Poinsettia Yos

I decided to make a yo-yo poinsettia. (Does every crafter wake up in the middle of August thinking "OMG, only four-and-a-half months 'til Christmas!"?) Although I love the little flowers created by the swirl yo-yos, I wanted my poinsettia to be more precise. You'll notice that this pattern is based on six repeats per round rather than the eight of the original. Also, in order to reduce bulk, I cast on fewer stitches and decreased every other round until I got to the top of the flower. Then I began decreasing every round. These are a bit more fiddly than the basic ones, but you'll be able to turn out plenty before December 25.


This still uses the provisional cast-on here, using a matching perle cotton and leaving it in to gather the cast-on.


Yarn: Sock- or sport-weight in both flower color and center color.

Needles: Set of 5 US #1 (2.25 mm) dpns or size you can work comfortably with. (Gauge is not an important consideration here.) I started with a set of 7.75" (19.7 cm) long needles and switched to 5" (12.7 cm) needles when the number of stitches got small.

Notions: Coordinating #5 perle cotton, 6 stitch markers, yarn needle, point protectors.

Provisionally CO 84 sts with matching No. 5 perle cotton. Turn and knit one row adding markers every 14 sts. Distribute onto dpns.


Rounds 1 - 9 (odd): (K until 2 sts before marker, k2tog) 6x. 60 sts rem after Round 7.

Rounds 2 - 8 (even): Work even.

Rounds 9 – 17: (K until 2 sts before marker, k2tog) 6x. 6 sts rem after Round 17.

Diagram 1

Cut yarn with an 8″ tail. Thread tail through rem sts twice. Draw circle closed, secure, and darn in end.

Do the embroidery before you gather the yo-yo. (I figured that one out the hard way.) Leaving the beginning tail of the embroidery yarn on the front side of the knitting, duplicate stitch on the 6 sts of the second to last round (Diagram 1). The stitches in the very center look like single strands but they really are full stitches. Do try to get the needle all the way to the back. Follow with a round of straight stitches from the round just worked into the center hole (Diagram 2). Fill up the area with 2-wrap French knots. (There is a nice tutorial for French knots here; just ignore the part about using an embroidery hoop.) Bring the beginning of the embroidery yarn to the back, tie those ends together, and darn them in.

Diagram 2

Untie the beginning knot. Darn in beginning yarn end. Make a single knot with the perle cotton and gather the knitting, distributing it evenly. When it is as tight as it will go, double knot the perle cotton. Place a dab of fabric glue on the knot. Once dry, cut the ends short (or leave them for sewing onto a background).



Wet the piece thoroughly and pin the corners out to the corners of a hexagon.  Pinch the points and the centers of the sides to shape them. Allow to dry.



You can block by eye, use hexagon templates from the Internet, trace quilter's templates, or make your own in graphics software. I put a printout into a clear page protector and pin right through it into my blocking board. Before you do this, check that your ink doesn't run; although the paper is mostly protected, some water can seep through.

That's it for now! Until next time . . .