The Sea Wench's Crafting Cove: June 2013

For some reason, two of my friends have chickens. No real reason why they do, aside from the obvious ones that they're awesome and free eggs. So for their birthdays (which were close-ish to each other) I decided to knit them chickens. First, though, I made one for my Grandmother because she used to own chickens. (Also, I know the chicken isn't yellow-bellied...)

I found what seemed to be an easy tutorial from Ravelry.com (lots of good patterns on there - free and for sale). Now, I say that at the beginning of every attempt for all my projects... and then I usually find the hiccups as I go along. I have a thing for finding patterns that push me to learn new things... regardless of how painful the learing process. So, this one had two elements I didn't know - the mattress seam stitch and then I-cord legs. Luckily, it came with instructions for those of us that didn't know what an I-cord leg stitch thing was. The mattress seam stitch was easy to find on YouTube.

First off, the pictures on the tutorial don't make you realize just how TINY these things are. I'm used to 6-7" for a small toy when completed - this was maybe 4". I know, I know... had I read the tutorial fully it warned me of this fact... but reading it and seeing it are two different things.

See? It's about the size of a pear. Plus, I really need to cave and buy Fiber Fill. I'm using old packing materials.

Next were the wings. I thought I could do it... but in reality, I didn't know what knitted cast on meant. Awesome... another thing about this pattern I didn't understand. Sigh. So, I did some research and found a great YouTube Video that helped me figure it out. Rather proud! First try and both came out as pictured =)

The beak required me looking up this video to help learn the Knit Front to Back concept. I wasn't too bad at it... but I'll need to practice it more for the next two I'll be making.

The rest of it was rather easy to knit. I enjoyed it... even if it was tiny. Can't wait to knit more!