50 Sunflowers to Knit, Crochet & Felt

Book excerpt: Sunflowers are bold and bright flowers that have inspired painters and designers for years. Master knitter and designer Kristin Nicholas grows her own field of colorful sunflowers and now brings the iconic sunflower to fiber life using knitting, crochet, felting, and embroidery. Included are designs for over thirty different sunflower blooms and buds in a variety of sizes, plus eight different leaf and vine designs, and a host of critters who live in a sunflower field—from birds and honeybees, to butterflies and caterpillars—a total of fifty items. Laid out like the previous books in the series, the book includes all the useful information you need for making the flowers—which needles, crochet hooks, embroidery needles, and types of yarns to use, plus a special explanation of how to choose yarn that felts well. In the "How to Work with Color" section, photographs of actual sunflowers are translated into stitched samples that give the reader visual cues on how to combine colors in their crafting. Organized into knitted and crocheted items, with additional instructions incorporated for felting, the "How-To" section includes full step-by-step pattern instructions and charts where appropriate. The last part of the book features over fifteen projects for using the sunflowers in many and varied ways, from embellishing mittens, to decorating a grapevine wreath to a felted potholder, to making a child's toy, and more!