Heart Levels 40
Interlocking & Mosaic
Heart Levels 40, as with all my designs, can be made using either the interlocking crochet technique or the overlay mosaic crochet technique.
Both colorwork options come with the fully written pattern and charts.
Bottom-Up or Center-Out
You can work Heart Levels 40 from the bottom-up or the center-out for whichever colorwork technique you prefer.
Pattern Options
All 4 files are included in the listing for Heart Levels 40:
– interlocking crochet square (40 window foundation)
– overlay mosaic crochet square (from the bottom-up using the same chart as the interlocking crochet option)
– center-out interlocking crochet square (with a 2-part step-by-step video)
– center-out overlay mosaic crochet square using a solid, adjusted chart (with a 2-part step-by-step video)
Heart Levels 40
I first published Heart Levels 40 in my very first month of designing (April 2020)! Back then I offered interlocking crochet only and I didn’t have a website yet, so you won’t find an earlier blog post about it.
It was only a few months later (August 2020) that I started offering all my patterns for the overlay mosaic crochet technique. I uploaded updates to quite a few patterns but I didn’t change the chart for any of them.
Then, in July 2021, I added the X’s to the mosaic crochet chart for Heart Levels. I still used the same chart as I had created for the interlocking crochet option. And this is how that file remains.
It was another year before I added the center-out options for both of these colorwork techniques (July 2022). This time, not only did I create a full walk-thru video for both of the new options, but I adjusted the mosaic crochet chart so that the solid areas were actually solid.
Four Files
And that is how it came to be that there are 4 files in the Ravelry and Etsy listings:
- one for the original interlocking square,
- one for the original overlay mosaic crochet square (using the interlocking chart with dots and border lines),
- a NEW center-out version of the interlocking crochet square,
- and a NEW center-out overlay mosaic version of this square.
Heart Levels on YouTube
Crochet along with me! You can follow my step-by-step video on its own or use the written pattern and charts as well.
I have created full walk-thru videos for the center-out versions of this square. The videos are quite long but there are time stamps so you can just jump to whatever round you’re having troubles with.
Center-Out Interlocking Crochet
This 2-part video walks you through the center-out interlocking crochet version of Heart Levels 40.
Center-Out Overlay Mosaic Crochet
This 2-part video walks you through the center-out overlay mosaic crochet version of Heart Levels 40.
Part 1 of 2 was recorded live, video quality is less than stellar, I apologize. Part 2 is better.
Wrong Sides
It’s always interesting to see what the Wrong Side (aka Back Side) of the squares looks like. Each colorwork technique produces the same image on the right side (the front) but there are definitely some major differences on the backs.
With interlocking crochet, Heart Levels 40 doesn’t have any hearts on the wrong side.
With overlay mosaic crochet, you can see stripes on the wrong side. These stripes will declare whether you’ve used the bottom-up or center-out version of the pattern.
More Differences
The center-out mosaic version has been adjusted so there are no mesh dots or border lines. The original bottom-up mosaic version of this square still has those mesh dots.
The center-out version of the mosaic crochet square doesn’t have any tails to worry about, so that’s probably my favorite thing about this update!
Both interlocking crochet and overlay mosaic crochet are relatively easy colorwork techniques. They both repeat only two stitches to get the design to show up.
When you do the interlocking crochet version from the bottom-up, you start with the locking border lines. When you work from the center-out you will have two unlocked layers until you get to round 5.
Start with a Tutorial
If you’d like to practice the center-out technique a bit more, maybe you’d prefer to start with my tutorial videos (each technique also has a PDF photo tutorial):
Interlocking Crochet Center-Out Tutorial
I created a small square for the sole purpose of teaching how to do this technique from the center-out. Grab your free PDF and crochet along with me!
Overlay Mosaic Crochet Center-Out Tutorial
The same design, only with an adjusted solid mosaic crochet chart. Grab your free PDF and crochet along with me!
