I used baby yarn, but almost anything will do.

I used huge needles--size #15. This makes a soft, floppy flower. Smaller needles will make it tighter and stiffer.

My flower is about 2 1/2" across. For that, I cast on 25 stitches. The number of stitches you cast on will determine the length. You'll roll this up to form the flower, so the longer you make it, the fatter your flower will be.

Knit about 4 rows, then bind off. This makes a well-proportioned flower. If you want a bigger flower, and cast on more stitches, you'll want to knit more rows, also, but most flowers are wider than they are thick, so you won't need many more rows for even a large flower.

This part only took me about 10 minutes. The next part took around a half hour. I'm showing it here because it's done and it works, but if I do another one, I'll just wrap the flower with florist's tape and forget the green base unless I'm going to use it for something really special. It isn't fun knitting because you have to increase or decrease every row, so you can't get any kind of rhythme going, and without a buffer row between the inc/dec rows, it makes the stitches tight and ornery.

Cast on 3 stitches.

Row 1: K2, K front & back of next stitch.
Row 2: K front & back of 1st stitch, then K across.
Row 3: K across to last stitch. K front & back.
Row 4: K front & back of first stitch, then knit across.
Row 5: K across to last 2 stitches. K2 tog.
Row 6: K 2 together, then knit across.
Repeat decrease until you have 3 stitches left, then start increasing again.
Repeat the whole process until you have 3 points. When you have 3 stitches left after the 3rd point is finished, bind off. If you're making a larger flower, knit 4 points.

Pull the top tail down to the bottom, to tuck in the center, then roll up the flower and stitch or tie it together at the bottom.

Wrap the base around the flower and stitch that in place and you're finished. (Also see 5-Minute-Flower at the bottom of my Octagon page.)

Now you could stitch your flower into a doll's hair, pin it onto a curtain tieback, wire it onto a stick and use it in an artificial flower arrangement, or add it to some other knitting project. I have to admit, I wasn't too excited about this one until I fastened it to my tp-net, but it really looks cute there.