Decorate Your Home with Spring Flowers

In the past I have shared with you a lot of ideas for knit flowers, and I thought it might be fun this year to look at patterns that include flowers that you can use all over the home.

OK, the flowers on this one are technically crocheted. But the pillow itself — from Better Homes and Gardens — is knit, and it’s really just too lovely to pass up. The crochet involved is simple, or choose a knit flower to add to the pillow instead.

This knit floral tea cosy from Justjen Knits and Stitches is so adorable I want to knit it even though I don’t ever use tea cozies. It looks like a knit garden, complete with little insect buttons for extra cuteness. She has another version that is just done with flowers that would be a great stash-buster, too.

Whimsical Knitting Designs has a nice flower-shaped washcloth, and the semi-famous almost-lost washcloth by Simply Notable has a bit of a flower shape as well.

Lorna Miser has designer a pretty flower pillow that’s offered as a free pattern from Brown Sheep; I know a little girl who would love this one!

And for slightly more whimsical choices, check out Frankie Brown’s posy flower ball and the flowering cactus pattern from Alice Buerkle (it’s actually a TP cover!).

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

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