Creating one kind of Heart

      Making a Heart out of boondoggle isn't that hard, if you know how to do SuperBrick and Square (or Circle). You can also make a heart using Brick and Triangle. To create what I'll show you here, you'll need four strands of boondoggle, each 3 feet in length. You won't need one of your strands to be longer than the others for this project, as we won't be doing much SuperBrick for this one.

	I'll be using four colors for this one: Rose, Neon Pink, Red, and White. I'll use white as the longest strand, even though it's identical in length to the other strands for this project.
	After Finding the Centers, lay the strands as shown in this shot...
	You should now start a SuperBrick stitch, and pull it snug...
	Do ONE MORE SuperBrick stitch and pull it tight. We now need to split this SuperBrick into two Square stitches. Note how I'm holding the strands in this shot, showing you the two groups of 4 strands we'll use to make the Square stitches: White, both Roses, and the uppermost Red in one group, and the lowermost Red, both Neon Pinks, and the other White in the second group.
	Bend the strands of the lower group out of your way, so that we can concentrate on the upper group.
	We'll use the Red strand as the opposite to the White strand when we start the Square stitch, so bend it around and next to the White strand to create the first loop.
	Now take the White strand and bend it up and over next to the Red strand to create the second loop.
	Take the strand on the left (Pink here) and go OVER the Red and UNDER the White strand, as seen here...
	...and pull it through.
	Now take the strand on the right (the other Pink one) and go OVER the White and UNDER the Red strand...
	...and pull it through.
	Check the placement of the strands to insure they're all locked in place, then pull it tight. You've now completed one of the two Square stitches we'll need for this project.
	Now turn the work around, so you can work with the other group of four strands. Note how one of the strands from the first Square stitch is sitting atop the section we need to work with (the White strand in this shot).
	Bend this strand out of your way, so we can repeat the above steps with this group.
	Again, start with the lowest strand (Red here) and bend it up and next to your long strand (the White one shown here). This becomes the first loop.
	Make your second loop out of the White strand, making sure you place it NEXT TO the first loop, NOT crossing the first loop.
	Now weave your Neon Pink strands, starting with the one on your left. Go OVER the Red loop, then UNDER the white loop...
	...and pull it through!
	Do the same for the other Neon Pink strand. OVER the White, then UNDER the Red...
	...and pull it through!
	After pulling it tight, we have our second Square stitch complete! Need to take a break? Now would be a good time. Ready to continue? All right, you need to do forty-nine (49) Square stitches on EACH side of the work.
	Zoomed out a bit, here's mine after doing NINETY-EIGHT (98) Square stitches (49 on each side)!
	Before we continue, you need to make sure you've got the right number of stitches on each side. Hold the two Square ends together and look at where your long strand ends exit each stitch. (Remember that the long strands are the WHITE ones in this project). You need to make sure that BOTH White strands exit in the CENTER of the work, and that ONE exits from the TOP of it's stitch, as my left one is doing, and one exits the BOTTOM of it's stitch, as my right one is doing. If they aren't, then you'll need to add or remove stithes from the side that's wrong until they DO look like this.
	Now comes the HARD part. We need to BEND EACH SQUARE STRIP down to form the heart shape. This project ENDS at the pointed BOTTOM of the Heart shape. This shot shows you what I'm talking about by BENDING the strips away from each other, then down to meet each other again at the bottom.
	Remember earlier when we held the two Square ends together, I had you insure that the long ends (the White ones in these shots) exited the CENTER of the work? This is because when you turn the Heart upside down and look where the two Square ends meet AFTER you've bent it into the heart, the long strands are once again on the OUTSIDE of the work, as my White ones are in this shot.
	The HARD part is in rejoining the two Square stitches back into a SuperBrick stitch. The two central strands (the Red ones in my project) need to become side strands again, so we bend them sideways to join the Rose and Neon Pink strands.
	Using your White strands, make your two loops...
	...and then weave the eight side strands through. When weaving the Red strands, don't twist them into the work, simply bend them and let them go where they want to go naturally.
	Pull this SuperBrick stitch snug; NOT TIGHT. Do TWO MORE SuperBrick stitches and pull them tight!
	Now comes some more strangeness! ;-) We want to make the bottom of the heart POINTED, so we need to slowly start to STOP using strands in our stitches. This is a neat little trick. Lets start by removing the Red Strands (the center set) from the stitch. Do a Brick stitch on top of the SuperBrick. Weave all but the Red strands through, as shown here...
	To hide the Red strands, take the uppermost strand, the one farthest from you, and feed it up through the center of your two Neon Pink strands. Take the other Red strand and feed it up through the center of your two Rose colored strands, as shown here. (Does this look somewhat familiar? Perhaps from one of the Completion stitches?)
	As you pull the Brick Stitch tight, also pull the Red Strands STRAIGHT UP out of the stitch, so that the Red stitches below do not become loose. With the Red strands sticking straight out of the Brick stitch, do ONE MORE Brick stitch AROUND the Red strands, insuring that each Red strand is in the same center space as it was in the first Brick stitch. Pull this stitch tight as well, and remember to pull your Red strands UP OUT OF the stitch.
	Now it's time to get rid of two more strands; this time one of the Rose strands and one of the Neon Pink strands. Create a Square stitch on top of your Brick stitch that surrounds the two Red strands. Weave the top-most (farthest) Neon Pink strand and the bottom-most (closest) Rose strand into your Square. Leave the other Neon Pink and Red strand hanging loose, just as you did with the Red strands earlier.
	Now take the Neon Pink and Rose strands you haven't yet used and feed them up through the center to join the two Red strands. Pull your Square stitch as tight as you can get it and then do another Square stitch. After pulling this second Square tight, pull UP on all your center strands to tighten them, then retighten your second Square. Do one more Square stitch, leave it loose, then do a Completion stitch on this Square stitch. Pull all strands tight and then snip off to the length of your choosing. (I chose to cut half of them at one angle and the other half at the opposite angle)
	Here's a close up shot of the pointed bottom of the Heart, showing us going from SuperBrick to Brick to Square. It really has a neat effect, doesn't it? This Heart needs a bit of training itself. Work the Heart with your fingers, so that it comes into shape and can lie FLAT on a smooth surface, like a tabletop. Place numerous HEAVY books (hard-covers are more preferable than soft-covers) on TOP of the Heart, and let it sit OVER NIGHT at least! This should hopefully allow the Heart to maintain it's shape.
One version of the Heart, properly completed! I'll be showing you another Heart project soon, one which uses Circle as well as using this pointed effect at BOTH the START and FINISH of the stitch.