Left Hand Motif of the Month February 2014: Heart Motif Crochet Tutorial

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com. Today we're going to do our newest motif of the month, and since Valentine's Day is coming up, I decided to make a little heart. You can use any, really any kind of yarn for this. This is made in worsted weight, and I used a 5.5 millimeter or a US I hook, but you can go up or down to make these bigger or smaller. So you can put these on sides of cards or on Candy, you know, tie a piece of candy to it for classmates, whatever you may want to do. But let's grab our hook and our yarn, and you can download the pattern below, and we'll get started. To start our heart off, we're going to begin with a slipknot on our hook, and then we're going to chain 13. You're just going to yarn over from back to front, turn your hook down so it'll slide easily through your chain. And repeat those steps and push your hook so that your loop rests on your shaft. And when it rests on your shaft, it'll give you more even, consistent chain stitches. They'll all be the same size. So we're going to make 13 of these, and we're ready to begin round one. So the very first thing round one tells me to do is to single crochet three times in the second chain from our hook. So when we look at our chains, they look kind of like the letter V stacked on top of each other. So we want to go in the second V. So we have the one right next to our hook. We don't count the loop on our hook. We're going to the one next to the hook, so that's the first. Then this one's the second. And I'm going to work in just this back loop. So you have the front loop that's facing you and the back loop that's further away. I'm going under just that back loop and it'll make more sense when we come back around the opposite side of our foundation chain because we're going to be working into the whole thing for this project. I'm catching this one loop, I'm yarning over by laying my yarn right over the top of my hook, catching it and pulling it up, and then yarning over from back to front, turning my hook down and my Stitch will slide easily through. So I'm doing three in that same chain, so I'm going to go back into that big hole that I have here and I'm going to do another single crochet and one more in there. This is cotton yarn, so it's a little bit more loose, it doesn't, it slides very easily, so it's very easy to get really big stitches. So make sure you're pulling. If you're using a cotton yarn, to pull with your tail to keep your loops the same size as your shaft, so that you don't have a bunch of crazy up and down stitches. So after those three single crochets, Now, we're going to single crochet in each of the next four chains. So again, we're going to go in the back loop only, and I use my finger behind to help guide me just through that back loop. Yarn over, pull up your loop, notice I'm keeping all of my loops on my shaft to keep them the same size. Pull through, go into the next back loop, two, I'm going to do two more. And now I am at the point of my heart. So those three single crochets at the very beginning, that's going to make the rounded part of my heart. Now I need to make the little V bottom of my heart. So to do that, I'm going to skip my next two chains. So that's going to create my bend of my heart. So I'm going to go into the third chain and start single crocheting again. So I keep all my loops nice and tight so that I get a good bend to my heart. And I'm going to do just a single crochet, and then I'm going to single crochet in the next three chains. So that's just a mirror of what I did over here. I did four single crochets, and I'm going to do four single crochets on this side. That's going to leave me with one chain at the very end of my foundation chain. And what we're going to do in there is put three single crochets like we did at the very beginning. And that's going to allow us to turn our heart so that we can work in the back side of our foundation chain. So I'm putting my first single crochet in there and I'm going to go back into that same chain and I'm going to just kind of crochet around this slip knot here and I'm going to leave my tail out to weave in later so I'm bringing my tail in front of the slip knot so I can make my turn and now I'm on the back side of my foundation chain. So what we're going to do now is work into the loops that we didn't work in in the foundation chain. But we're only going to grab one loop. We left two loops unworked. We left the bottom bump and the front loop. I could easily go around both loops if I wanted to because it's very easy to just enter my hook in and do a single crochet without thinking about where I'm putting my hook. The only problem is I get big holes when I do that. So if you want some holes, let me show you, I'll do a couple of them so you can see what the holes will look like. If I just stick my hook wherever I want. To make my four single crochets across the back, I'm going to get some big holes like that in the middle of my heart. If you'd like the holes, then go ahead and do that. If you don't want holes, you're going to want to work in just one loop, which is technically the front loop of your foundation chain. So you can see how these kind of come over the top and kind of just raise right over the ridge. We're going to go under just one of those loops. So we're going to go under that very first one we come to. And we're going to single crochet around it. Then we're going to come to the next one that's coming over the top and single crochet around that. We're doing four of these because we want to do four single crochets across the opposite side of our foundation chain. Again, you can see it coming right across the top here, we're just going to go under that loop. There's one more, so one more right across the top. And if we have placed our hook correctly, we should be right at our chain two. So you can see that my chain two are the next two stitches I've come to. So I've got my hook in the right place and you'll see that my holes are not as gaping now because I have my bottom bump going across the middle of where those holes were. Now we're going to accentuate the point of our heart. So we're going to single crochet. Right into that chain 2 space, it's a nice big hole, make sure you go all the way around the chain, don't catch any loops. And we're going to single crochet once for that side of our heart, and then we're going to chain 3, and that's going to make another point for us, for our heart. And then we're going to go back into that chain 2 spot, that huge space, and do a single crochet to begin the next side of our heart. That chain 3 is going to give us a nice pointy end for our heart. Now we're going to do the same thing that we did on the other side. We're going to single crochet into those four front loops of our foundation chain. Sometimes they get a little pulled out. So you can also count backwards if it's hard for you to see them at the very beginning. So we have one right here, right into the back side, crochet there, go into the next one, single crochet there, Number three here. You should have what looks like another one, but it's a little bit smaller than normal. That's just the end of your round. We're not going to join the round, we're going to work in a spiral, but you can see the beginning of our heart. So we're going to work on round two now. Okay so for round two, we're not joining any rounds, remember we're just going to work in a spiral. We're going to single crochet two times in our next three stitches, but where is our stitch exactly? Look for your V's. So if you're looking for your V's, you can see that the very first V is formed right here. So it's a little bit of ways from where we ended. That's normal. You didn't miss any stitches. Sometimes beginners will start putting their hook in different spots because they think they need to get closer to it. But you'll see once we put our hook underneath this V, because we're going under both loops, use your fingernail to help you if it's hard to get under it. Pull up our loop and do our single crochet. Everything joins together nicely, it all comes back to it. So we're gonna do two single crochets in that stitch. So I have one, I'm gonna go right back in that same hole under both loops of my V and do another one. Now I'm gonna do two in my next stitch. This is giving me the ability to turn my corner or my big round part of my heart. Now I'm gonna do two in the next stitch. This gives me a nice rounded edge. Now we're going to start making the center of our heart again. So we're going to do single crochet in each of the next three stitches we come to. So we go under both loops, yarn over and pull up. I'm going to do one in each of the next three stitches, and now we're going to create our little bend again. So to do that, we need to skip the next two stitches, just like we did in the previous round. So I'm skipping the next two, and then I'm going to go under that third stitch. So if you have trouble looking at the front of your stitches to find where to go, you can also turn your work sideways and look at your V. So we have one, two, and three. So put my hook right under that third one. Remember, keep your loops nice and tight so the bend in your heart will stay nice and bent and not create a big hole in the middle of it. Then I'm going to do the same as the other side. I have three, so I need to do three single crochets on this side. So I already did my first. There's my second and my third. Now we're back at our rounded edge. So we're going to increase again just like we did at the other edge. We're going to do two in each of the next three stitches. So we have one and two. I'm going to go to my next stitch and do two, and my last stitch to do two. Here we are on the back side of our heart again. This time, instead of four, we have five stitches that we need to work to until we get to our corner. So we're going to do a single crochet in each of these five stitches. Now we're back at our corner again, and we're going to do the same thing that we did in the previous round. We're going to single crochet, chain three, and single crochet. So go into that big open gap. Do your first single crochet. Chain 3. Now we're just going to copy what we did on the other side and do single crochets into the next five stitches again, which is going to leave us right at the end of our round two. We have one more round to go and this guy is done. This one meets up a lot easier than the first round did. You'll see that you're right at that first stitch now. So it's a lot easier to see where to put your hook next. Okay, so for our final round, we need to make our round again, or we need to go around the bump on our heart again. We can't increase in every single stitch, otherwise we'll get kind of a ruffly edge. So we're going to increase in every other stitch. That means we're going to single crochet two times in the next stitch we come to, and then we're going to single crochet just once in the next stitch. And we're going to repeat that two more times. And that will get us all the way around our rounded edge. Just remember increase or single crochet two times and then single crochet one time. A nice pretty rounded edge now. Okay now we're just going to do two single crochets. One in each of these next two stitches so we can skip a couple stitches to make our bend in our heart again if they're getting in the way. Now we have those two stitches that we're going to skip and we're going to work in that third stitch again. One more single crochet after that, because we want to match what we did on the other side. Then, we're going to make our round again, so we've got to do two single crochets in the next stitch, and a single crochet in the stitch after, and then repeat that again two more times. So you see that this heart works up really quickly, and it's a pretty easy pattern to kind of memorize, once you've done it once or twice, so you can make lots of these for all your friends and put them in cards. Okay, so we finished our increasing, now we're at the bottom half of our heart. So the next thing we're going to do is single crochet in the six stitches. We have five last time and four the time before that, so this time we have six that we need to go into. This keeps getting bigger by one every single round. So once we hit those six, we're back at that. Pointy bottom of our heart, so we want to make it again, a single crochet in that chain three space, do one more chain three, last one, and then single crochet back in there. And again, six more and we'll be done with our heart. Join it up when we get to the end of the six here. So we're going to join with a slip stitch to the very first single crochet. So here's our first single crochet of the round. Put my hook under it, grab a loop, pull it through. Then pull it through the loop on my hook, tighten it down a little bit, fasten it off so I just make a chain and I pull it long. And I'm going to weave in my ends, but this is the gist of our heart so far. And you can see with the cotton yarn you get more of a lacy type effect. And you can see where our bottom bump kind of crisscrosses here in the center. Let me show you this, oops, this pink one that I did in acrylic. You can see it's a lot more filled in. It's not as lacy, it's also a little bit smaller because the cotton has a tendency to be a little bit more drapey, I guess is the word I'm looking for. So you can see the difference in types of yarn, so you might want to consider that before you start the project. Acrylic if you want more stable, stiff project, cotton if you want more flexibility to it or more lacy effect. Let me weave in these ends and we'll take a look at the finished product. I'm going to show you how I weave in the cotton. I usually will use a plastic needle for cotton because cotton is so slippery. I even usually like to use plastic crochet hooks for cotton, but I have my Clover on hand so I use that. But the plastic will help. It just makes it a little bit tighter. It's easier to work with the cotton yarn with the plastic needle. It doesn't slide off of the eye as easily if I was using a metal needle, but for weaving in my heart, I'm just going to go through all the places where my stitches are thickest. You can get between plies, that'll make it even more secure. So if your ply, which is the twist in your yarn here, if you go through it, don't worry, That actually helps secure it. But you want to go for a couple of inches at least, if not more, depending on your patience level. Mine never really quite makes it past two or three inches before I want to cut it and move on to the next tail. But I'm staying on the wrong side of my work just in case, you know, make a mistake or it peeks through a little bit. You can tell the wrong side from the right side by how the stitches look. So if you look here, you can see these two little tails, and those are a single crochet stitch. When you look on the back side, it kind of looks like two with a little top on it, almost like a pie symbol. So the right side has just the two tails, the wrong side has the two with the top hat. I don't know why I just called it a top hat, but that just popped into my head, so that's what I'm sticking with. Just weave in your ends as best you can and then cut them and kind of pull as you weave so that it gets in there nice and slack so that it doesn't ricochet back when you cut it. If you keep pulling really tight as you weave, when you cut it, it's going to sneak back to wherever it wants to lay flat and it might poke out. I'm going to weave in both these ends and then we'll take a look at it. Okay, here are the hearts all weaved in and finished. And you can even, you know, make them in different sizes, if you change your hook size by just one size going up or down, you can get staggering heart sizes, so you can place them inside of each other if you have two different colors like this. So if you have any questions, leave them below, but thank you for watching!