Corazón para mi novio.

Finished Heart Bag

    I love making things, especially with someone special in mind.  I finished this project fairly quickly, though I don't know exactly how long, I'd estimate about 1-2 weeks.  The first step was deciding what to make.  He said he liked red, so I decided heart bag.  I knew immediately which yarn I wanted to use.  I had several skeins of Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn I have been itching to use, one of which was red.  I have tried to make a heart without a pattern before and I didn't like the result, so I scoured the internet for inspiration.  It came in the form of an amigurumi heart by Diana Knits.  My plan was to work her pattern and then modify it for my purpose.

Heart before closure

    I finished the first section, cup A, and of course, I ended up ripping out everything I had done after I finished the first cup, due to my dissatisfaction with the size, and starting over.  I made half a circle, similar to DK's pattern, and set it aside to join the rest of the heart bag later.  Since I was making a bag, not a stuffed piece, I left the top of the other cup open.  I followed the general idea of the pattern, but not the actual number of stitches etc.  I finished the base of the heart with and edging which allowed for yarn to pass through to create a drawstring.  I crocheted a closure for the bag's string too.

Open Bag with Drawstring

Closed Bag with Drawstring

     Now, I didn't want him to have a girly heart so I added veins. The veins I crocheted to the surface of the heart.  The yarn I used for the veins was a skein I had lying around without a label so I'm not sure what it's called but it's made of mostly, if not entirely, synthetic fiber.  Most likely acrylic.  I used a basic illustration of an anatomically correct human heart to decide where I should place the veins. The most dreaded step, weaving in all the ends wasn't as horrible as I feared it would be and actually made everything look a lot cooler because I used the tail to add little capillaries coming of the veins. 

Veins and beginning of Ventricles (Back)

Veins and beginning of Ventricles (Front)

     The ventricles were a last minute decision that I think turned out exceedingly well.  I used yarn from an old half finished project for the ventricles.  The most challenging part of this step was to ensure the bag could still be used despite the ventricles.  The last step was the shoulder string.  I crocheted the red, red and blue together, and the blue yarns with a larger crochet hook and wove the ends in to create a gradual change from red to blue.  

Finished Side View

Open Heart (Top View)

Finished Back