Happy Valentine's Day!

As promised in last weekend's Link to Love post, I participated in The Sheepish Heart Bomb again this year.

I ended up leaving a cute little pom pom heart in St. Maarten on Wednesday in the hopes that it would be found by today.  I think it probably happened because I left it on a railing near the cruise ship port where thousands of passengers pass by every day.

I hope it made someone smile.

What did you do to celebrate this year?  Did you participate in the heart bomb too?

Happy Valentine's Day!
xoxo
Laura

Link to Love: Sheepish Heart Bomb

Looking for a little knitting project to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day?

Why not join in on the One Sheepish Girl 2nd Annual Heart Bomb?

Image via One Sheepish Girl

The basic idea is to get people all over the world to make a heart, attach a nice note to it, and leave it somewhere in public.  Hopefully you'll be putting a smile on the face of whoever finds it.  The more people who participate in the yarn bomb, the more smiles will be created.  Head on over to One Sheepish Girl to see the details.

I participated in the heart bomb last year by making some hanging hearts and leaving them on my friends' doors on our ship.  This year I'm thinking of leaving some hearts outside the ship in either St. Thomas or St. Maarten.

I'll post some pictures when I've completed the project.

Happy heart knitting!
xoxo
Laura

A Knit Flower Bouquet for a Group Yarn Bomb

Meredith from One Sheepish Girl hosted another group yarn bombing event this weekend, which she dubbed a Sheepish Bloom Drop.  The assignment was to "knit, crochet, sew, stitch, or fold a flower creation and leave it somewhere out in the world."  I've participated in her other group yarn bombings (remember the leaves and the hearts?), so of course I wanted to join in on this one as well.

For my contribution to the Bloom Drop, I knitted a 3-flower bouquet.  I made the stems by knitting i-cords around some skewers that I found in my parents' kitchen, and I attached a couple of leaves to the i-cords to make the stems look more believable.  Then I whipped up some yellow and white pom poms for the blooms themselves, and some green half pom poms to go between the blooms and their stems.   As you can tell, my love affair with my pom pom maker is still as strong as ever!

In addition to the Bloom Drop, this weekend also marks the return of my boyfriend, who's been out of town for a week, so I decided to combine the two occasions and give my Bloom Drop creation to him as a welcome back gift.

The bouquet is currently sitting on my boyfriend's front porch, waiting to be found...

Did you participate in the Bloom Drop as well?  Or have you done some other forms of yarn bombing?  I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Happy blooming!
xoxo
Laura

A Yarn Photo Shoot, Some Sidebar Tweeking, and A Bloom Drop

I decided to spruce up my sidebar yesterday, and I'm really glad I did because it led to a hilarious yarn-throwing photo shoot.  I used a tripod and a camera remote, and it was super tricky to get the timing right.  Most of the pictures ended up being of me about to throw the yarn or of me looking disappointed because I had already thrown the yarn.  I ended up with some keepers, though!

Here are 3 of them:

I chose the last one to be my new sidebar photo.  Do you think I made the right choice?

I also downloaded the KG Flavor and Frames Font, which is a a collection of frames and flags by Kimberly Geswein, and I used it to make the little banner that says "Hi there, Friends!" under the new sidebar photo.  I can't wait to use the font in other places around the blog as well!

In other news, remember the group yarn bombings led by One Sheepish Girl that I've participated in before?  (There were the leaves and the hearts.)  Well, there's another one happening this weekend, and I can't wait to show you what I'm knitting for it!

Until then...

xoxo

Laura

Hanging Heart Knitting Pattern

Remember the Valentine's Day heart bombing project that I did last week in association with One Sheepish Girl's heart bombing day?  I wrote up the pattern for my little hanging heart today.

Materials used in this pattern:
1.  Two contrasting colors of medium weight yarn (I used Loops & Threads Charisma Baby yarn in yellow and Loops & Threads Charisma yarn in white.)
2.  US Size 8 knitting needles
3.  Stuffing
3.  Scissors
4.  Tapestry needle

Abbreviations used in this pattern:
kfb:  An increase stitch involving knitting the front and the back of a single stitch to create 2 stitches.
k2tog:  A decrease stitch involving knitting two stitches together to form a single stitch.
k2tog(tbl):  Inserting the needle through the back of the loops of 2 stitches to perform a k2tog decrease stitch.

Pattern:
Row 1:  cast on 2 stitches
Row 2:  kfb, kfb
Row 3:  purl 4
Row 4:  kfb, knit 2, kfb
Row 5:  purl 6
Row 6:  kfb, knit 4, kfb

You have now created the top left hump of your heart.  Cut the yarn so that your knitting is no longer attached to your skein of yarn, leaving a long enough tail to weave in later.

Push the existing knitting down the needle, saving it for later.

Repeat rows 1 through 6 again, starting by casting onto the empty needle as pictured below.

Now you should have both humps for the top of your heart on one needle.  Push them together and knit the rest of the pattern as if it were all one piece.

Row 7:  purl 16
Row 8:  knit 16
Row 9:  purl 16
Row 10:  k2tog, knit 12, k2tog(tbl)
Row 11:  purl 14
Row 12:  k2tog, knit 10, k2tog(tbl)
Row 13:  purl 12
Row 14:  k2tog, knit 8, k2tog(tbl)
Row 15:  purl 10
Row 16:  k2tog, knit 6, k2tog(tbl)
Row 17:  purl 8
Row 18:  k2tog, knit 4, k2tog(tbl)
Row 19:  purl 6
Row 20:  k2tog, knit 2, k2tog(tbl)
Row 21:  purl 4
Row 22:  k2tog, k2tog(tbl)
Row 23:  bind off purlwise

Now repeat the pattern again to make a second heart, and weave in all the ends on both hearts.

Stack the 2 hearts on top of each other with the knit side of both hearts facing out so that they are mirror images of each other.  Use your tapestry needle and your contrasting yarn color (I used white) to sew the two hearts together to form one heart.  As you do this, purely for aesthetic reasons, try to keep your sewing one stitch away from the edge of the heart as apposed to sewing right along the actual edges.  When you have almost sewn all the way around the heart, push a small amount of stuffing between the two sides of the heart; this will make the finished product a little puffier and more 3-dimensional.

Once you've added the stuffing, finish sewing all the way around the heart and then make a big loop to hang it from and tie a knot.  Cut off the excess yarn and you're all finished.

Happy knitting!
xoxo
Laura

p.s.  I just subscribed to Gathered by Mollie Makes, which is a cute little iPad magazine.  As I was perusing some back issues, I came across a pattern for a garter stitch heart coaster in issue #16 that's really cute, so if you like this pattern you might want to check that one out as well.