The heart of the matter

I've now undone most of the crochet chain from the London marathon and have started work on the second lap blanket. I need to get a move on now as I will be giving them to their new owners next week. I wanted it to have a heart in the middle, as I did for the one I started on my way to the London marathon, but I wanted something a bit different.

I knew I'd seen a heart with popcorn stitch in the middle somewhere and thought I'd got a pattern in one of my old books but couldn't find it. No worries, I just made a cup of tea, sat down by the window and got stuck in.

It was just getting light when I started and my first visitors were Titch and Quackers who came and tapped on the door! I didn't have my camera nearby at the time.

Then came Mrs Duck:

She was followed was this pretty little pied wagtail who is a regular visitor.

The one who made me laugh most was this pheasant who tried to attract my attention by jumping up onto the sun-lounger and staring at me.

Now where was I? Ah yes, the crochet. Here's what I ended up with after a lot of playing around. I wanted lots of textural interest and this fits the bill. It should block out nicely and will make a good centrepiece. The rest of the blanket will be just trebles and chains so will grow really quickly, especially with this thick yarn (Lion Brand Hometown USA).