Knitted Flowers

Lovely Lavender

My vision was to create a huge bunch of lavender that would last forever, unlike the real thing. Everyone would be impressed by my masterful knitting skills and sheer diligence. Well, we all know how that went, now, don't we? 

After considerable effort, I did manage to knit a few lovely specimens of lavender, and I'm pleased with the final result, if not the quantity. 

First I had to find the right colors of yarn in the right weight, and to determine what size needles worked best. It took a few tries to get good at making a single stalk of lavender, then I had to figure out how to get each one to stand up on its own. 

After unraveling many attempts, I first knitted the 3 light purple ones and tried various means of providing support. I found that I had to knit the icord stem around a piece of wire, so I knitted 3 more in the darker purple color for a change. They worked beautifully, but now I just can't find it in me to make 9 more. Surprise, surprise. 

100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet

I relied on the clever patterns of Leslie Stanfield in her book, 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet: A Collection of Beautiful Blooms for Embellishing Garments, Accessories, and More. There are many types of flowers to make, and the author has the patterns organized in  sections by knit or crochet and by difficulty level within each section. I did not find the lavender difficult to knit; in fact it went pretty quickly with a minimum of sewing up. Sport weight yarn and #2 bamboo needles worked the best for me, and I used picture wire I had laying around the house for the stems. Florists' wire would probably be perfect.


For a little more inspiration, here are more pictures of the real thing.I wish I could provide a simulation of the fragrance, but the instructions in the book didn't cover that.

Extreme Knits

This section of my post is dedicated to sharing examples of extreme knitting that make me wonder about the designer's sanity. Instead of baking, how about knitting...wedding cakes! These are probably not as difficult to make as real edible wedding cakes, but I'm sure they last longer. More's the pity.

by Alan Dart

Knitted Wedding  from Nina Pope's Photostream

In contrast, this darling little cupcake is one I'm reasonably sure I could accomplish if my fingers didn't cramp up. This picture was found on ravelry.com, is by Anna Hrachovek, and is available in her book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi: More Than 40 Itty-Bitty Minis to Knit, Wear, and Give.