Knitted chicks

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Now Christmas is over I am re posting a blog from last year. There is no time like the present to start making some of these for Easter.

Easter Sunday is on 31st March, 2013 and so there is loads of time to ‘get knitting’.

Required

Size 10 needles (UK old size)

Double knitting wool

Cadbury’s creme eggs or eggs of similar size

Cast on 36 stitches

Knit 8 rows in garter stitch (plain knitting)

Row 9. Increase 1 st at each end of row

Row 10. knit

Row 11. As row 9

Row 12. Knit

Row 13. As row 9    (42 sts)

Knit 3 more rows

Cast off 11 sts at beg on next 2 rows. (20 sts left)
Knit 11 rows

Do not cast off the stitches.

Leave long piece of yarn.

Thread a needle with the long yarn and draw through sts. Pull tight.

Fold in half and sew up. Fill the head cavity with cotton wool if required

Embroider eyes and add felt beak

Perfect size to hide a Cadbury’s creme egg (or similar) inside.

Making Up Instructions (added on 11th February,2013)

After making another 3 dozen chicks, I’m adding a few tips for making up the chick after knitting.

Its much easier to sew the eyes (I used one stitch of black wool for each eye) and to sew on the beak before sewing up the chick.

Also, I now invisibly sew a row of yarn, along the row between the head and body, to gather up later, to accentuate the head shape.

When the chick is sewn up, this thread is pulled gently and only slightly to accentuate the head.

This photo above shows the position to place the gathering thread.

After knitting the chick, instead of casting off the stitches, the yarn is threaded through them and drawn up tight to form the top of the head, as shown above.

I like to sew up the chick from the right side using the method below. I can’t remember whether it my Mum or one of my Grandmas who showed me this method but its my method of choice for most knitted garments.

Sew from the wrong side to the right side of the item

I also sew along the bottom of the chick (about one centimetre or so) so the egg is trapped and doesn’t easily fall out.

Now add a creme egg of choice.

The head has been stuffed with toy filling. You could use cotton wool too.

Take care of course if you give these to small children. Be aware the filling will be loose in the head cavity, the nature of the chick being, to be open at the bottom to add an egg of your choice.

The finished chick …and a group of them.