I came up with the idea for this blanket because I wanted to create something positive out of a traumatic event in my life. In 2017 I suffered a cardiac arrest - thankfully I have an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator), so, although I lost consciousness and collapsed, I my heart was shocked into a rhythm and I recovered. I struggled to return to normal life, worried that it could happen again at any moment, so I contacted Cardiomyopathy UK. The people I spoke to were patient, informative, considerate and supportive. As a result of my experiences, I wanted to raise money for the charity, whilst doing something I enjoyed. I decided on crocheted hearts, as they are pretty and relevant. The next stage was to think about how many I wanted to make and how to lay them out. I decided upon 300 in total, as my heart rate had got to 300 beats per minute. I chose to make 60 red hearts to represent a normal rate, and added to that another 40 pink hearts; this brought the total so far to 100 - still a safe heart rate. Another 200 white hearts completed the set of 300. The layout changed a few times over the course of production. I knew I wanted it to have a regular pattern, and originally had a rectangle of red, with a border of pink and then a larger outer border of white. Having laid it out I felt it was a bit boring, and the pink and red didn’t look good next to each other. As I love maths, symmetry and repeating patterns, I was able to play about until I found what I felt was a harmonious way of grouping the hearts. Once that had been decided upon, all I had to do was join every heart together…and weave in all the ends!

Skill level: Intermediate
Size: One size fits all
Supplies: Double Knit: (2 x 100g) Stylecraft Special DK 1123 Claret, (5 x 100g) Stylecraft Special DK 1001 and pale rose (2 x 100g) Stylecraft Special DK 1080. (You could use any red, white and pink DK).
Hook: 3 mm
Gauge: tension is not critical for this pattern
Stitches used: foundation chain (fc)/chain (ch)/slip stitch (ss)/stitch (st)/double crochet (dc)/ treble crochet (tr)/ double treble crochet (dtr)/ foundation double crochet (fdc)/ back loop only (blo)