The free pattern for this virtually no-sew heart was first posted on my blog here for Valentines Day 2020, but they would be a sweet keepsake to send to loved ones that you cannot be with right now.

This sweet stuffed heart was first designed as a pet keepsake, to be made out of chiengora yarn – a soft memento made out of a beloved dog’s downy undercoat. After I designed it, I realised that it would also make the perfect embellishment for a homely, Shaker-style wreath to be displayed all year-round – or to hang on a tree at Christmas.

Construction

My least favourite part of knitting is the sewing afterward and so I regularly seek out knitting patterns with a ‘join as you go’ construction – hence my desire to design a stuffed heart with minimal sewing. (There is a small hole to gather up between the heart bumps, but aside from also threading the yarn through the last few stitches, that is all the stitching involved. The stuffed heart is knitted upside down, from the top down in the round. The tops of the heart are worked separately and then joined together. It has two Judy Becker’s magic cast-ons at the top and is worked in the round using the magic loop method.

Materials

Yarn. I used about 6g (20m) of sports weight/(UK baby weight) Millamia, Naturally Soft Cotton Yarn. Most yarns would be suitable, so this is a great stash buster project. Obviously, the chunkier the yarn, the larger the heart will be.
2 x Circular knitting needles or 1 circular needle and 2 double-pointed needles, 2 or 3 sizes smaller than recommended for your yarn.
A large wool needle.
Toy filling or stuffing.

A Word About Yarn Gauge

It isn’t essential to knit a tension square before you make the stuffed heart. I do think these stuffed hearts look better if they are knitted relatively tightly though. I used a sport weight yarn (UK baby weight yarn) and I knitted the hearts on 2.5mm needles, which is 3 needle sizes smaller than recommended for my yarn.

Special Techniques

Magic Loop: This marvelous technique allows you to work any number of stitches in the round, on circular needles without the need for 4 or more double-ended needles.

Judy Becker’s Magic Cast On: This clever cast on was first devised by Judy Becker for knitting toe-up socks with an invisible cast-on edge, but it is also perfect for knitting the tops of these little hearts as it creates an enclosed bottom edge, with no seaming required.