Van Gogh Iris Flower Crochet Tutorial Part 1 | Flower of the Month – February

There is something timeless about Vincent van Gogh’s irises. Whether you have stood in front of his famous painting at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles or simply fallen in love with the swirling, vivid blues and violets of his botanical masterpieces through a postcard or a print, those flowers have a way of staying with you. They are not just flowers. They are movement, emotion, and color all pressed into a single bloom. So what better way to celebrate February — a month that bridges the quiet of winter and the first whispers of spring — than by recreating that iconic beauty in crochet?

Welcome to the Van Gogh Iris Flower Crochet Tutorial, Part 1. This is the first installment of a brand-new Flower of the Month series, where we explore a different bloom each month, inspired by art, nature, and the seasons. February’s flower is the iris, and we are taking our color inspiration directly from Van Gogh himself — those deep indigo blues, soft lavenders, leafy greens, and creamy whites that made his irises so unforgettable.

Whether you are a beginner who has just discovered the joy of crochet or an experienced maker who loves adding botanical pieces to your collection, this tutorial is designed to walk you through everything you need. In Part 1, we will cover the materials, yarn selection, color theory, and the foundational petal structure. Part 2 will take you through the full assembly, adding leaves, stems, and finishing touches. Let’s get started.

Why the Iris? Why Van Gogh?

Before we pick up a hook, let’s talk about inspiration for a moment, because knowing where an idea comes from often shapes how we work with it.

Vincent van Gogh painted irises multiple times throughout his life, but his most celebrated iris painting was created in 1889 while he was a patient at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He painted the irises in the garden there as a way to cope, to observe, and to create. The painting is notable for its incredible intensity of color — the blossoms are not simply blue or purple, they are almost alive, leaning in different directions, each one slightly different from the next, as though Van Gogh understood that no two flowers in a garden are ever identical.

That philosophy translates beautifully into crochet. When we make flowers by hand, each one carries the small imperfections of our technique, the particular tension of our yarn on a given day, the color choices we make based on what we have in our stash. Crochet flowers are never identical either, and that is their charm.

The iris is also a fitting flower for February. In the language of flowers, irises symbolize hope, wisdom, and the promise of spring. They are given as expressions of admiration and faith. After January, which can feel heavy and grey in so many parts of the world, the iris reminds us that color is coming back. It is the perfect flower to make as winter begins to loosen its grip.

Materials You Will Need

Getting your materials together before you begin is always a good idea. Here is what you will need for this project.

Yarn: You will want a smooth, medium-weight yarn in the following colors. DK weight or worsted weight both work well depending on how large you want your finished flower to be. Worsted weight will give you a larger, bolder bloom, while DK weight creates something more delicate and refined.

For the petals, choose a deep violet or indigo as your primary color. Van Gogh’s irises lean more blue-purple than red-purple, so think of colors with names like navy iris, deep periwinkle, violet storm, or midnight blue depending on your yarn brand. You will also want a lighter lavender or soft purple for contrast on the inner petals, and a touch of creamy white or pale yellow for the throat of the flower, which is the small accent that peeks out from the center.

For the leaves and stem, a rich botanical green works best. Look for something with depth rather than a neon or lime green — think forest green, sage, or deep fern. Van Gogh’s leaves were painted with sweeping brushstrokes of layered greens that practically vibrated off the canvas, so if your yarn store carries a variegated green with olive and dark green tones mixed in, that is an excellent choice.

Hook: A 3.5mm or 4.0mm crochet hook is recommended for DK weight yarn. If you are using worsted weight, step up to a 4.5mm or 5.0mm hook. Always check your gauge if you want a specific finished size, but for decorative flowers, gauge is generally flexible.

Additional supplies: You will need a yarn needle for weaving in ends and assembling pieces, a small amount of polyfill or cotton stuffing if you want to give your flower a slightly three-dimensional center, floral wire in an appropriate gauge if you plan to use your iris in a vase arrangement, green floral tape to wrap the wire stem, scissors, and stitch markers to help you keep track of rounds.

Optional but wonderful: a small amount of yarn in a warm gold or pale orange for the beard of the iris, which is that fuzzy little stripe that runs down the center of each fall petal in real irises. Including this detail takes your flower from lovely to truly realistic.

Understanding Iris Anatomy for Better Crochet

One of the things that sets a beautiful crochet flower apart from a basic one is understanding the real flower’s structure. Irises have a fascinating and specific anatomy, and once you understand it, your crocheted version will have that authentic quality that makes people stop and look twice.

A bearded iris — the type most commonly associated with Van Gogh’s paintings — has two types of petals. The upright petals are called standards, and they stand tall at the top of the bloom. The drooping or outward-spreading petals are called falls. Most irises have three of each, for a total of six petals, though they are arranged in a very specific way. The three falls droop or spread outward and downward, and each one has a small stripe of fuzzy color along its center, which is the beard. The three standards rise upward and curve inward slightly, creating the upright crown of the flower.

In between the petals are smaller, sometimes papery structures called style arms, which arch over the falls and are often a similar color to the standards but lighter.

For our crochet iris, we will create three fall petals, three standard petals, and optional style arms. We will work each piece separately and then assemble them — a method that gives you the most control over the final look and allows you to adjust the positioning of each petal the way Van Gogh adjusted each brushstroke.

Color Inspiration from Van Gogh

Before you finalize your yarn choices, it is worth spending a few minutes looking closely at the original painting. You can find it easily with a quick search — the Getty Museum makes high-resolution images available, and the colors are breathtaking even on a screen.

What you will notice immediately is that the flowers are not a single flat blue. Van Gogh layered blues, purples, greens, even touches of red and brown into the petals. The shadows inside the petals go almost navy, while the highlighted edges catch a soft blue-violet. The throats of the flowers are pale, sometimes almost white with a faint greenish tinge. The leaves are long and sword-shaped, painted in broad strokes of deep green and turquoise-tinged green that almost seem to move.

For your yarn selection, this means that if you can find yarn with a slight tonal variation — a heathered violet or a semi-solid indigo — your finished flower will feel more alive than if you use a perfectly uniform color. Many indie dyers produce colorways specifically inspired by Van Gogh, so if you have access to hand-dyed yarn, this is a wonderful project to splurge on.

If you are working from a standard yarn brand, consider holding two strands of slightly different but complementary colors together for the petals. For example, a strand of medium purple held with a strand of very fine navy thread can create that rich, layered look. Experiment on a small swatch before you commit.

The Foundation: Your Magic Ring and Starting Round

Now we are getting into the actual crochet. Let’s begin with the center of the flower.

Start with a magic ring, which you may also know as a magic circle or adjustable ring. If you are not familiar with this technique, it is worth learning before you begin this project — it creates a clean, tightly closed center for worked-in-the-round pieces and is the standard starting point for crochet flowers.

Make your magic ring and work six single crochets into it. Pull the ring closed. You will now slip stitch into the first single crochet to join, creating a small, tight circle of six stitches. This is your starting round.

In round two, work two single crochets into each stitch around, giving you twelve stitches. Join with a slip stitch. This two-round foundation forms the very center button of the flower, the point from which all your petals will radiate.

At this stage, if you want to use your pale yellow or cream-colored yarn for the center, work these first two rounds in that color before switching to your main petal color. A tiny pop of contrast color at the center, barely visible beneath the assembled petals, adds beautiful depth when the flower is complete.

Working the Fall Petals

The fall petals are the showstoppers of the iris. They are broader and more spread out than the standards, and they need to have a gentle droop to them. In crochet, we achieve this shape through strategic increases and the use of longer stitches.

For each fall petal, you will be working a flat, roughly oval piece with a slightly tapered tip and a wider base. You will make three of these.

Using your main violet or indigo color, chain 12. This is your foundation chain for the petal.

Row 1: Starting in the second chain from the hook, work one single crochet, two half double crochets, four double crochets, two half double crochets, one single crochet. In the last chain, work four single crochets to round the tip of the petal, then continue working back along the other side of the foundation chain in the same manner, mirroring your stitches. Join at the base and chain one.

Row 2: Work increases at the sides of the petal to widen it. Work single crochets along the outer edges and double crochets across the wider middle section, working two stitches into the corner stitches at the tip to keep the tip rounded and full.

Row 3: Repeat the structure of row 2, perhaps with fewer increases, to give the petal a gentle taper that is widest in the middle and narrows slightly at both the tip and the base.

Fasten off and leave a long tail for sewing. Block this petal lightly by pinning it to a foam mat and misting with water, then allow it to dry. This step makes a significant difference in the final appearance of your flower, giving the petals that smooth, flat quality of a real iris petal.

Make three fall petals total.

Adding the Beard Detail

The beard is a small but important detail that separates a generic purple flower from a recognizable iris. To add the beard, cut a short length of your warm gold or pale orange yarn. Using your yarn needle, work a series of small straight stitches or turkey work knots in a narrow line down the center of each fall petal, from the base about one third of the way toward the tip. Trim these loops or knots to a short, fuzzy length — about half a centimeter is perfect. The result is a small, textured stripe that catches the light differently from the smooth petal surface, just like a real iris beard.

This is a detail that will make your flower instantly recognizable to anyone who loves irises, and it is worth the extra few minutes it takes.

Closing Thoughts for Part 1

You now have your materials gathered, your color palette selected, your anatomy understood, your center foundation worked, and your first set of fall petals taking shape. That is a wonderful amount of progress for one sitting.

The iris is a flower with personality — it does not stand stiffly like a tulip or nod softly like a daisy. It reaches, spreads, and stands all at once, and that is exactly the kind of energy that makes it a perfect crochet project. Every petal placement decision in Part 2 will be a small creative act, just like one of Van Gogh’s brushstrokes.

Part 2 of this tutorial will cover the standard petals, the optional style arms, the leaves, the stem construction, and full assembly. We will also talk about how to arrange multiple crochet irises together into a bouquet or table display, and discuss some ideas for incorporating your finished flower into other projects like hair clips, brooches, or framed textile art.

In the meantime, take your time with these first petals. Hold them up to a window. Notice how the yarn color changes in different light. Add the beard and see how it transforms the piece. This is the slow, satisfying joy of making something by hand — every step reveals a little more of what the finished flower will become.

Happy crocheting, and see you in Part 2.

Did you make the Van Gogh Iris? Share your photos and tag the community — there is nothing more beautiful than seeing how different yarn choices, light, and hands create completely different versions of the same flower. Leave a comment below if you have questions about Part 1 or want to share what colors you chose for your iris.