Valentine Knitted Banner + Tutorial

So today I'm sharing a fun project I recently finished. A short history before we continue though....about late November of last year, I was in my local grocery store and for some fortunate reason was buying time before heading out to the check out stand. That doesn't happen often, I'm usually trying to run in and out of stores when I run my errands but during this time I had no where to rush to so I stopped at the magazine rack. I browsed through a copy of the Cottage and Bungalows magazine and came across a very cute and what seemed to be an easy knitted advent calendar. After studying the photos, I decided that I would make one myself. So without any patterns and directions I went ahead and made some knitted pouches.

Unfortunately Christmas came and went and I still wasn't done with my 25 pouches. It got me bummed for a few seconds but then the light bulb hit! The color scheme that I chose was red and white. If I won't be able to use it for Christmas maybe I can finish it before Valentines and just add pink letters instead of my initial idea of green. And then another thought came....and if I can't finish it by Valentines, I can use it for Fourth of July which then I can just use blue for the lettering! And if I still can't finish it then, I will have something ready for next Christmas!

So the plan was done and I continued to work on my pouches and thankfully got them done by mid January and here's what I made with them....

I layered some felt circles with cardstock die cut letters onto my knitted pouches. Talk about different layers and dimensions!

Because of all the possibilities I have thought about for these pouches, I decided to use velcro to attach the felt circles with the banner titles. This way, I can just change it up when the next holiday comes around.

I love that with the pouches, I can stick things in them for some kind of day to day treat or surprise. Ideas are already swirling in my head!

and because I love to "share" in this blog. I decided to create a tutorial for ya!

Supplies:

yarn to complete at least 25 knitted pockets/pouches

size 10 yarn

pink felt

pink and red cardstock

3 white buttons

thread and sewing machine

velcro

pinking shears

baker's twine or thin ribbon

needle

die cut machine or letter templates (you can also just hand draw the letters if you want)

1. *Before I go on, I want everyone to know that I am not a Knitting expert. I don't think I've even passed the "begginner" stage and I tried to find a pattern or tutorial on my world wide web that would be similar to what I've done but I was not so lucky. So here's my process, if it's not easily understandable, I strongly suggest to go to your favorite knitter and ask for some tips. And if you find something that I can link here, please share in the comment section as well. I will not get offended at all.:)

ok so onto the knitting process....I casted 30 stitches and then knitted until my rectangle was about 4" in size. Then I binded it off. I folded the rectangle to make a square and sewn together the bottom and right opening to close the pouch, leaving the top open. Repeat this process 24-25 more times making sure you have about the same red and white pouches.

2. Next, I grabbed a small circle cutter template ( you can use bowls and small plates for this process as well) and traced circles on my felt pieces. For my Valentine banner, I made 16 circles.

3. Then using my pinking shears, I cut out all of the circles.

4. Then I layed my pouches on the table, alternating the colors and then layed my felts on top of them.

5. Next, I machined stitched a straight stitch on the inside edge of my circle, about 1/4". I was not particular if my circle stitches were "perfect" because I like the homespun feel of imperfect stitches.

6. Then I added velcro to the top and bottom parts of my circles which I then adhered to the knitted pouches. The velcro that I chose had sticky backs which made adhering them faster but if you have the regular kinds, I'm sure you can hot glue them and it'll be perfectly fine.

7. After that, I picked a simple font on one of my Cricut cartridges and spelled out Be My Valentine. I also cut out three hearts from red cardstock.

8. Next, I grabbed three white buttons, threaded the centers with baker's twine and tied them into a bow.

9. Then I hot glued the letters, hearts and buttons onto the felt circles.

10. And then I threaded the twine through the pouches, creating two banners- one with the "be my" and three hearts and another that spelled out the word "valentine".

as you can see, I didn't use all 25 pouches in this project and that means that if you are inclined to making this project, you don't have to! All you'll need is 16. Even better right?!

So there you have it. I hope this has inspired you to create a cute banner for Valentines or even take up knitting! Heck, if I can do it, anyone can. :)

Till next time,

Grace