Yes – This amazing flower!  I love them!  I’ve bought many a plant over the years for my garden, but only one seems to grow, and its putting in a great display right now!

It must have about 80 flower heads on it, giving my garden a huge burst of colour, which given the rotten wet cold summer we’ve had, is very welcome.

So why am I telling you about this lovely flower?

It was a perfect excuse to make some out of yarn of course!

So what do you think?  Did I manage it?  I didn’t have the exact pink  wanted, I don’t think any wool will be able to come close to nature in the vibrancy of the pink, but I think they turned out pretty nicely!

Who wants a pattern then? (You can buy this as a handy 3 page PDF (only 2 if you don’t print the cover!) from Ravelry or Etsy for  a bargain price of 50p!  (I can’t even think of what else you can get for 50p now – even a bar of chocolate is more than that!)

You will need:

4mm crochet hook

mustard and another colour double knitting yarn- I used Sytlecraft Special DK.

A needle for sewing in ends.

Stitch marker

Flower:

With mustard – start with a magic ring.  (with the yarn to the left wrap it around your finger 3 times, so the tail finishes to your right.   Insert the hook under the 2 of the loops, and pull the third loop back through and chain 1 immediately – then you can remove the loops off you finger

 

Round 1: 6sc in the MR [6] and pull tight.

R2: (2sc in next sc, 1sc) 3 times. [9sc]

R3-5:  1sc in each sc [9] (3 more rows)

Fasten off leaving a long end that can be used to stuff the seed head.

Petals

Using the white yarn 4.0mm hook, start with a magic ring.

Round 1: 6sc in the MR [6]

R2: (2sc in next sc, 1sc) 3 times. [9sc]  SS to join

 

For each petal:

CH7, starting in the 2^nd chain from the hook do 3 sc, 3 HDC, ss (Top loop only) to the next stitch along.  Repeat a further 8 times.

You will have 9 petals.  Fasten off leaving a long end for sewing together.

Turn the flower upside down – this is the side that it is seen.

Now sew the seed head to the petals, using the long end of the white.

 

There you have it…… Echinacea!