Olives Christmas Heart

At Knitting for Olive, we associate Christmas with time together as a family and both children and adults love to be creative and do crafty projects together. In Denmark, children learn early how to make simple woven Christmas hearts in paper. These hearts can open as a basket and be filled with candy or cookies and hung on the Christmas tree. This is a tradition we would love to share with all of our knitters, so we made a pattern for a knitted version – Olive’s Christmas Heart.

The heart is worked using 1 strand of Heavy Merino + 1 strand of Soft Silk Mohair held together throughout. You need two contrasting colors for the two halves of the heart. The pattern gives you instructions for two different sizes and two different versions. The first version is flat and single-layered with an i-cord handle so that it can be hung on the tree or, alternatively, just laid flat on the table as festive decor. The second version is double-layered with a knitted handle in stockinette stitch and can be opened and filled with treats, and hung up. Both versions are worked the same way all the way up to the very last finishing steps.

The pattern does not tell you how to do the actual weaving – we suggest searching for ‘Danish braided hearts’ or ‘Scandinavian woven hearts’ to find tutorials online for this part if needed. 

Sizes: Small (Large)
Finished measurements: Length: approx. 10 (11) cm [4 (4¼)]”; Width: approx. 11 (13) cm [4¼ (5)]”
Yarn: 1 strand of Knitting for Olive Heavy Merino (125 m [137 yd] / 50 g [1.8 oz]), worsted-weight yarn, either 10 (12) g of both color 1 and color 2 for a flat single-layered heart or 20 (24) g of both color 1 and color 2 for an open doubled-layered heart + 1 strand of Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair (225 m [246 yd] / 25 g [0.9 oz]), lace-weight yarn, either 4 (5) g of both color 1 and color 2 for a flat single-layered heart or 8 (10) g of both color 1 and color 2 for an open doubled-layered heart. Sample is in Heavy Merino + Soft Silk Mohair in Rust (color 1) and Mushroom Rose (color 2) colorways
Needles: 3 mm / US2.5 circular needle in 80 cm [32”] cable length and 2 double-pointed needles size 3 mm / US2.5
Gauge: 22 sts and 32 rows = 10 cm [4”] in st st with 3 mm / US2.5 needles
Notions: Locking stitch marker, stitch holder or waste yarn, tapestry needle, pins, row counter (optional)

Note: Each heart is made up of two separate parts that are worked the same way but in two contrasting colors. Each part consists of the curved part of half a heart and three strips. You start working from the curved top part down to the end of the strips using the magic loop technique. If you are making the flat single-layered version, you will need to make two of these parts, one in each color. If you are making the open double-layered version, you will need four parts, two in each color. As mentioned in the introduction, the two versions are made the exact same way until the very last steps where you will then either bind off the strips or graft the strips before assembling the heart by interlacing the strips while alternating colors.