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.

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a fun project to play with brioche knitting, check out the My Buddy knitting pattern/recipe from Casuarinagirl on Ravelry.

This project doesn’t include a brioche tutorial, so it’s good to know the basics, including how to increase and decrease, but you can always practice on a swatch before you start the project if you want.

The design is meant to be flexible for the yarn you have and what size and shape of project you want to make, from a skinny neck scarf to a asymmetrical triangle or a more classic triangular shape.

The shape you end up with will depend on how often you increase (and then decrease on the other side). The pattern mentions increasing every fourth, fifth or six row (and the one shown increases and decreases every sixth row) but you can do it even more or less often depending on the shape you’re looking for an how much yarn you want to use.

You can work to whatever depth you would like, or use almost half of the yarn you have set aside for the project and begin decreasing.

When it comes to yarn, she used three strands of yarn held together to make a super fluffy shawl, but you can work it with whatever yarn and needles you like to make a wrap that’s all your own.

If you are new to brioche (or to increasing and decreasing in brioche) it might be a good idea to make a little scarf or head wrap first before diving in to the bigger pattern, just so you’re more comfortable with the technique. Or just give it a go; nothing about brioche knitting is that difficult. (But you might want to use a lifeline because I find brioche hard to rip out or fix mistakes in properly.)

You can grab the free pattern for the Buddy Wrap on Ravelry.

[Photo: Casuarinagirl]

Next Pattern:

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