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.
]]>Others were made for local women to wear to local marches. My daughters and I participated in a march in Morris Minnesota.
The marches took place around the world on January 21, 2017.
They were made with Lion Brand Hometown bulky yarn and knit in the round on size 13 needles. I could make a hat in about 30 minutes, and made 20+ hats inspired by the pussyhat project. https://www.pussyhatproject.com/
I live in a small community 30 miles east of Madison, Wisconsin. I wanted to do something to show my support for the Black Lives Matter movement. There hasn't been any protests here, but that doesn't mean people don't care. So I made this. It's not much, but it's what I can do with my voice.
]]>This version is Biggie 2.0, knit in bulky superwash wool (Cascade 128) and in a smaller needle size (US 8/5mm) to help make him sturdier. He's stuffed with polyfil and has a knit heart inside. Future Biggies may be needed, so the heart can be transferred if necessary into his new regenerated form.
]]>Story: In 1991, I knitted this vest for my boyfriend, now husband of 28 years. It was a challenging project, with more colors and more finishing details than I had previously undertaken. Starting in late summer, I knitted along diligently, but was sick during the holidays and couldn’t complete the vest before we exchanged holiday gifts. Nevertheless, like so many of us have done and still do, I boxed and wrapped the unfinished pieces carefully, eagerly anticipating his response. On opening his vest-to-be, my boyfriend made a number of nice, thoughtful comments, but he was much less enthusiastic than I had hoped.
I handed it to him a few weeks later, finished, and his face lit up: “It’s done? I can have it?” When I mentioned my concern that he didn't like it, he said, “Well, I’ve gotten a few knitted things in pieces over the years, and usually, after I open them, I never see them again, so I find it’s best not to get too excited about unfinished projects!”
Design History: UK designer Sasha Kagan, (https://www.sashakagan.co.uk), created the vest pattern and published it in an early booklet of Rowan sweater designs that I cannot now locate. Sasha Kagan described this same design, called “Leaves,” as “based on a Fair Isle pattern” on pp. 81-82 of The Sasha Kagan Sweater Book: 48 Beautiful Handknits by a Top Fashion Designer, published in 1984 by Ballantine Books, New York, ISBN #0-345-31871-4.
The instructions specified using the intarsia technique for the colorwork, with the back and two fronts knitted separately and later seamed at the sides. The horizontal stripes were straightforward enough to knit this way, but I knit the hundreds of little leaves with separate strands for each, tying each one off at both the beginning and the end, a process that would have been made easier by using the stranded colorwork techniques typical of traditional Shetland and Fair Isle knitting.
In the 1990s, colorful sweater designs were very popular, however, most designers and pattern publishers recommended using intarsia even when stranded knitting would be faster and more convenient because most kntters were not familiar with "knitting in the round" and "steeking the openings," two essential elements of traditional stranded knitting. Today, knitters are much more familiar with the history and techniques of stranded knitting. This shift occurred later in the 1990s as designers like Alice Starmore, Ron Schweitzer, and still later, Kate Davies, among others, as well as yarn designers and manufacturers like Jamieson & Smith of Shetland, and Betty Lindsay and Bonnie Hassler of Yarns International in Bethesda, Maryland helped to popularize these traditional materials and techniques.
Notes: This project reminds me how love inspires so many of our most creative and adventurous feats in handwork and in life!
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These vests were made for two of my very dearest friends who live in Sweden. I met them both via instagram in 2012, and we met in person for the first time in 2018. We knew in an instant that the three of us were soul mates, fated to know each other and be life long friends. The two friends are a couple, now married, and love to wear vintage clothing. Even more so, they love to match. I wanted to make something for them that evoked their personal styles, and allow them to perfectly match with vintage items (something that is very difficult to do). These took almost two years to finish, but it was worth it.
]]>The project consists of a five small creatures made from single ply wool yarn from the creator's stash and a log also made from stash yarn. Both components were fulled (felted) in the washing machine and by hand, then stuffed with polyfil.
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