Make it ! Pixelated heart hanging decoration !!!

Something little, simple and so easy to crochet … and very thoughtful if you gift it to someone you love!

As you now, for Valentine's day I made a heart pouch to hang around the home and fill it with written messages and cards full of love and today's heart comes from the same inspiration : pixelated images!!!

This time I decided to keep the square shape for each motif forming the heart and I started from the bottom of the central strip and then every granny was joined with the "join as you go" method ( you can find more about this method both on Pinterest and YouTube !!!!).

What do you need to start ?

just simple things as

• a hook ( mine : 3,5mm)
• yarns in two different colours : blue ( LANA GATTO CALICO', colour 939, 50% merino wool and 50% acrylic, a ball of 50g : all consumed for this project!) and neon orange ( I used 2 threads together while crocheting the border of this Indonesian acrylic yarn : CRAFTY KNITTING YARN)
• a pair of scissors
• a yarn needle
• a couple of skewers
• a knife to cut the skewers the size you need

PATTERN mini GRANNY SQUARE ( US crochet terminology ) :

make a slip knot on your hook and chain 4, slip stitch in the first chain and make a ring.

round 1 : chain 1
repeat [3 double crochets + chain 3] 4 times
make a slip stitch in the first DC (=double crochet) and close the first round.

round 2 : make other 2 slip stitches in the tops of the following DCs of the shell and another slip stitch in the first corner you encounter.
chain 1
repeat [3 DCs + chain 3 + 3 DCs and chain 1] 4 times.
slip stitch in the first DC done, so you end this round.

round 3 : make 2 slip stitches in the top of the following DCs of the shell and one more in the first corner.
chain 1
repeat [3 DCs + chain 3 + 3 DCs, chain 1,  3 DCs in chain-1 space, chain 1] 4 times
slip stitch in first DC and the round ends.
2 slip stitches in the next DCs
cut yarn and fasten off; trim in the ends.
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Once you have done with the joining of all the mini granny squares ( total : 18 ), you can start to define nicely the border of your pixelated heart ….

I used the same hook size and picked up two strands ( to work together ) of the neon orange.
I started to work at the side of the top right of the heart, just crocheting a simple border in single crochets …

The central part of the heart ( where usually you have a V shape ) has been underlined with the use of 3 spikes …

The point of the hook, for the 1st and 3rd spikes, has been inserted in the chain-1 space of the 2nd round, while for the longer spike the hook went into the hole of the starting circle ! Not difficult at all! The only thing is that you need to be careful not to pull too much the strands to avoid a change in the shape of your granny!!!

When completed the border, I choose to add a tassel at the bottom of the heart …

The tassel was easily made just wrapping the threads of yarn around my 4 fingers, something like this tutorial !!!!

The last touch : a couple of loops to hang the heart on one empty wall!!

Before making the loops, I collected a skewer and passed it trough the holes at the top of the heart, just to keep it in shape, without curly corners and with the help of a knife I cut out the extra lengths of the skewer.

Then I collected the hook and the neon orange yarns and made 2 chains of 20 stitches each ...

I attached each chain at the back of the heart on the central part of the skewer ( right side and left side of the heart tops ) …

…. and eventually : Ta-dah!!!!

xxxx, Alessandra

My Ravelry notes can be found HERE !!!