Valentines Day Ideas

We are now into February and that means Valentines Day is just around the corner. I have always thought that this is when all the retailers, from florists, card shops and confectioners to jewellers and lingerie shops all hike their prices and go on a money grabbing drive. It’s not to say the desire for profit is not evident every Christmas, Mothers Day etc but at Valentines it seems far worse.

My diatribe over, I have therefore tried to come up with some simple and cheap alternatives to heading for the shops and spending loads of money. Call me sentimental but with Valentines I have always believed it’s the thought that counts. My next few posts will all be about gift alternatives.

My first idea is for all the knitters out there. How about a mug hug or a knitted heart cake? I was recently bought a couple of books in the ‘Twenty things to make series’ one entitled ‘Knitted Mug Hugs’ by Val Pierce and the other ‘Knitted Cakes’ by Susan Penny. Both of these books are available on Amazon

These two books atr botth packed with novel ideas to knit

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knitted-Mug-Hugs-Twenty-Make/dp/1844486060

 

 

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knitted-Cakes-Twenty-Susan-Penny/dp/1844483614/ref=sr_1_21?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328191645&sr=1-2

Both books have loads of ideas and easy to follow patterns

First  the Mug Hug

I choose the Fair Isle knitted mug hug as it had a splendid heart motif ideal for Valentines Day. You can find this pattern on page 24 of this book.  I selected two colours red and white to give it that Valentine feel, but the book gives you the chance to use three colours. You could go with traditional colours or of course or you could choose to knit something in brighter or neutral shades. You will also need some 4mm knitting needles. It took only an evening to complete this mug hug and I can honestly say I’m not the world’s fastest knitter. The end result though I am very pleased with.

This is the finished result

Mug Hug on mug

For copy right reasons I cannot print out the pattern I used but I can, however, give you a link to a free site, which has some mug hug designs 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-mug-hug

The Raspberry Heart Cake

This pattern can be found on page 32 of the knitted cake book For this heart you need two balls of double knit wool if you want a contrasting colour scheme as you can see from the heart on the left or you can simply stick with one colour as I have with the heart on the left. You will also need ribbon and embellishments I used two glass heart shaped buttons but you could also use silk flowers.

Again for copy right reasons I can not give you the pattern but would advise you that both these books cost under £5.00 and have loads in them to do so worth the price. You might also want to look at this online site which gives free knitting patterns 

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/440218/Heart-knitting-pattern

Other ideas will follow …………………….




Maybe some truffles, card ideas,cakes and gift boxes.