Knitted in the round and featuring a meadow of flowers, grasses and insects, this is an easy pattern if you already know how to knit stranded colorwork and this pattern assumes that you do know how to knit stranded colorwork.

If you have not knitted stranded colorwork before then this is an experienced level pattern

Instructions are given for head sizes 18” (46 cm), 21” (53 cm), and 23” (58 cm)
These correspond to child, small adult and medium-large adult sizes.

Fingering weight yarn.
MC: sky color, CC1: grass color, CC2: flower color
Size 18” (46 cm), MC 80 yds (73 m), CC1 25 yds (23 m), CC2 23 yds (21 m)
Size 21” (53 cm), MC 85 yds (78 m), CC1 32 yds (29 m), CC2 28 yds (26 m)
Size 23” (58 cm), MC 96 yds (88 m), CC1 38 yds (34 m), CC2 30 yds (27 m)

Wildflowers are under threat and therefore so are the pollinators they feed. Not only is it heartbreaking to lose the beauty and color these native flowers give the landscape, but the plight of pollinators has a very real impact on the food we eat ourselves.

In North America, wildflowers and grasses used to span vast areas known as prairies. Tallgrass prairies covered 200 million acres. The wettest and most fertile of grasslands, tallgrass prairie has been the most attractive for conversion to cropland. As a result, only 11 percent of the original tallgrass prairies remain—and these face a continued threat from agricultural development. Conversion to cropland is also the primary threat to the mixed-grass prairie. Mixed grass prairie covered an area of 140 million acres, but today only approximately 30 million acres remain. Shortgrass prairie covered 265 million acres. Only half of this total area remains.

Meadows in the mountainous west face threats from a warming climate, along with cattle grazing.

Today in the UK, only 2% of the meadows that existed in the 1930’s remain. Nearly 7.5 million acres of wildflower meadow have been lost so far and they are still being destroyed. Of those that do survive, around 75% occur in small fragments and remain vulnerable to destruction.