Knitting and Science: Plants!

There's a long tradition of incorporating botanical designs into knitting, including many lace patterns inspired by and named after flowers/gardens, and entire books of patterns for creating flowers. Like all other knitted objects, these range from abstractly inspired by plants to fairly realistic representations.

Flower bouquet, Ravelry project

Let's start with the most realistic flowers: in this case, calla lilies and some campanula-style bellflowers. I strove for ease in knitting and aesthetic appeal more than botanical realism, hence the calla lily's paltry spadix and the incredibly droopy, non-differentiated sex organs in the bellflower.

Elodea socks, Ravelry project

Then there are patterns which are inspired by plants. They may or may not actually resemble said plant, but I'm a sucker for inclusion of scientific names into knitting patterns.

Lace stockings with flower motif; Ravelry project

There are plant motifs which occur in lace knitting, often featuring leaves or flowers.  

My Little Flower, Ravelry project

Finally, it's not surprising there are knitters that have contrived disgustingly cute little anthropomorphic flower-people as toys for kids.

I'm looking forward to sharing other plant-related fiber art posts with you soon, including plant-derived yarns and fiber dyes made from native plants!

Other posts in the Knitting and Science series: 

Animals