I Heart Cinnamon

E's been diligently working on her valentines all week, and whew, I'm spent. To be fair she did almost all the work, it's just mentally draining to be a cheerleader...but we're done now.

She cut all the hearts

We used a straw to poke holes, and then let them dry over night

The next evening we dipped them in red and gold glitter

The next day we let them sit in an oven that was preheated to 400 then turned off


While they cooled we found a free printable valentine & glued it onto a festive heart themed craft paper & cut ribbon.


TA-DA!

*The dough is super easy (1 cup+ ground cinnamon, 1 cup applesauce & 1/4 cup Elmer's Glue)

Danish Christmas Hearts

I am so intrigued by these sometimes extremely intricate traditional paper woven hearts. I think they'd make an excellent Christmas card some year.

Christmas hearts is a unique Danish papercut tradition invented by the well-know Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen around 150 years ago. Basically, a Christmas heart consists of two pieces of folded glossy paper of different colours which are cut in a certain way and then woven together so that they form the shape of a heart. There are boundless numbers of possibilities for designs of these hearts, and I think that is part of what fascinates me about making them.

- Sune Nielsen (author of the book Hjerter til jul, or 'Hearts for Christmas')

Blue

I offered to make my mom a hat for her upcoming birthday. She picked the yarn and pattern. I adapted it a smidgen, and really like how it turned out!
Here's the pattern (my addition and comments are in PURPLE, original pattern only has 19 rows:

Aran Hat in Twinkle Soft Chunky
(shown in"Riviera")

Gauge 1.75 Stitches = 1 on #19 needles

Knit in the Round on either double pointed needles or two circular #19 needles

C6R = Slip to cable hook, hold in back of work, K3, K3 from hook (makes a cable)

MB = In same St (K1, P1) 3 times K1, pass 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th over 1st ST (refer to here if you need help with this, search under 'make bobble' for video)

Cast on 28 stitches

Work K2, P2 Rib for 2 Rows

Row 1: K6, P22

Repeat this row 3 times

Row 5: C6R, P to end of round

Row 6: repeat Row 1

Row 7: K4, MB, K1, P22

Row 8-12: Repeat Row 1

Row 13: Repeat Row 5

{Decrease keeping stitches as set (knit the knits and purl the purls)}

Row 14: *K5 K2tog* repeat to end of round

Row 15: work even

Row 16: *K4 K2tog* repeat to end of round

Row 17: work even

Row 18: *K3 K2tog* repeat to end of round

Row 19: work even

Row 20: K2tog around, cut yarn leaving 12" tail, thread through loops left on needle and secure