Today I want to talk to you about hearts

My sister alerted me to this post on craftster by Jane Doe the other day, and I thought it stunningly beautiful.



I'm a big fan of the anotomically correct heart. And this has an ye-olde-worlde type feel to it with the embroidery and the sepia colouring. Jane mentions in her post that she stained it very so slightly with tea to make them all the same range of colour. I especially love the lace poking out the bottom in the first photo.

I also think the addition of the tubes is masterful. I love to contrast between the handstitched, soft material part of the muscle itself vs the hard clear and clinical looking tubes of the veins draws the viewer in and makes the soft material even more inviting. I always think that crafted hearts are just crying out to be held. They fit so nicely in the palm of the hand.

I knitted a heart a few years ago, I was feeling totally heart broken and crushed and I figured the best way to make myself feel better was to knit one. I wanted it to have a good weight so that when you held it in your hand it felt right. It's stuffed with rice, as I recall, to also give it that good squishy feeling.

I was never fully happy with the 'rim' around the top of the muscle, but back then I couldn't figure out any other way to do it. It doesn't look too bad, but it was just one of those things that annoy you when you make something. I loved the veins and arteries though. I'm always on the look out for anatomical hearts, having made one myself I now take a professional interest in them :)