Woolly Flowers

Earlier this year I looked into ways of either knitting or crocheting a bouquet of flowers and couldn’t really find any patterns that I liked. I wanted reasonably realistic looking 3-D flowers that could be combined into a bouquet but most patterns that I found were for 2-D flowers as accessories or decoration on other items. The only other patterns I found were for lilies. Since I was investigating the possibility of making flowers for decoration at my wedding, lilies just weren’t an option because in Scotland they’re traditionally associated with funerals.

I can’t remember how I came across it but I eventually ordered the book “The World of Flowers in Wool”. The book uses a knitting cast-on around a wire attached to an appropriately sized piece of wood to make each petal individually. You then remove the wood and shape the petals and combine them into the finished flower. The book demonstrates a couple of similar techniques and then is basically a set of recipes for combining different types of petals and leaves into lots of different types of flowers.

I had difficulty finding appropriately sized (and shaped) pieces of wood and, in the end, bought some modelling wood and made my own. (Part of which involved me sawing wood on a desk in a bedroom in a Marriott hotel but I probably shouldn’t say any more about that!) Given that I’m not known for my wood-working skills, I wouldn’t let the thought of this put anyone off trying it.

And here’s the finished result:

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I’ve only managed a single rose so far but have just bought more wire so will be trying out some of the other patterns as well. I still haven’t decided if it’s a practical way to make decorations for the wedding or if I’d have anything like enough free time to do enough in time but I’m still tempted.

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