Imperfect Seamless Heart This heart is for Little Hearts Matter, a British nonprofit which focuses on issues pertaining to single ventricle heart conditions in children. This is a basic heart using many sock-like knitting techniques; see the subsequent pages for brief tutorials on how to make these techniques more familiar. Let your loose stitches stay floppy, your heart humps stay uneven, and your Kitchener stitch be wobbly. Children are not born perfect; our knitting does not need to be, either. Difficulty: intermediate Materials: Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash, one skein (100g/220yd 100% superwash wool) in color 893 Ruby; a circular needle in size 3.75mm/US5 in 32 length or longer; open-end stitch marker; scrap yarn or 2 stitch holders; polyester fibre-fill, tapestry or darning needle Finished measurements: approximately 9 high by 8 wide after stuffing Abbreviations: K - Knit Sts Stitches Kfb Knit the stitch through the front, leave the stitch on the needle, knit the same stitch through the back loop, and slide both stitches off of the needle. M1R Make 1 stitch that slants to the right by lifting the bar between stitches with the left needle from back to front, and knitting it normally. M1L Make 1 stitch that slants to the left by lifting the bar between stitches with the left needle from front to back, and knitting it through the back loop. SSK Slip, slip, knit. Slip the next two stitches on the left needle one at a time knitwise, transfer them back to the left needle purlwise, and knit them together through the back loop. K2tog Knit the next two stitches together on the left needle, as if they were one stitch. Gauge: 6 stitches and 9 rows per inch. Gauge is not terribly important for this project, but the fabric needs to be tight in order to hold the polyester fibre-fill. Instructions: Cast on four stitches using the magic-loop method. Join in the round, being careful not to twist. You will be knitting in the round, with two stitches on each side forming the base of each side of the heart. Repeat the instructions for each side. If you tend to lose your place easily, hang an open-end stitch marker from the fabric to indicate the front or first side. Rnd 1 K all sts Rnd 2 Kfb, K (3 sts on each needle) Rnd 3 K all sts
Rnd 4 K1, M1L, K1, M1R, K1 (5 sts on each needle) Rnd 5 K all sts Rnd 6 K1, M1L, K to last st, M1R, K1 Rnd 7 K all sts Repeat Rnds 6 and 7 until 55 stitches are on each needle. Knit ten rounds even, with no increases. Divide and knit humps: Next rnd K 26 stitches, and slip the 27 th stitch purlwise onto the right needle. Place remaining 28 stitches, plus the first 27 stitches from the back, on scrap yarn or stitch holders. Your needle points should both be facing the middle of the project. Slip that 27 th stitch back onto the needle staging the back stitches, and knit that stitch plus the next stitch together so they end up on the front-side needle. This will connect the two sides and close up the gap in the middle. There should be 27 stitches on each needle. Continue in the magic-loop and knit the backside stitches. K one more round. Your needle points should now be pointing toward the outside of the project, and you will be knitting one heart hump at a time. Rnd 1 K1, SSK, K to last 3 sts, K2tog, K1 Rnd 2 K all sts Rnd 3 K all sts Rnd 4 As Rnd 1 Rnd 5 As Rnd 2 Rnd 6 As Rnd 3 Rnd 7 As Rnd 1 Rnd 8 As Rnd 2 Rnd 9 As Rnd 3 (21 sts remain on each needle) Rnd 10 As Rnd 1 Rnd 11 As Rnd 2 Rnd 12 As Rnd 1 Rnd 13 As Rnd 2 Rnd 14 As Rnd 1 Rnd 15 As Rnd 2 Rnd 16 As Rnd 1 Rnd 17 As Rnd 2 (13 sts remain on each needle) Rnd 18 As Rnd 1 Rnd 19 As Rnd 1 Rnd 20 As Rnd 1 (7 sts remain on each needle) Break yarn and graft the remaining 14 sts using Kitchener Stitch.
For the second hump, remove the scrap yarn or stitch holders and place stitches back on the needle so that the points end up facing the outside of the project. 28 stitches remain on the back needle, and 27 stitches remain on the front needle. Attach your ball of yarn and K 26 stitches across the front, and slip the 27 th stitch purlwise onto the back needle. Knit that stitch plus the next stitch together so they end up on the front-side needle. There should be 27 stitches on each needle. Continue in the magic-loop and knit the back-side stitches. Knit Rnds 1-3. This is the best point where you can decide how perfect you want your heart to be. Stuff the other hump and the bottom with polyester fibre-fill, weave in any ends, adjust any loosey-goosey stitches you may have, and close up the hole between humps if you would like. If you wait until the end, you will have difficulty turning the heart inside-out to fix anything from the wrong side. After adjusting whatever you want to adjust, knit Rnds 4-20 on the second hump, break the yarn, and stuff the rest of the second hump with polyester fibre-fill before grafting the remaining 14 stitches using Kitchener stitch. Use the bars between stitches to guide where you weave in your end, since you will be doing so from the right side. Push the very end of the yarn into the heart with a crochet hook or darning needle. You can personalize by attaching googly eyes, duplicate-stitching the recipient s name, or embellishing with little flowers or creatures. Or, you can just leave the heart a bit lumpy, uneven, or imperfect. Just be sure to make it with love.
Tutorials Magic Loop: Cast on the desired number of stitches using a circular needle 80cm/32 long or longer. Slide the cast-on stitches to the middle of the cable. Divide the stitches in half, and pull the cable between halves of the cast-on stitches (the yarn will be very tight but you will not hurt your cast-on row). Slide both sets of stitches to their new respective needle points, and so the working yarn is on the right needle. Continue to slide the right needle out of the stitches, so the stitches now rest on the cable, and begin knitting the stitches on the left needle. When you reach the end of the set of stitches on your needle, turn your work around and slide the stitches on the loose needle to the tip. Pull out the needle from the stitches you just finished knitting so that the stitches are on the cable, and knit the next stitches. Repeat! Make 1 Right: Lift the bar between the stitches on the right and left needle, by inserting the left needle under the bar from back to front. Knit the bar like any other knit stitch. Make 1 Left: Lift the bar between the stitches on the right and left needle, by inserting the left needle under the bar from back to front. Knit this bar through the back of the stitch.
Kitchener Stitch: Set up your stitches with the wrong sides facing each other, parallel needle tips pointing to the right, and the same number of stitches on both needles. Your working yarn should be coming from the back stitch closest to the needle tip. Set up your stitches by inserting the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the front as if to purl, and pull the yarn through. Then, insert the tapestry needle into the first back stitch as if to knit, and pull the yarn through. Then, repeat the following four steps in sequence until you have one stitch left on each needle. 1) Insert the tapestry needle knitwise into the first stitch on the front needle, slide the stitch off of the knitting needle, and pull the yarn through. 2) Insert the tapestry needle into the next stitch on the front needle purlwise, and pull the yarn through, leaving the stitch on the needle. 3) Insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch on the back needle purlwise, slide the stitch off of the knitting needle, and pull the yarn through. 4) Insert the tapestry needle into the next stitch on the back needle knitwise, and pull the yarn through, leaving the stitch on the needle. You can adjust your stitch tension after two to three stitches have come off the needles on both sides, just by pulling at the yarn with your tapestry needle if the stitch size needs to be adjusted. When you have two stitches left, insert the tapestry needle knitwise into the front needle, slide it off the knitting needle, and pull the yarn through. Insert the tapestry needle into the back stitch purlwise, slide it off of the knitting needle, and pull the yarn through.