Book Review: 20 to Make Flowers to Knit

April 25, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Adding a knit flower to a project is a fun way to give it a little more color and style, and they are also great stash busting projects because they typically don’t use a lot of yarn.

Designer Sachiyo Ishii offers 20 pretty (and mostly pretty easy) flower patterns for knitters to use as standalone flowers or to add to other projects in her book All New 20 to Make: Flowers to Knit.

After a brief overview of tools and techniques — special skills include creating I-cord, a special bind off used on a couple of flowers, making a crochet chain, half pompoms and French knots — the book moves on to the patterns.

Each pattern takes up at least two pages, with a full-page, color photograph of the finished flowers as well as the instructions for making it. All of the projects are worked flat and she used super fine yarn, but you can use a different weight to get a larger flower.

The patterns are as follows:

Daffodil
Daisy
Crocus
Poppy
Lavender
Carnation
Pansy
Viola
Anemone
Scotch thistle
Tulip
Peony
Lily
Poinsettia
Cherry blossom
Buttercup
Cosmos
Freesia
Rose
Bluebell
Snowdrop

In addition to the flowers, there’s also a pattern for a vase you can knit to display your knit flowers in.

Many of the patterns have great details like anthers and a little leaf on the stem of the crocus, buds on the freesia and cherry blossom, and stamens and a wire-wrapped stem for the lily.

The cherry blossom is one of my favorites because it looks so realistic, and the Scottish thistle (which is mostly a pom pom) is really cute, too. I also love the peony, made of stacks of petals with a half pompom in the center. I can’t find the projects on Ravelry but you can see a few of them on the cover (the pink one at bottom right is the peony).

If you love knitting flowers or would like to start, this is a nice collection with a variety of easy flowers you can use for all sorts of purposes.

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover, 20 patterns. Published 2022 by Search Press Limited. Suggested retail price $11.95.

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Christmas Stocking Knitting Patterns for Your Pets

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

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