5 Valentines Day Project to Make Your Heart Happy

Valentines Day is in a couple weeks and while it’s not known for being a big holiday for knitters, we figured why not feature some patterns themed around it.

Knitting is all about love as it takes a lot of love to painstakingly knit thousands of stitches one by one.

But before we reveal our pattern picks let’s take a moment to understand how Valentine’s Day came to be.

A brief history of Valentine’s Day

Like many holiday’s in the Western world, Valentine’s Day is a mix of Christian and pagan traditions.

The name comes from St. Valentine, although WHICH saint we’re not really sure. Multiple legends are attributed to the man, but the one which ties Valentine to the idea of love is him being a Roman priest who held secret weddings for soldiers forbidden to marry. This priest wore a ring with a cupid on it, so he could be recognized.

In 500 A.D. the Catholic Church made Valentine’s Day an official holiday, linking it closely with the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia which was celebrated on the 15th of February.

But it was not until 1375, when medieval author Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem solidifying the connection between St. Valentine and love. Many historians consider this to be the beginning of our modern celebration of the holiday.

Within a hundred years the word Valentine was commonly used to describe a lover in many songs and poems. By the 1800s Valentine’s cards were being mass produced and in 1847 the “Conversation Hearts” candies were invented.

Today more than 250 million roses are grown specifically for the holiday, and it’s estimated more than $26 billion is spent on gifts.

Conclusion

So what do you think?

What’s your favorite heart shaped pattern?