My great Uncle Henry loved camellias but was told by a famous horticulturist that the soil on his property was not appropriate for growing camellias. Never one to take no for an answer, Uncle Henry ordered truck loads of peet, humus, lime. Under a forest of long leaf pines, he planted camellias. And they thrived. For years he collected them from all over the world until he had 25,000 plants, plants as big as trees, blossoms as large as dinner plates.
This pattern is my homage to Uncle Henry. How I wish I could have seen such a luxury of camellias, walked the paths of his garden.
Take a look at all the different colors camellias can be and then experiment with this pattern. Enjoy the process. Make something beautiful. Love the camellias you make.
Intrepid Beginner to intermediate knitters: Requires knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing, and working short rows (with no wrapped stitches).
Gauge is not important for this project. To make the flowers in the size pictured, use the recommended needle size. For smaller or larger flowers, change your gauge by going down in yarn and needle size, or up, respectively.
2 skeins (+/- 400 yards) of worsted weight yarn makes approximately two large flowers or several medium-sized flowers
Large Flowers Only
Size 11 (8mm) needles
Medium Flowers Only
Size 5 - 8 (3.75 - 5mm) needles
The pictured flowers were made with Shepherd's Wool by Stonehedge Fiber Mill in Violet. The fuzzy centers are made with Fizz in Black by Crystal Palace Yarns.
There are no errors reported for the current version of the pattern.
Original Third Edition
Third edition patterns may contain an extra turn in Row 2 of the first half of the petal. This is how Rows 1 and 2 should read: Row 1 and subsequent odd rows (RS) Kf&b, K6. Stop and turn. Row 2 and subsequent even rows (WS) P8.