Rosette Recipe

I had a little challenge two weeks ago – a commission to make an “interesting” baby hat for a little girl. I couldn’t make any of the texture ideas I had work out with the three colors my client (customer? collaborator? patron? victim?) chose, so I made a mostly plain hat with some textured bands and then made a big ol’ rosette to up the odd-and-cute factor.

The rosette is my own invention, cobbled together from ideas that I probably gleaned from browsing books by Nicki Epstein. I give you the recipe here, in case you wish to make your own little five-pointed, garter stitch flowers.

Flower:

With long-tail cast on, Cast On 3.

Row 1: K 3. Turn work and Cast On 3 with purled cast on. (It’s like the knitted cast on, but with purls.)

Row 2: K 4; wrap & turn.

Row 3: K 4.

Row 4: Sl 1 purlwise with yarn in front; K3; wrap & turn.

Row 5: K 4.

Row 6: Bind Off 3 (slip 1^st stitch purlwise instead of knitting it); K 3.

Repeat these 6 rows 4 more times (5 times total).

Bind off 3.

This will make you a funky little polygon. If you sew the tail from the bind off to the middle of the back of the first petal, you’ll get a very satisfying five-petaled flower.

I layered two of them to make the hat’s rosette, tacking down each petal, then went crazy with the yarn needle and brown to make a center.

Lurve. Yarn: Cashmerino Aran from Debbie Bliss. Base hat pattern: cobbled together from this and this, on 56 stitches and US 8s, with something generic out of my head for the crown.