Hearts Are Trump

There are lots of heart-themed ornaments in 55 Christmas Balls to Knit. It must be a common motif in Scandinavian patterns.

The second of the Christmas goodies patterns, Christmas Package, isn't even in the chapter on heart patterns, but it features little heart-shaped baskets. These are traditionally filled with candies or treats and hung on the tree. It's hard to capture the rounds of pattern near the top and bottom of the balls in a photo, but it is a cool effect. I put beads on the point on the basket where the handle might be attached. And because the color of the hanger is determined by the color on the bottom of the ball, it's red, despit the overall whiteness.

The first pattern in the chapter called Hearts is, appropriately, Heart. And that there's what it is, as we say in Texas -- just four big hearts all the way around. The sample in the book shows an offset crystal pattern overlaying the red heart, and although it looks kind of cool, it's not me. I opted to just outline it in red beads. It ate up a lot of them, though -- 64 for this ornament alone! Even though I bought two more tubes of 350 beads the last time I was at Nomadic Notions, I might just have to go back for more. Now that I've finished it, I think it might have been interesting to have two of the hearts outlined in clear/white beads. I'll keep that in mind for future patterns.

Finally, we have Heart Lattice. I like the cartoony blobbiness of these hearts. After I finished this, I thought it might have been more symmetrical if the hearts in the bottom part of the panel pointed up, and the ones that jumped the seam pointed toward the center of the lattice. Since these motifs aren't geometrically uniform, though, it might be hard to pull off.

There are two more heart patterns in the chapter, but they'll have to wait until later. This week has been filled with yard work and I've been snagging bits of knitting time here and there when I can. It's warmed up quite a bit, and knitting on these little things is much more appealing than sitting with the vest on my lap.