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

DIY Flip Book Valentines

I was browsing the Valentine's Day candy section at Target last weekend and accidentally walked away with a crafty thing or two in my cart (in addition to the chocolate that I had actually intended to buy, of course).  One of those things was a bag of tiny heart-shaped notebooks.  I had no plan for them, they were just so cute that they ended up in my cart.

It wasn't until a few days later that the idea hit me: these notebooks are perfect for old-school flip books!

To make a flip book, all you need is a pen and a little notebook like these.  Don't have one? You can also make do with a pad of sticky notes.

Begin by deciding what you want to draw and how you want it to move as you flip the pages. I decided to make the words "you" and "me" converge on the page then frame them with a heart.

Here you can see each individual page:

Simple, eh?

Here's a video of the flip book in action:

I can't wait to give this little flip book to my boyfriend tomorrow for Valentine's Day.  I think he'll really dig the throwback to our childhoods.

Besides giving my boyfriend his Valentine, my only other special plan for the day is to eat a lot of chocolate.  I love hearts and I love chocolate so mix those two things together and I'm in heaven.  (Thank you, Target candy aisle!!)

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

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.

Valentine's Day Yarn Bomb

Happy Valentine's Day!

I knew I wanted to make something cute for my friends this Valentine's Day, but I wasn't sure what that would be until I saw that Merideth over at One Sheepish Girl was hosting another yarn bombing day.  I immediately knew that I wanted to knit hearts and hang them on my friends doors!

I jumped right into the knitting with no pattern at all, making it up as I went along, and I ended up with these little guys:

I hung them up for my friends this afternoon.  I really hope they like them!

We live in such an industrial environment, I was happy to make it look a teensy bit more homey.  I know that by "a teensy bit" I mean a very, very teensy bit, but all a girl can do is try...

I hope that your Valentine's Day is full of love, not only for your significant other but also for your friends and family!  Are you doing anything special to celebrate?  We just finished 2 ice shows and are about to dig into some incredibly delicious-looking cupcakes!

xoxo
Laura

p.s. I'll post the pattern for the little hearts that I made soon.  =)

Nail Stickers

With Valentine's Day in mind, I put some love note stickers on my nails last night.

 

What do you think of nail polish stickers? I love them because there's no drying time after you apply them like there is with regular nail polish.  And I also love that they're on sale at target this week.  ;-)

xoxo
Laura

Origami Heart Bookmarks

It's only January, but there is Valentine's Day in there air everywhere I go lately. Unfortunately it's been following my boyfriend around as well, and he never fails to mention that he hates the holiday. It's not because he's a scrooge or anything, it's simply because he doesn't like that it's such a "Hallmark Holiday." I am not a V-Day hater myself, but I really do see his point, so I started trying to think of ways to de-consumerize the holiday. That's when Pinterest led me to this really great blog about making origami hearts. I tried making them and they're just as cute as I thought they would be.  See?

Here's how you do it:

1.  Start with a square piece of paper.

2.  Fold the paper in half, then fold it in half again.

3.  Open the paper, then fold the bottom portion to the middle crease.

4.  Turn the paper over and fold up triangular edges.  Then turn the paper over again and fold the point of the triangle up to the top of the paper.

5.  Turn the paper over again so it looks like this:

6.  Use your finger to make an opening, then flatten the opening to form a triangle.  Repeat this on the other side as well so it's symmetrical.

7.  Fold a triangle from the edge on both sides.

8.  Fold a mini triangle from each peak.

9.  Turn the paper over and you'll see the beginnings of a heart.

10.  Fold the rectanglular paper in so that it forms a square behind the heart, then fold those squares into triangles so that they are hidden behind the heart.

Et voila!  Your heart should look like this:

You can make these little guys in any color or size, and if you don't feel like using them as bookmarks, you can put them together to make a heart-flower:

Or you can just leave a pile of little origami hearts on your table like this:

Any way you fold it, it's going to be cute.
xoxo
Laura