May Day Knitting

For a special May Day post, instead of pointing you towards knitting your own maypole, or even knitting your own maypole and surrounding it with tiny knitted mice, I thought I'd do a post about half a dozen of the most pleasing floral-themed knitting patterns I could find in a quick Ravelry search and we could just all consider it a May Day post because of the whole May flowers and maying tradition thing. Sound good?

Fine then, just humour me.





This pullover is the Cottage Garden pattern by Cheryl Burke, and is a Twist Collective pattern from Fall 2009. The floral yoke pattern is probably more effective when done in a higher contrast pairing of colours as some of the other sample pictures on its Ravelry page show, but I chose this picture because of a personal weakness for a turquoise and spring green colour combo.





The Sylvi jacket is a Twist Collective Winter 2008 pattern by Mari Muinonen. The lines are clean and simple and the detail on the back is just stunning. I've added this to my favourites on Ravelry, which means I am seriously considering making it at some point. I would probably not make it in red though. I love red, and the red sample looks great, but this particular pattern made in red would entail too many Little Red Riding Hood jokes.





This Floral Cushion pattern is from the Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine Spring/Summer 2011 issue. Simple yet striking.





This is the Dahlia Cardigan from Interweave Knits, Fall 2011. I'm not generally a fan of the wrap/draped front cardigan style but this one is well done (or could be easily made with a button front), and that back detail is just beyond exquisite.





This is the Thistle shawl, designed by The Needle Lady. I'd make it as a throw rather than a shawl, because something this beautiful deserves to be out in plain sight in the living room all the time rather than folded away in a dresser drawer for much of the year.





The Bloomin' sock pattern, by Jeannie Cartmel. They're pretty, the pattern is a free download, and as a bonus whenever you're trying to find them you can ask those you live with if they've seen your bloomin' socks.