Heartfelt Thanks with Crocheted Heart Motifs

I designed this sweet crocheted picot heart in the 1980s, envisioning it as an applique motif to embellish handmade or purchased items.

I ran across it several times over the next 30-some years, but didn't crochet it again until 2017. Our daughters' piano teacher and our good friend remarried, and she and her new husband didn't need anything at all. I tucked a crocheted picot heart in a card for the couple, writing that I hoped they would think of the heart as a symbol of all the good things to come. "It was perfect!" my friend said.

In 2020, I needed to write a bunch of extra-special thank you notes. Crocheted hearts might be just what I needed to help me not just say, but show my gratitude.

One recipient was a life-long fan of The University of Texas at Austin, so he received a burnt orange picot heart. He also enjoyed iced tea, and I thought he might use his crocheted heart as a coaster. The yarn was Brown Sheep Company's Cotton Fleece, crocheted with a U. S. size H-8 (5mm) hook.

Friends who raised buffalo gave me a big box of buffalo fur and hair plucked from bushes, trees, and barbed wire fences. Their picot heart was crocheted with buffalo fur which I spun and plied with a hand spindle. The yarn was bulky and was crocheted with a U. S. size K-10.5 (6.5mm) hook.

What will people do with the crocheted hearts? Maybe they will add a piece of thread to hang the heart as an ornament, glue the heart into a scrapbook, or give it to their Valentine. Maybe they will just leave it lying around where they can see it from time to time, and let it remind them that their efforts were appreciated.

The red hearts are crocheted with No. 10 crochet cotton and a Susan Bates aluminum hook, U. S. steel size 4 (2mm). They are about 1.75 x 1.75 inches.