Frankie's Knitted Stuff
These little heart shaped flowers are strips of knitted I cord, twisted into shape. They are very easy to make. The stalks are embroidered on to the walls. There will be room for about four flowers on the Gingerbread House; these can be made in any colours. The flowers are knitted with DK yarn and 3.25 mm / US size 3 double pointed needles. You will need small amounts of four colours plus some green for the flower stalks. I used Sirdar Country Style DK (155 m / 50g), shade 397, Periwinkle and shade 617, Kensington Gardens for the blue and green. The red and yellow flowers are Stylecraft Special DK (295 m / 100g) in Lipstick and Saffron and the stalks are Stylecraft Bottle. Using the long tail method cast on three stitches. Work 20 rows in I cord (instructions for I cord are at the end of the pattern). Cast off. Your piece of knitting should be about 8 cm / 3" long. First join your strip into a ring. Now, holding each side of the ring, twist it into a figure of eight shape. Then fold it over into something that looks a bit like a pretzel and a bit like a heart. It's difficult to describe how to do this, just experiment until it works.
Stitch the top of the shape to the bottom, then stitch through from one side to the other a few times to sharpen the point at the bottom of theflower. Make four flowers like this.
Sewing the Flowers to the House
Pin and sew the flowers to the wall one by one. Position the first one at about the same height as the snowman's hat (about 1.5 cm / 1/2" from the top of the wall) with a pin through the centre. Using ginger thread, sew right through to the inside of the house with three small stitches - at the bottom and at the two ‘points' at the top of the flower.
Then, using green yarn, add the stem with one long stitch. Make a small stitch at the bottom to secure it - this will be hidden by the snowdrift - and then add the next flower.
I cord
Knit every row but don't turn the work at the end of rows, just pull the yarn round from behind the stitches and carry on. This will result in a thin strip of tubular knitting.
This wall's nearly finished now.
