Heart Valentines Necklace {with matching American Girl necklace}

I meant to do this post yesterday as a fun 1st of February post but sadly Victoria and I have gotten the cold that has been going around for a few weeks now.  I had  thought we dodged the bullet on it because everyone has been starting to get better but sadly we both got sick.  I am hoping lots of fresh juice, water, and fruits and veggies will help us kick this cold quick.  Victoria has two days to get better because she has ballet shows this weekend. Yikes!

For Valentines Day I try and focus more on love and handmade gifts.  Its rare I will do candy, if anything her and I will make homemade treats like cookies or brownies that day for a after dinner treat.  Next week, after I finish up my stuff for her, I will do a post on how we celebrate Valentines Day with handmade goodness. :)

Little Girl Hear {Valentines} Necklace

Written in US Crochet Terms

You will need:

4.00 mm hook 

2.25 mm hook

Yarn that can be used with a smaller hook {2.75},  I used Naturally Caron Spa Blend

Yarn that can be used with a 4.00 mm hook,  I used Caron Simply Soft 

Stitches Used:

chain  {ch}

single crochet {sc}

double crochet {dc}

triple crochet {tr}

First you will need to make your hearts, five for the little girl's necklace and one for the American Girl Necklace.  

Heart Pattern

To make the hearts, I used the pattern found on Little Birdie Secrets Website that can be seen here

All of the stitches will be done in the first chain. 

With your 2.25 hook and your heart color yarn ch 4

3 tr into the first ch that you did

Then 3 dc, ch 1, 1 tr, ch 1, 3 dc, 3 tr

ch 3

slip stitch into the center of your heart

cut off your yarn leaving a small tail for weaving in

Give your tail two tails a soft pull to bring your heart together into a nice firm shape. 

Weave in your ends. 

After you make your six hearts and all your ends are woven in, switch to your 4.00 mm hook. 

For the Little Girl's Necklace

With your 4.00 mm hook and your chain color yarn, make a heart with the heart pattern above, this time, don't cut off your end after your slip stitch into the center. 

ch 30 after you slip stitch into the center

Join your first heart to the necklace by doing a slip stitch into the back loops of the heart right where they are rounded at the top, ch 2 in between each slip stitch you do to join your heart. 

 By only doing one loop, this makes the heart keep its shape and it looks like a clean edge because you don't see the chain color joining in with the heart color. 

*ch 15 and join your heart the way you did joined your first heart*

Repeat from * to * to join the other three hearts. 

After you join your 5th heart you will ch 30

ch 8 more 

slip stitch into the 8th chain from the hook {this creates your loop for your heart to go through for fastening}

Fasten off your ends and you are finished! :)

The Matching American Girl Necklace

With your 4.00 mm hook and your chain color yarn, make a heart with the heart pattern above, this time, don't cut off your end after your slip stitch into the center. 

ch 23

Join your heart to the necklace by doing a slip stitch into the back loops of the heart right where they are rounded at the top, ch 2 in between each slip stitch you do to join your heart. 

ch 23

ch 8 more

slip stitch into the 8th chain from the hook {this creates your loop for your heart to go through for fastening}

Fasten off your ends and you are finished! :)

These adorable heart {valentines} necklaces work up fast and easy, you could finish them both in the course of a movie if you wanted.  

Mix it up and make the hearts all different colors, more hearts, less hearts, bigger hearts.  

You could even use the American Girl pattern and make the chains less and turn it into a fun bracelet or anklet.  I love when patterns can be customized to multiple things. :)

Off to try and get some schooling done with Victoria, although I am thinking today will be a movie day after we run to the store for some produce.  Being sick and schooling is just no fun.  

We will either watch Life {narrated by Oprah} which is a favorite in our house.   If your kids get sick and you still want to get some kind of learning in, you could have your kids watch that and then pick an animal that they really liked seeing and do a mini report on it after reading more about it in some library books.  

or

 We might watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, I hear that has been a pretty good show so far and would love to check it out.  

Hope everyone has a lovely day, we will be spending ours on the sofa with lots of snuggly crochet blankets, fresh juiced juice, water, and kitties :)

Just wanted to feature a blogger who has used this pattern to make her own heart necklace and to teach her niece to crochet as well.  It a great beginner pattern to use for kids because its fairly simple and quick to work up as well.  

Follow the link here to see her full blog post.  

She is going to be translating this pattern to French, once she is done I will post the link for that here as well. 

I love how cute these look with just one heart! :)

Follow the link here to see this pattern translated into French.