I made a few of these with my daughter (who was 10 at the time), as pencil holders. What I found was this - not only are the results quite beautiful and sometimes quite elegant, but the pattern lends itself to many variations. My daughter and I made many of these for gifts. We used different yarns - Homespun, Wool-ease, Vanna's Choice, Jiffy and Tweed Stripes. We also tried different techniques, such as winding the yarn into a circle and then radiating the rest ofthe yarn around it.
In each case, the results were much nicer than you would imagine. Some patterns were more whimsical, and others were elegant. A few were homey and some were more plain.
We had a lot of fun with this pattern and still whip these out on occasion. Highly recommended.