Book Review: 20 to Make Flowers to Knit

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.

The butterfly on this piece — the Owl Butterfly Playmat by Sophie’s Stitches — caught my eye before I even knew what the project was. Now that I’ve give it a closer look I’m still not 100 percent sure what it is meant to be for, but I still love it.

I think it’s maybe to give you a flat surface to roll dice or play cards on, but there are no images of the project in use so I’m just speculating on that. If you know what it is, be sure to let me know!

What it physically is is a worsted weight mat (the sample is worked in cotton) that measures 14 by 24 inches, or 35.5 by 61 cm. The impression I get from the pattern notes and the photos is that you knit the rectangle plain and the butterfly is stitched on after using duplicate stitch, which is provided as a chart.

Of course you could choose to knit some of the colorwork as you go, either using stranded knitting or intarsia techniques, or maybe some of both. It just looks like a lot of duplicate stitch (and it is!) so knowing me if I were making this project I’d probably try to knit some of it instead of stitching it all.

The pattern also suggests that you can knit a second plain mat to sew on the back and cover up all the yarn ends, as well as making the mat thicker and a little more stable. There’s also a photo that shows fabric sewn to the back, which is also a good option if you have some fabric that has a bit of grip.

I like the graphic on this one enough I might just make it as a table pad for our entry way table. You can always make the mat part a different dimension, just make sure you’re centering the image if you do.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sophie’s Stitches]

Have you read?