Fancy Hen - Finished!

And she is all done, and packed up and waiting to be picked up out of my mailbox and sent on her way to her new home.  Putting the knit blockers inside to open things up really helped speed up the drying, and I was able to stuff her yesterday afternoon and sew up the bottom.  That was a little bit fiddly at the beginning and end of the opening, especially at the end, but I managed to make things look neat and tidy.  She is adorable, I may have to make another one for myself.  It is a pretty quick knit, if you focus on it, although the needles that I used had very sharp points, so my index finger tips did get a little bit sore from being poked - even when I tried to be careful and not use my finger tip to push on the needle tips.  The gauge is tight, as required by something that you’re going to stuff, so the knitting is not effortless.  I can do two-handed Fair Isle with a color in each hand, which makes the knitting go pretty fast, and the yarn easy to control.  It doesn’t take much yarn - about 50 grams/120 yards for the body and 25 grams/60 yards for the contrast.  I used a 16 inch circular needle for the body, and then used two 16 inch circular needles for the neck/head and tail, as well as the beak.

Pattern:  Fancy Hen by Ella Austin

Yarn:  Rauma Garn 3-Trads Strikkegarn

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Fancy Hen - Knitting Done!

I finished up the body this past Saturday, and once the body was done, the head and tail worked up quickly and I finished all the knitting on Saturday as well.  I did make one slight modification to the pattern, I did not like the look of the knitted comb, it just seemed too big, so instead I did a line of single crochet along the top of the head, and then worked three sets of half-double, double, and triple crochet stitches to create the scallops.  Then came the blocking.  I started out just laying it flat and pinning the bottom edge to combat the inevitable stockinette stitch curl, but after letting it sit a couple of days I realized that it was going to take forever to dry - two layers of colorwork fabric - so I changed how I was blocking it.  I put knit blockers inside the body to open it up, and then put T-pins through the edge to prevent curling.

That sped things up considerably.  I checked it this morning and it is almost dry.  The side that was in contact with the blocking mats is still just slightly damp, so I flipped it over this morning and put the knit blockers back inside again to hold it open.  I did not pin the edges as they are dry.  Hopefully it will all be dry tomorrow and I can stuff her and sew her up and get her on her way to her home.

Pattern:  Fancy Hen by Ella Austin

Yarn:  Rauma 3 trads Strikkegarn

Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)

Fancy Hen - Cast On!

There has been a craze lately for knitted comfort chickens, and not so long ago I spotted a kit for a Fancy Hen on the Woolly Thistle web site.  It was pretty adorable, and I have a friend who likes chickens, so I decided to knit her one.  I also have some chicken-themed tea towels to send her along with the knitted chicken.  I picked out some colors and ordered the kit and at the end of June I finally cast on.  After the first few rows it sat around for a little while, but this past week I have been working on it a little more steadily.  To make it easier I added some markers to identify where the increases go, and I also switched the type of increase I was using.  The pattern calls for picking up the strand between stitches, but that is a bit fiddly, so I went with lifted increases.  At this point I am through all of the increases, and halfway through the colorwork.  The colorwork was one of the things that drew me to this pattern.

My cast on edge was curling a lot and it was annoying me, so I clipped the cast on edges together to keep them from doing that.  This is my first time using this yarn, it is Norwegian, and is, as they say, rustic, but I have lately come to appreciate the qualities of yarn that hasn’t been superwashed, which really does strip it of any woolly characteristics.

Pattern:  Fancy Hen by Ella Austin

Yarn:  Rauma Garn 3-Trads Strikkegarn

Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)