A while back I posted about starting a flower-themed granny square blanket ... and how I'd given up because there were too many ends to weave in ... and I was almost unanimously implored to keep going and just cover the ends as I changed colors.

Well, I didn't give the whole story in that post, so let's start at the beginning ...

A while back I ran across this article on decor8 about the Philadelphia Headquarters for Urban Outfitters.  If you click through, that first photo made my heart start racing!  Look at that HUGE crochet wall art!  Look at those monter-big balls of yarn!  Too cool.

Well, that image has never left my head.  I want big crochet on the wall.  YES I DO.  Eventually I took my second-to-largest hook (it's labeled "N") and made this:
Big and floppy and disappointing.  It was a round, granny square pattern from one of my books.  It just didn't work big and it really wasn't *big* enough.

My next idea was to do granny squares with flower shapes in the middle that way I could just hang the mini-blanket on the wall from a dowel.  That's when I made the square in the original post.  And, as you know, I complained about all the ends to weave in.

So, at everyone's urging, I tried again and covered my ends as I went ...
But I didn't remember what hook I used for the first one and this one came out much smaller ... plus I stared with 11 petals instead of 12 (I swear I can count, really) ... so the whole thing was a bust ... EXCEPT that covering your ends as you go *totally* works.  Too cool.  Although it doesn't work so well when you have a row like the outside green row which doesn't have a lot of stitches where your ends are.

So then I went on a hunt to find a flowery pattern that would let me easily cover my ends as I go.  This Irish crochet flower was just the thing...
The green bits on the outer row are yarn threaded through the picots where you'd join them to other flowers.  The petals are very 3-D and really look nice.  There's also a detailed article on different kinds of joining techniques in the Summer 2008 Interweave Crochet that shows how to join motifs like this.

BUT, because the petals are only attached at the base, if I hung this up on the wall, all the top petals would flop down.  Argh!!!  I feel like I've drifted *way* too far from my original inspiration.  I'm thinking I might try to find some super-huge cording and create a super huge crochet hook and make a super huge motifs like in the original photo.  If I find cord big enough, I could just use my arm as a hook, right?

And, my gift to you, since you waded through this whole post, is an Alex-style beauty shot ... not that my photography skills come anywhere close to hers.