Winding Up a Shamrock for St. Patrick's Day

Top of the Mornin' to ya! I finally finished my St. Paddy's Day yarn shamrock. I wanted to make something that looked a little homemade...a little bit rustic...but not messy or overly shabby. And here's what I came up with:

I started with four foam hearts, a couple of clearance-priced

skeins of green yarn (one "regular" and one "nubby" for texture). Then I just started winding...and winding... and winding the yarn around the hearts. It's a great project to work on while you're watching tv or waiting at dance lessons or in carpool line. Think of it an a bit of Zen....ahhhhhh.

Once I had wound the darker yarn around each heart, I used a

single strand of the nubby textured yarn as an accent.

But I needed a stem. I originally thought of taping a couple of paint stir stick together and wrapping them in yarn, but settled on a piece of

cardboard from a box in our recycling bin. That way I could control the shape a bit more. Again: winding, winding, winding.

I just used long straight pins to connect the finished hearts together, and then added the stem with two more. Ta da! Ready to hang. I paired it with this cute cloth banner from Hobby Lobby.