Friday 14 February 2014

Block a Week Friday

Happy Valentine Day to all you lovely people!

you guessed it of course there just had to be more hearts

There are two heart blocks in the 200 knitted blocks book. This is the first....

Block 17 
Reversed Heart



I tried to be clever with this one, my plan...the garter stitch frame and heart in one colour, and the background in a contrasting shade. I had all my little balls of wool at the ready five in all! and off I went, as you can imagine it started easily enough, but once I had to introduce those little balls of wool it rapidly went downhill! 

I set off determined to succeed carefully twisting the yarn as I changed colours, but when you twist you then need to untwist or you end up with a tangled mess, so you can imagine all the twisting and untwisting that went on with 5 balls of wool!! I got half way through before I gave up, needles and tangled mess thrown down in disgust, it took me quite a while before I could face picking it up, unravelling and starting again with one shade, which is what I should have done in the first place.

Using one shade you will find this block relatively easy, the chart is quite small so I made a note of the rows before I started and although you do need to concentrate it's nice to see the heart forming before your eyes.


Rating -  intermediate 
Curl - 0
Ends - 2
Finished size 6" x 6"

More examples of this block

Jaqueline
Kate
If I wanted to make another reversed heart I would make this one again


I made this for a memory square (you can read about memory squares here) and I think it's much nicer than the one in the book, you can find the pattern here.

The second heart in the book is


Block 56
Big Heart



After reading Wendy's experience of making this block I approached it with caution.  You make it using the intarsia method which is what I tried above.  Luckily I found this one easier BUT I did find getting the correct tension difficult, when you twist the yarn when changing colours at the back, you have to be sure not to twist it too tight or it puckers, too loose and you end up with a hole. I'm not happy with the tension in my competed block but it's acceptable and will look fine with other blocks in a blanket.   I couldn't face pulling it back and starting again!
Once again the chart is small it's much easier to mark the rows down on a scrap of paper.
Rating -  intermediate 
Curl - 3 after blocking - 1
Ends - 6
Finished size 6" x 6"

 More examples of this block


Wendy at September Violets
Appledumpling at Loving Hands




Progress -  number of different blocks made = 10

Numbers -17, 24, 304041, 42, 4556,  98113,
(Click on the number to see the block.)

Number of blocks altogether = 13

Linking with



Have a great weekend!

20 comments:

  1. They are so lovely. Happy Valentine's Day Linda.
    Hugs to you,
    Meredith

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  2. Love your hearts! I tried to crochet a couple simple hearts and couldn't get it right. I got frustrated and gave up. Will try again later, with help from a friend who has experience. Happy Valentine's Day!

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  3. Well I really like how your reversed heart & big heart turned out in the end! Sorry to hear the reversed heart gave you such grief with the multiple balls of yarn :P I agree that the charts are much too small to read ... if I had to read a more difficult pattern, I would enlarge the chart. Happy Valentine's Day! Wendy x

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  4. Super beautiful heart patterns, Linda! My favorite is the rose one ♥. Perfect for today :-)
    Happy Valentine's Day to you as well!!
    Greetings, Nata

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  5. Feliz día del amor y de la amistad!!!!!!

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  6. Happy Valentine's Day to you too Linda! Your heart squares are looking prettie prettie!! All your stitches look nice and fine to me.
    xx Shari

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  7. I tried Intarsia once and once only. I ended up with the same problem as you, but I think I gave up earlier!

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  8. lovely hearts, they are a WOW. pat

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  9. They're all really beautiful. I especially love the one with the double outline around the heart, almost framing it.

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  10. Beutiful collection of heart motifs. Probably my favorite is #56. Have a wonderful weekend :-)

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  11. Your heart is lovely Linda, so is your knitted heart block!! In fact, everyone's blocks that you showed are great aren't they! Happy Valentines Day. xx

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  12. Your heart blocks are beautiful, I especially like the first one, it reminds me of a shadow, very affective.
    Have a good weekend
    Sally x

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  13. Such pretty knitted heart blocks! I like the first one (is that yours or from the book?) and the variegated one looks really good too. They all look good, but those are my favs. Happy Valentines Day, although you will probably get this Saturday.

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  14. I love following your progress with these blocks Linda, I think block 17 looks lovely in one colour and with your neat stitches the heart stands proud and is clearly visible. Block 56, I can see where a novice knitter like myself might fall down on this one, keeping the tension correct at colour changes would be a challenge. I think I may be tempted to swiss darn the heart in the contrasting colour .... would you consider this cheating lol?

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Linda, haha embroidering it is certainly one way around it, but it'd quite a big heart so I think, it might be harder than you think. :)

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  15. Feliz día de San Valentín Linda:
    Me han encantado los corazones.
    Un beso
    Mª Paz

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  16. WOW, what super wonderful "Heart Blocks" Love them all. Hugs Judy

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  17. Such sweet little hearts Linda, but sorry you had troubles with all those yarns - I just couldn't handle that at all so I award you a star for even trying! Hugs, Joy xo

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