"The Colorful Death" Campaign—Crocheted Flowers for the Deceased

Hi everyone,

I just read on X that a funeral director (username: der bunte Tod) is asking if anyone would like to contribute crocheted flowers. Here’s a quote from his tweet:

  “My idea behind this project is quite simple: floral arrangements make up a significant portion of the costs at a funeral (which don’t go to me), and by no means can everyone afford them, so more and more often they’re being skipped or have to be skipped.
Such farewell ceremonies then become doubly sad and often even lead to feelings of shame (what will people think? Now everyone will think that ‘Günther’ wasn’t worth anything to me.)
Here, I’d like to create a dignified option that I can offer very inexpensively or even for free (yes, I’ll actually decide that based on the situation and circumstances).
Why not use artificial flowers? How much love and warmth is there in plastic, and how much in handcrafted items? Artificial flowers are simply perceived as exactly what they are: cold, loveless, and interchangeable—and they reflect everything we don’t actually feel toward the deceased. At the same time, I personally think they look absolutely beautiful!
Ultimately, it’s really enough if everyone contributes just a single flower; I’ll then have a florist here arrange them into arrangements."

What do you think? He’s posted photos of what he has in mind. I’ve now asked if it would be enough to just make blossoms or just leaves—the florist could tie them together with wire, right?
Would you like to participate? 

Dear Anja,

wow, that really touches me deeply right now. That’s a wonderful idea from the funeral director—I would never have thought of that. I think word needs to get out about something like this.

Why don’t you write a little more about it, for example, how big the flowers should be and where they should be sent? I can imagine there are quite a few users here who would love to get involved.

Warm regards
Monika

Size and material don’t matter; everyone can use what they have and what they can make. It will then be arranged tastefully. 
I’m not allowed to show photos here that don’t belong to me. 
What he shows/has in mind are proper flowers with blossoms, leaves, and stems. 
So far I’ve only ever made blossoms, so if anyone has more experience with that, please share your tips.
The photos include everything from sunflowers, roses, lilies, poppies, daisies, and much more. 

He has his address publicly listed on his Twitter/X profile; if needed, I could send it to you by DM if you’re interested. 

 

So, my dears,

before I go ahead and buy some flower patterns here, I wanted to crochet a free flower I found online. Hmm, yeah, it didn’t turn out that well—it was supposed to have 8 petals, but I somehow ended up with 1 stitch left over, so now there’s a little gap between the petals... oh well.

I’m not really sure if I feel like crocheting leaves too, or making a stem and all the trimmings, or if the florist mentioned would be fine with just the flower heads. I’m having trouble visualizing it right now. What do you think? 

Hi Anja,
that looks very cheerful. A petal would really suit it. But I think the florist could also use individual flowers. I think if all the flowers had leaves and stems too, there wouldn’t be enough flowers visually. The splendor of the blooms should definitely take center stage. So I like your flower—I’d leave it just as it is.

If you’d like to make another flower (with a leaf), take a look here:
I wrote a pattern for a dahlia in a free blog post on CP. Maybe you’ll like it.

Best wishes and have a wonderful weekend—Ina

I went ahead and tried making 2 leaves after all. 
Which one do you like better? 

Definitely the one on top. But maybe it could be a little smaller—I think it’s too big in proportion to the flower.

Oh thanks Ina, I’ll take a look right away! ♡♡♡

Argh, I’ve made three now and I’m fed up.
As pretty as it looks, crocheting flowers and I aren’t going to be friends in the long run...
1. yellow
2. pink
3. lilac

I’ve been experimenting a bit and made the third one with more and taller stitches, but I’m driving myself crazy fiddling with it.

What can I say? I’ve already lost the motivation... At least for today. 🫠

I think they’re beautiful. And it’s about having fun, not quantity. For quantity, you need lots of crocheters.

I also prefer the smaller leaf with the flower. 

Well, I’m curious to see what ends up at his place…
If I make one flower every day, it’ll really add up over 14 days, for example. We’ll see.
I definitely learned a thing or two from the patterns. There are 1.5 double crochets. Huh? Never heard of them before, but then I remembered seeing a YouTube video recently where an American woman was crocheting them, and I thought, “What kind of weird double crochets is she making?”—now I know.
I’ve been crocheting for so long and didn’t know that. What about you??? 

Anja, your flowers look great. I like the smaller leaf best, too.
I think that’s a great idea.

How would that work, then? We’d each crochet a bunch of flowers (me too), and then send them all to you? You’d then hand everything over to the funeral home or florist?

I’m just picturing the whole scene right now, with tons of little packages arriving at Anja’s place and piling up there.

:-) Andrea

Yeah, I can just imagine how wonderful that would be. 😁
Nope, send it directly to him. I’ll send you the address via PM.
If he happens to post pictures—oh, darn, I can’t show them here because of image rights…—then I’ll just send those via PM too. 

So, I gave Ina’s dahlia a try. It’s super easy, goes quickly, and looks great.
So far, just the flowers—I’ll add the leaves another time. 

They look nice and fluffy, Anja. I like them.
I’d crochet flowers and leaves, too. Is there a time limit, or does it matter when they have to be finished? After all, people die all the time.

It’s a great way to use up leftover yarn.

🤭 “People die somehow, after all”

Yeah, that’s how it is.

No, there’s no time limit.