Okay! So this is the progress for the first flower I've knitted from the book. There are a LOT of things I would do differently for the next one. Specifically: my yarn! I cheated a little and used a crocket hook on the petals.

The petals are suppose to be done in a "backward loop" cast on for one stitch then binding off those cast ons. This is done 64 times and my yarn was just no having it. XDDD

And then there the brown I used; oh my God, it's a nightmare! It was the only one I had; it was rotted, I guess, cause it kept wanting to break on occassion and had spots where the yarn looked like a worn and fraying prop rope from some western movie. I also need to double strand my yarn for the center and I wasn't about to unwind 400 yards of yarn IN A BALL to get to the other end and work it that way.

With both of these problems made the step before you work the center difficult where you take your green for the stem and back (I didn't work a stem because I'm making this for my dog), the yellow for the petals and the brown for the center, knit a round and then SEPERATE all of these colors respectively onto different stitch holders.

This was an intermediate pattern, literally the hardest in the book. I feel it turned out pretty though and I look forward into making another, perhaps with larger needles and more coarse yarn for the petals since I have a wreath and wall hanging in mind.

Knitting room