 1: Ch 1 to count as first dc, 12 dc into ring (13 stitches)

Row 2: Ch 3 to count as 1 tr, work 1 tr into the same st, 2 tr into each st all the way around (26 sts)

Row 3: Ch 3, 1 htr in next st, dc into each of next 3 sts, htr into next st, skip next 3 sts, work 12 dtr into next st, skip next 3 sts (the first of which will be hidden by so many dtr worked into one st, so be sure to check), ss into next st, skip 3 sts, 12 dtr into next st, skip next 3 sts, 1 htr into next st, 1 dc in each of next 3 sts, 1 htr, 1 tr in same st as 3 ch, ss into top of 3 ch, fasten off.