When I hear the word flora my mind goes straight to flowers and leaves and my youngest daughter, some of my most favorite things. When my daughter was a little girl she began her love affair with flowers and fairies. We collected fairies of all sorts, made handcrafted fairies, had fairy gardens in our yard and there were even fairy houses behind the couches and chairs in our living room. She and her neighbor friend had collected bark, moss, sticks and rocks to make elaborate and clever miniature fairy furniture. It was such a sweet and imaginative time and I loved every minute of it.

With the flora theme in mind I decided to pay homage to the Flower Fairies and Leaf Sprites that my daughter played with in her childhood. The knitted flower and leaf pockets or little beds, and the fairy and sprite are all worked entirely in one piece, no seaming to be found. The flower and leaf become the perfect places to tuck in the little knitted characters for sleep or for the perfect hiding places.

I hope this sweet pattern sparks the imagination of fairy-lovers everywhere!

This knitting pattern is from the first issue of the print publication Making.

The individual pattern will be available in my Ravelry pattern shop six months after the release of the magazine.

Finished measurements

Flower: 4½“ 11.5 cm wide and 6” 15 cm tall
Leaf: 3¼” 9 cm wide and 4 ½“ 11.5 cm tall,
without stem
Sprite and Fairy: 3” 7.5 cm tall

Yarn

Chickadee by Quince & Co. (100% American
Wool; 50 grams / 181 yards 166 meters)
One skein in each:
Flower: Pomegranate (for center color) and Shell
(for petals)
Fairy: Split Pea (for body and stem), Petal (for
head), Frank’s Plum (for hat), and Egret (for wings)
Leaf: Split Pea (for leaf) and Twig (for stem)
Sprite: Aleutian (for body), Chanterelle (for head),
Honey (for hat), and Egret (for wings)
OR
25 yards 23 meters or less of each color in sport
weight yarn

Needles

• One set double-pointed needles (dpns) in
US size 4 3.5 mm
Or size to obtain gauge

Notions

• Locking stitch markers
• Tapestry needle
• Fiberfill

Gauge

24 sts and 40 rnds = 4” 10 cm in stockinette
stitch, after blocking.

Notes

Flower is a hexagon center, knitted in the round and
shaped with increases and decreases. A pocket
opening is created by a bind off and cast on. Petals
are created by picking up stitches along each
hexagon side, and decreasing toward petal tip.
Leaf is knitted in the round from the bottom
up, beginning with the stem, and shaped with
increases and decreases. A pocket opening is
created by a bind off and cast on.
Fairy and Sprite are worked identically from the
bottom up, shaped with increases and decreases,
and stuffed as you go. Wings are picked up and
worked flat, and hat is worked separately.