February 20, 2022
I was looking through my wildflower field guide this week for inspiration, when I came upon the blanket flower. This gorgeous and unique flower just begged to be crocheted! It took a lot of trial and error, but eventually I came up with a design that I think captures this flower’s unique features: the puffy round center, vibrant colors, and notched petals.
I enjoyed designing this flower so much that I’ve decided to make a wildflower blanket! I’ll design flower motifs based on the flowers found in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It feels good to be inspired by the place where I live and to learn more about the flowers in my backyard. I know I’m going to have so much fun exploring this topic and designing a blanket around it. And better yet, I can’t wait to go hiking this spring and see what wildflowers I can find.
February 27, 2022
After perfecting the design, I made a dozen more blanket flowers over the course of the week. Having to make so many of these might seem tedious to some, but I really enjoy it. And it gave me many opportunities to test the pattern and make sure it’s accurate. I’m so pleased with how these are turning out!
March 6, 2022
This morning I’m working out how to make the next motif for my wildflower blanket. The blue columbine is the state flower of Colorado, so of course it has to be included in my blanket.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember to stop and take a photo when you’re deep in a project, but I’m glad I did today! Here you can see the different iterations, as I tried out various petal shapes, leading up to the final design. The colors aren’t accurate though — when I’m working on a design I tend to use yarns from my scrap basket first. Only once I’ve got the design down is it “worthy” of the real yarn. I’ve had to shop around for just the right colors for the columbine, which is closer to periwinkle than what I have here. I’m hoping to find the right colors by next weekend so I can make a true columbine.
March 20, 2022
I found the perfect colors for my blue columbines. I’m using Cascade 220 Superwash Sport in lemon (820), mulberry purple (269), periwinkle (844), and ecru (817). After a lot of searching, I decided on Cascade Superwash for this project because of the wide range of colors in this line. Sport will be the perfect weight because I plan on layering these applique flowers and I don’t want the finished blanket to be too heavy.
I spent some time on the pattern this week as well. It takes 7 rounds to make this columbine. The first tiny yellow motif in the photo shows the flower after round 2. Each flower after that represents the progress after 1 round.
March 27, 2022
These columbines are a lot of fun to make! Can you tell? I can’t stop making them! I even discovered that I can use the first few rounds of the pattern to make some pretty yellow alpine buttercups too.
April 10, 2022
These leaves belong to the tansyleaf tansyaster (also known as the Tahoka daisy). I’m in the process of picking just the right colors for the flowers, but in the meantime, I thought I might design the leaves. I actually Googled “What is a tansyleaf” and learned that tansyasters have multi-lobed, fern-like foliage, which grows from a branched stem.
This project involves a lot of research! I’m really enjoying learning all about the plants that are native to the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
April 18, 2022
I finally found the right colors for the tansyleaf tansyasters. In the end I couldn’t choose between pale lavender and wisteria, so I decided to use them both! Now I have some light-purple flowers and some dark-purple flowers, and I’m liking how they look together.
I also discovered something new while I was playing with this design. Each petal is made by working into a chain. I decided to try placing each stitch into the back bump of the chain instead of the top loop or 2 loops like I usually do. I was excited to discover that this creates a knit look on both sides of the petal. It really give the flower a nice finishing touch, without any extra effort. I love when I stumble upon something that works!
April 24, 2022
This weekend, I’m designing a fireweed flower. Check out those colors! I still can’t believe I found just the right shades of magenta for these brightly colored petals. I even found magenta seed beads for the anthers — I’m learning flower anatomy now too!
May 1, 2022
I made a bunch of fireweed flowers and leaves this week. And I learned that if you’re in Canada, you might know this flower as great willowherb, in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb.
I’m going on a cross-country road trip with my family next week, so I might take a bunch of yarn along and work on the base fabric for this blanket. My favorite traveling projects are those that don’t require too much thought, but are interesting enough to keep my mind occupied.
May 18, 2022
I just got back from a 10-day trip across the county with my parents. We traced the Lewis and Clark trail from Missouri to Oregon (actually I joined them in Omaha, Nebraska). It was a very educational trip! And I got a lot of car crochet done. I actually finished the base fabric for my blanket on the trip.
I also picked up a new wildflower guide at the Lolo Pass Visitors Center (they have great complimentary coffee there too). It covers wildflowers of the northern Rockies. Flipping through the pages, I found myself wanting to create crochet versions of all the flowers. I may have to expand my blanket to the whole Rocky Mountain Range… or maybe I’ll have to do a second blanket someday.
May 29, 2022
I decided to design some leaves to go with my columbine flowers. I’m not as experiences with crocheting leaves and these took a while to get right. In the end I decided to make them in joined rounds (as opposed to turned rounds or rows), and elongating one side with taller stitches. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out and I think they’ll look great underneath the columbines as one of the first layers on the blanket.
June 10, 2022
This week I worked on my design for a scarlet globemallow flower. I love how the edges of the petals are very subtly ruffled.
June 16, 2022
Well, there’s a reason I haven’t said more about the base fabric for this blanket. Simply put, I wasn’t satisfied with it. The whole time I was crocheting it on the road last month, I kept thinking, “why am I not making this as a motif blanket?” The fabric turned out beautiful, but it’s far too stretchy. I just know that it’s not going to be fun sewing appliques onto it. So I’ve begun the long process of unraveling about 12 days of work. You’d think it would be heartbreaking, but I’m finding it exhilarating. It feels good to have a new beginning.
I’ve also decided to turn some of my wildflowers into granny squares. I’ll still applique a lot of the flowers and leaves, but I think having some flowers built into some motifs will add to the layered effect. And the granny stitch background should be more stable than the fabric I had before.
June 19, 2022
Today I’m designing a cluster of prairie flax and later I’ll work on turning it into a granny square. That’s where I’m sure it will get really interesting—with plenty of math, sketching, and trial & error. It’s always a puzzle but that’s what makes it fun and so rewarding.
June 26, 2022
After many attempts to square off different configurations of tiny flax flowers, I settled on an arrangement of 8 flowers around a central flower. These prairie flax clusters are finally ready to become granny squares.
July 6, 2022
I’ve started joining squares and weaving in ends. Each prairie flax flower has 4 ends to weave in, so that means each cluster has 32 ends (plus 2 in the middle)—so many ends! But it’s worth it. I’m really loving how these clusters seem to float on the blanket. Because I worked the granny square outward from the outer ring of flowers, you can see through the lacy flower in the center.
I also created a new little flower called a showy primrose and turned it into a small granny square too. I’ve begun working on the layout, and I’m excited to get the squares joined together.
July 12, 2022
This week I worked on organizing all my flowers and sketching out a layout for the blanket. I’m very inspired by photos of mountain valleys covered in wildflowers. I love how each field of flowers can turn a mountainside into a different color. I think I might try to recreate that look with my blanket.
July 22, 2022
This week, I began sewing the flowers onto my wildflower blanket. I’ve decided to divide the blanket into color-blocked sections to resemble a high mountain valley. The first section of blue flowers includes columbines, prairie flax, primrose, and tansyasters.
August 12, 2022
I’ve been busy! I can hardly believe that I crocheted all these flowers for the first yellow section in the last week. I guess it helps that I only needed to design one new flower and I could reuse flower patterns from the first blue section. The newest flowers the mariposa lilies, which are the three-petaled flowers in the picture. I’m loving these colors. Aren’t they cheerful? The next step is turning some of these into granny squares and then working them into the blanket.
I'm predicting that each section will take about a month, so hopefully I'll have the blanket finished by the end of the year. I’m also starting to consider whether or not I should publish this pattern. I’ve been writing down the instructions all along, so it wouldn’t be that hard. I’m just worried that it might end up being a very long pattern.