Welcome back for May's free pattern friday review. Sorry its a little late, it was supposed to go live yesterday! My monthly review of a free knitting pattern available off Ravelry. Ravelry is a great source of free patterns but its much harder to find good, free patterns via a general google search. All Free Pattern Friday reviews can be found here. 

Valentine Heart

This month is a special birthday edition as it was my daughter's birthday this month. I found this pattern too late to be February's pattern and didn't want to wait til next year and also like knitting little things for my daughter so I have used some of the yarn she dyed with me a couple of years ago to knit her a cuddly heart. The pattern is by Tracey Driver of Bluebird and Daisy. Tracey has lots of patterns on her website including several free ones for knitting, crochet and Tunisian crochet.

Details

The pattern is for a stuffed heart knitted in one piece and in two sizes using either 4ply or DK yarn. A nice little scrap buster and could be used for decorations or small gifts. It uses about 10g of your chosen yarn.

Knitted on DPNs its a well written pattern with lots of photos although like all things starting in the round with a small number of stitches its a little fiddly but the pattern describes well how to start with the stitches on 2 needles and then moving onto 4. There is no instructions in the pattern for grafting (kitchener stitch) but there are lots on line depending on whether you prefer a video or written instructions. Personally I always refer back to the knitty.com written version when I need a reminder. Link is at the end of the post.

My Valentine Heart

I knitted the larger size in Crush DK using some leftovers of a colourway my Daughter dyed herself a couple of years ago. The plain stocking stitch of the sides makes it a perfect canvas for pretty much any colourway, however loud! or knit it in a solid colour and embellish it with embroidery or other stitches. I have a bit of Enchant DK left over from a previous month's project and I'm tempted to make another in that - it would be so soft and cuddly!

Advantages of this pattern

• Clear photographs
• Row by Row stitch counts for you can check you have the right number of stitches
• Could be made larger in thicker yarn with bigger needles too if desired
• Great stash buster for those scraps of yarn you can't bare to part with

Do let me know if you make this pattern and I'd love to hear your recommendations for patterns to review in the future. The comments are open.
 

Link to pattern Valentine Heart

Link to my favourite Grafting Instructions Knitty.com