hearts | Cindy Rice Designs

Hello from “Winter Wonder Land”. Winter weather in northern Illinois has finally caught up with the season we are currently living in. It is COLD and our landscape is covered in piles of frosty white. It’s taken this long for it to finally feel like winter, which is when I start dreaming of… yes, spring!

Last week was filled with lots of knitting and no finished projects to show you yet. However, I still managed to make a short YouTube video showing my work for the week.

This week I am working on embroidery for the two doll cardigans I was knitting last week. I have also just published a free pattern on Ravelry for one-piece knit hearts. The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, but is easily adaptable for any weight yarn with appropriate needles. This handful of hearts was made with fingering, sport, DK, worsted, chunky, chunky/fingering, fingering/lace mohair. The width is easily changed too. It’s all in my video and pattern.

A few of these hearts were made years ago as sachets, but the lavender smell is long gone. I was thinking of stringing all of together them and turning the lot into a garland. What do you think? Do you have any ideas?

The pattern and be found here. And the accompanying YouTube video is below. Enjoy!

I hope you are having a great week! Hugs from here! 🤗 Take care my friends. ❤️

Not quite a blizzard out there, but it’s snowy. It’s not the gently falling, huge flaky kind of snow, but the blowing and swirling around bits of snow. We don’t have much on the ground, but it sure is cold and uninviting outside; I think I’ll stay in.

Today I wanted to show you what I made for my daughter who is away at college. She has opened the package, so no surprises will be ruined. Last week I sent her a handful of knitted heart sachets.

heart sachets 588

Some of the yarn I used has special meaning. The largest heart is made from the cabled headband I knit for her, and the tiny burgundy heart is from the first pair of socks I made her. The multi heart is from the yarn I dyed and made into a cowl. The other two are from stash.

I tried to find a heart pattern, but couldn’t find anything that worked for me or that I liked, that is, easy enough. I used the techniques I learned from Susan B. Anderson’s “My First Toe-Up Socks” Craftsy class and came up with my own way. With the exception of the largest heart, (I need some more DPN sizes) I went down a needle size to keep the knitted fabric dense so that the stuffing wouldn’t show through.

I stuffed them with wool roving and lavender buds. I wrapped the roving around the lavender buds and the wool kind of locked them in place. I also added a drop or two of lavender essential oil for extra scent.

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My pattern uses Judy’s Magic Cast On, knitting on DPNs, moving stitches onto waste yarn, grafting for closing up the tops, as well as increases and decreases. They are a bit fiddly but fun and cute all the same.

cross stitch heart sachet 3862

With the little knit hearts gone, I was wanting some lavender to smell for myself, so I unpicked the lining on this cross stitch heart sachet I made decade ago. The lavender was so old it had lost its purple color. I filled it in the same way as I did the knit hearts. It’s hanging in my sewing room where I catch the faintest lavender scent as I move around my room. Sorry, these two photos are blurry—didn’t use a tripod and it was kind of dark yesterday.

cross stitch sachets 650