Knitted Star Flower Hair Tie

 

I like to knit various types of flowers, and sew them onto ponytail holders. You can do a lot with these, however, and use them to decorate, or embellish clothing and accessories. You could even mount them onto sticks to make a bouquet in a vase.

You can easily vary the size and shape of these flowers, by increasing or decreasing the amount of stitches, just make sure that the number of your base round stitches is divisible by the number of petals you intend to have. These are six petal flowers, so the base round had to have 36 stitches. If I wanted 5 petals, my round could have 25 of 30 stitches.


Materials:
WW Yarn, in Various Colors (two for each layer of the flower, one for the stamen/pistols and one for the leaves).
Size 2 Circular Needles
Small Crochet Hook
Tapestry Needle
Ponytail Holders (Non elastic) )

Knitted with size 2 circular needles, both in the round and flat.

Knit two of these, in coordinating colors:

Base Round:
CO 4, split in half and join in the round
R1 - k
R2 - k1m1, all the way around.
R3 - k
R4 - k1m1, all the way around.
R5 - k
R6 - k1m1, all the way around. *You should have 32 stitches.
R7 - k7, k1m1, k7, k1m1, k7, k1m1, k7, k1m1 *You should have 36 stitches.











Petals

You are going to divide these 36 stitches into 6 petals. This is really very simple. Pull the cable so that all of the stitches are congruent and there is no gap. Pull the cable out, six stitches from the top needle, and slide those six stitches to the end of the needle while the rest remain on the cable.

Knit the six stitches, turn, and purl back.
Repeat this for 8 rows and then begin decreasing.
R9 - k2tog, k2tog, k2tog
R10 - purl
R11 - k2 tog, k
R12 - k2tog, snip the yarn leaving a 4 inch tail, pull the tail into the last loop.

Slide the next six stitches on your base round onto your needle, just as you did the first. Start the yarn again in the first stitch and form follow the steps above.
Do this for the remaining petals.

Weave in all of your ends, on the outer points.



Finishing Flowers
Once you have knitted two star flowers, decide which is going on top and which is going on the bottom. On the bottom flower, weave in all of your tail strings.
Place the top flower where you want it, and use a crochet hook to go through the bottom flower and grab the inner tail strings of the top flower, then pull them through so that you can tie/weave them in beneath the bottom flower.

Use your crochet hook and your pistol/stamen color to create the inner bits of the flower.

                              Figure 1                            Figure 2                          Figure 3

 

You can make a fringe in the center of your flower by slipping a strand of accent yarn under a stitch and then tie the ends once or twice, snipping them short in the front, as in Figure 1.
You may choose to surface crochet in a ring as in Figure 2.
You may choose to make little balls by pulling a pieces of yarn through a stitch, knot it several times and pull the ends back through the flower and tie them off, as in Figure 3.

Leaves
On the under side of the bottom flower, insert your needle beneath 11 stitches to "pick them up" from the base round. Use your leaf color to knit across and purl back.
Take care to keep the knit stitches on the side facing up, and the purls on the back.
Knit and Purl the leaves back and forth until you have near the length of your petals. This will be approximately 10 rows. Once you have knitted to the edge of your flower, begin decreasing your outer stiches by knitting two together (k2tog) on the knitted side. Do nothing on the purled side.
Continue tapering and decreasing until you have one stitch left. Snip your yarn and pull the tail through the loop. Weave the end under.




Final

Use your tapestry needle and yarn to fix your ponytail holder to the flower. You'll want to sew through the back of the flower, wrapping it around you band.

Once this is done and you've tidied up your ends, you're good to go! Make them in different styles and colors to wear with different outfits or just get creative with them.