Crochet Heart Motif Pattern

Here's a Heart Motif just in time for Valentine's Day

Make a 12 dc magic circle (ch 2, 11 dc inside loop)

Ch 2, dc3tog, ch 3, dc3tog next st, ch 3, sl st next st, ch 3, dc3tog next st, ch 3, dc3tog next st, ch 3, sc in next 2 st, hdc in next, [dc, tr, dc] in next st, hdc in next, sc in next, sl st to join. Fasten off.

Sew motif to whatever your heart desires. ;)

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New Year, Old-Fashioned Patterns

It's the new year and I have a lot of crochet pattern ideas swirling around in my head, along with a few projects I've started on lately. Plus I taught myself to hand-knit enough to make a square and I got a knitting machine for Christmas! There are so many possibilities! I'm really into totes, handbags, purses, and general 'carrying-things-around' items right now. I also LOVE vintage patterns and have gotten a ton of vintage crochet/knitting books on ebay, and I found my new favorite sites for free vintage patterns:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ and https://archive.org/

I found a simple pattern for a 1916 'Grouch Bag' in the Artamo Crochet Book No.1 (found here on page 36: https://archive.org/details/artamocrochetboo00bent ). I did a trial run, since this was my first vintage pattern, with cheap, kelly green worsted weight yarn. I lined it with coordinating cotton fabric and sewed an antique gold button on it. My plan is to make another one using mercerized cotton thread as the pattern was originally written. It's supposed to be a much smaller, wallet-like bag for carrying around extra money and such. Here's a pic of my trial run (which is more like a medium sized clutch purse):

 

My other project is a handbag from a 1945 pattern that I found here (which is also available in a larger book on the websites given above): http://freevintagecrochet.com/purses/2721-purse-pattern.html 

I like this site because if you know what kind of project you're looking for, it gives individual pages/patterns, and you can print them off or email them to yourself.

Here's the purse. I had a lot of fun making it and putting it together. I followed directions exactly as written: 

Couldn't help myself

Made w/ 4 strands size 10 crochet thread held together and F hook

Lined w/ crinoline and fun red fabric