Knitted flower - gift of love for Troy

After knitting a few flower things for nieces, I didn't want to leave Troy out, prioritizing others first, again, so I knitted her a special flower just for her after. She lucked out as I had had sufficient practice to knit it far better than the others - I also did my best for her out of my love for her.

 This one was knitted to look like a flower in a picture she chose and gave to me.

 Now that I have done a few, I do them in my own, slightly less perfect but simpler way than the way I learned from:

 1) I cast on four stitches for all of these petals, which are knit separately. (After they are all knit, you steam the backs with an iron to keep them from curling up, then sew them together with the remaining wools ends.) Then you increase at will to get the shape you want, two stitches every other row is the most extreme - purl with no increases in between every row where you increase. Then when you narrow again, just sew 2 stitches together at the start and end of each row, mirroring what you did before (purling on back with no decreases). Just make sure you remember to repeat exactly what you do for each petal!

 My only simplification was that I just sew two stitches together regardless of where the decrease is - I can't figure out the various methods of decreasing so it looks better - and to be honest, I don't really care. I use later shaping to sort it out if needed - sewing - and to be honest it looks fine. Not worth the trouble! Knit 2 stitches as 1, easy, done.

 2) I did do something interesting for the white petals to give them more structure. I took my wool needle, and drew one of the wool strings attached to the petal all through the edge of the petal - like a cord through the edge of a bag, then tied a knot when it felt right after getting back to the start. It also got rid of some of the remnant wool. I do also always pull and play with things to arrange them nicely, then sewing fastens them to stay that way.

 Because Troy likes to play with toys and hold them, not just have a hair decoration or something, all the leftover remnant wool I left hanging underneath, and some of them I laced through my wool needle and sewed round up and down with a blanket stitch to make a firmer stem. Then I added two pipecleaners, and wound green wool round the whole thing, securing it at the start of the process then the end. Another thing one could do was use thin thread to secure and hold it together while ornamenting overtop!

 The pollen stamens were of course just drawn up with a needle through the centre after the petals were sewn together.

 Sewing flower is really fun, as it's really fast and easy - when you are following your own patterns. Now I'd like to keep making them, for friends, for hair ornaments, or as part of knitted garments or hats. They are not works of art like paintings - but as gifts of love which effect real life, they are the highest form of art.