Sunflower Power 2!

A little while back I posted an entry entitled "Sunflower Power," which showed a sunflower that I had loom knit. But I had not finished the project because I wanted to find the perfect pot to put it in. Well, it just so happens that the local craft store had just the pot I wanted, and they were on sale. And I got to use my 40% off coupon too! So here's how it turned out:

The view from the back:

The instructions for making the sunflower are in the previous post. And here is what I did to complete the sunflower project:

At the craft store I purchased a 6" round plastic canvas (made by Quick Count) for .79.

I placed the round over the mouth of the pot and cut off the number of rows from the round that overlapped the edge. In my case, I cut off 4 rows from the outer edge of the round. Then I placed the dowel in the center of the round and cut a larger hole for the dowel to fit through. I cut three rows from the center of the round, which will just enough for the yarn-covered dowel to snugly fit through when I cover the round with yarn.

Next, on the red round loom, I used Red Heart Paddy Green yarn to create a drawstring cast on 1 over 1 stitch, then I e-wrapped and knit off 19 rows with a 1 over 2 stitch. On the 10th row I cinched the drawstring, but not entirely shut, just so it was about the same size as the hole I made in the round. After knitting off the rows I sewed the knitting off the loom, placed the round inside what I had just knit, and cinched the working yarn to the size of the hole in the round. Next I sewed the 2 sides of the knitting together around the inside edge of the center of the round. The yarn needle is too big to fit through the holes of the round, so you don't have to worry about it getting stuck in there.

Next, I inserted the bottom of the empty sunflower stem through the center hole in the round. Then I inserted the dowel inside the stem. I sewed the stem to the yarn on the round.

I added batting inside the pot, stuffing it in a circular way so that there would be a hole in the center for the dowel. Then I put craft glue on the bottom of the dowel and around the outside edge of the round. I carefully inserted the dowel and round into the pot, and positioned it so the stem was straight up. The glue will slide down the inside mouth of the pot when you push the round in there of course, so to prevent that you may want to just put glue around the insed edge of the pot where the round will fit into it. I left it to dry.

In the future I hope to take more scenic shots of my knitting projects; they look even better that way.