Valentine Lariat - free pattern

 

 

 

Valentine is very special for us because as some of you know, our daughter Eva was born on Valentine's. She'll turn 15 next week.  She still hasn't decided what she is going to wear on her birthday. It is not this outfit she is having on in the pictures. But she helped me shoot the lovely lariat.

I am having several Valentine posts ready as a mini series and while brainstorming ideas for the day, I always referred to it as "Dressing up for Valentine" and it stuck with me - although I don't plan on suggesting fashion choices and styles for Valentine. It would refer to those last finishing touches- in this case jewelry and accessories.

So let's move on to the instructions. For this lariat I used 2 colors in fingering and sport yarn. This pink I started the lariat with was fingering but I needed thicker yarn  (sport) so I doubled it. I used 1.9 mm hook.

Pattern
1. Chain 3o. In the 2nd ch from hook, hdc1, next dc across until you get to the last 2 stiches where you sc1 and sl st. You will get a slightly curled vine.
2. Roll it with your fingers.
3 - 4. Chain 3o and repeat the same pattern as in 1.

5 -7. Make 2 more curls by chaining 25 (and 1 last by chaining 20) and repeating  the pattern above. There are 5 curls.

8. Chain "the body". I chained 120. That is the length you have to decide on. When you get the desired length, ch 25 for the smallest curl and next make the other 4 (in reverse this time).

9. With another color, ch 30. Starting from the 2nd st from hook, hdc1 and next make 2 dcs in every stitch up to the end where you finish by making 1 dc, 1 hdc, 1 sl st all in the last st.
10 -11. Ch 40 (10 for the space and 30 for the curl). Repeat the pattern in 9 for the curl. There are 3 curls.
12 -13. When you are done with the last one, join it with the light pink lariat by a sc and continue sc across.
14. When you come to the other end start making the curls. Use pattern given in 10.

14 - 16. When you come to the other end start making the curls. Use pattern given in 10.

17. Insert 2nd yarn at the beginning of the body (end of curls) "ch 4 and make a picot, sc in next st, sl st in the next one" and repeat from "to ". 

18. Your curly lariat is done!

How to style it:

Hope you make it! If you do, drop me a message in the comments - I'd love to see it!