Here are your holiday hens!

I made these hens after I purchased two nests from Hobby Lobby. They were sold together as one item called Woodland Wonders, and it is Hobby Lobby item 594796.

I simply used tacky glue to attach the hens to their nests. I suggest you read the directions through once to see what options you might want to take before you begin.

Hen body: Using Homespun Deco White on the Flower loom, 2 strands with a 1 over 1 e-wrap stitch, I used a drawstring cast on and knitted off 5 rows.

To make the wings that are one piece I knitted off 7 rows back and forth on pegs 2-5 and then on pegs 8-11, looking at the loom clockwise. Then knit off for 3 more rows, and bind off. Leave the drawstring open for now because you are going to stuff the hen later.

Front of hen with one piece wings:

Back of hen with one piece wings:

To make wings that are flaps, remove the yarn with a yarn needle from pegs 2-5 by loosely sewing a 6-8 inch strand of yarn through it just so it won’t unravel. Then knit off 7 rows back and forth on pegs 2-5. Then put the loops of yarn that you took off earlier back onto the loom and knit off. Repeat this process for the second wing on pegs 8-11. Then knit off the entire loom for 3 more rows, and bind off. Leave the drawstring open for now because you are going to stuff the hen later.

To make the neck and head: I used the 5 peg end of the spool loom, 1 strand of yarn with a 1 over 2 e-wrap stitch. Cast on and knit off 8 rows, leaving a5-6 inch tail. You may want to make the neck shorter; if so, only knit off 5-6 rows. Loosely bind off. The neck and head are one piece. Decide which end you want to be the head and sew the neck securely onto the body, pulling the tail through the inside of the body and knotting it. Then pull the tail on the head closed, knot, thread yarn needle and poke threaded yarn needle down through neck to pull tail down inside body and knot off.

To make the red comb: Knit off an 8 row 2 peg I-cord, leaving a 6-8 inch tail at each end. I used Homespun candy apple red. You may decide to shorten the comb by several rows if you don’t like how mine looks. To attach the comb to the head, decide which end of the neck and head piece that you want to be the head. About half an inch from the front of the head, lay the I-cord on its side and sew it onto the head, shaping it how you like. Since the neck is “hollow” inside, you can poke the needle down through the neck and into the inside of the body where you can knot it off.

To make the beak: I made a 2 peg 8 row I-cord, using a thin yellow yarn and leaving a 5-6 inch tail. I then tied the ends of the top and bottom of the I-cord together, sewed the sides of the I-cord together and sewed the beak onto the head.

To make the eye: I used Homespun black and threaded a yarn needle with about 12 inches of yarn. Poke the threaded yarn needle through one side of the head where you want to make the eye. Pull yarn through, leaving about 2 inch tail. Then poke the threaded yarn needle back through the head, right beside where you just poked the first time. Pull through and tighten. Tails will be on the same side of the head. You can tighten for a small eye or pick the black yarn back out slightly to make a larger eye. You may want to pull the needle through the head a couple times to secure the yarn in place. Once you have the eyes the way you want them, cut the yarn very close to the eye. You won’t notice it, and if you do, it may look like the hen has eyelashes, which you may find an advantage.

Your hen is basically done! Just trim the yarn tails inside the body, stuff the desired amount of batting inside it, pull the drawstring closed, knot it off and glue the hen to the nest! Once dry you can shape the body better, or shape it while you are putting batting inside. And there you have it!

Easter Projects: Cross with Lily

The next several posts will highlight Easter projects I have been working on the last few weeks. This is a cross with a lily wrapped around it:




I created the cross on the pink loom starting on the 16 center pegs using Lion Brand Homespun Wild Fire in a one over 1 stitch (if you want a firmer cross, use a 1 over 2 stitch). Cast on, wrapping the yarn as if making a scarf. Knit off 2 rows. Then e-wrap and knit off 10 rows. Next add 8 pegs on both sides of the cross and knit off 13 rows to make the horizontal beams. (I used e-wrap stitches for this and just sewed it closed after I finished knitting the entire cross.) Then e-wrap only the original center 16 pegs and knit off 26 rows. You may choose to bind off the same way that you cast on, by wrapping the yarn on the loom as if making a scarf and knitting off. Or you may choose to bind off the regular way. Sew the horizontal beams of the cross, and it is complete (unless you wish to add some stuffing inside it.)

For the lily: I started at the bottom of the petal using Homespun Deco (white) 1 over 1 stitch. I cast on the pink loom in the center 2 pegs for a flat panel and knit off 2 rows. Then I increased it by 1 peg on both sides to knit off on 4 pegs for 6 rows. Then I increased it by 1 peg on both sides to knit off on 6 pegs for 3 rows. Then I decreased it by 1 peg on both sides to knit off on 4 pegs for 3 rows. Then I decreased it by 1 peg on both sides to knit off on 2 pegs for 2 rows, and bind off, leaving about 3-5 inches of yarn for a tail. I repeated this process two more times and then sewed the three petals together, leaving a small opening at the bottom center of the petals.

For the stigma (the long yellow stems inside the flower (which are actually green inside the real flower)): I simply used a yellow yarn and created 3-4 inch I-cords which I sewed together at the bottom and pulled through the bottom center of the lily, and sewed to the bottom of the lily.

For the stem: I created a "cup" for the flower to sit in by using red heart green yarn and making a drawstring cast on 6 pegs of the pink loom and then knitting off 5 rows. Pull the drawstring to close the "cup." Loosely bind off. Position the lily inside the cup and sew it onto the cup by using the green yarn.

The actual stem is one long green I-cord which I sewed to the bottom of the cup. I then positioned the lily how I liked it on the cross, and pulled the petal tails through the cross in the exact position I wanted them and sewed them to the cross. I then used the green yarn to knit through the stem onto the cross, wrapping it around the cross as I sewed. And that's it!

I suppose if you made the cross bigger you could add more petals to the lily to make it more realistic. I wanted mine to be relatively simply. It "reads" as a lily flower whether it has the right amount of petals or not, and whether or not the stigma inside the flower are perfectly correct.

Mommy Mittens!

Over the winter, I was working on a pair of mittens for someone. They wanted adult mittens that had a small child’s mitten sewn right on it, so the child could hold Mommy’s hand and have a warm hand. I had never made mittens using the loom before, so I scoured the web for directions and found http://luvtoloom.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/one-loom-mitten/ , which suggested using the blue loom. I did, and here’s how the practice one came out:

I used Homespun candy apple red and deco (cream white). For the child’s mitten I just used the pink loom and knit off on 10 pegs. Once I got to the thumb I cut the yarn and knit the hand part separately from the thumb. Here’s the back:

It came out good, so I went ahead and knit the real pair:

I thought they came out pretty good for the first time! But they turned out to be way too big! So I remade them, this time making up my own directions. I used the pink loom and a purple loom clip this time, after I took measurements of her hand. Her hand was about half the size of the original mittens I made!

So I decided not to follow the directions for mittens I had found online but make up my own. To make my version, I did a 1 over 1 e-wrap stitch on the pink loom on 16 pegs for 10 rows and then created the cuff by putting the first row back onto the loom and knitting over. Then I did 1 over 2 e-wrap stitch for 15 rows and then made the thumb by knitting on 6 pegs (where I wanted the thumb to be) 1 over 2 e-wrap back and forth for 19 rows. Then I continued making the rest of the mitten for 25 rows, knitting over the entire 16 pegs. Bind off and start the next mitten. For the child’s “mitten” I used 8 pegs to make a flat panel 1 over 2 e-wrap stitch for 40 rows. Then I loosely bound off the mitten body from the loom. Then on 6 pegs I knitted the thumb 1 over 2 for 20 rows. I then sewed the thumb onto the hand where I thought it should be. You may want to adjust the size of the child’s mitten, I made it big so that the mom could use it again next season and the child’s hand would still fit. Then I sewed the child’s mitten on the adult mitten with the deco yarn, starting to sew from inside the glove so I could tie it off unseen. Repeat for the second mitten.

For an added bit of “specialty,” I carefully threaded the yarn needle with an elastic band and poked it through the cuff so that it was inside the cuff, and went around the inside of the cuff with the elastic. Then I tied it on the inside, so that the cuff of the mitten was slightly elastic and would still cover your wrist.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

And to celebrate: a loom knit shamrock!

Created on the pink knifty knitter loom using red heart green yarn, 1 over 2 stitch flat panel. It is created by making 3 green hearts and sewing them together at the bottom of the hearts to create the shamrock, and then adding a stem. It measures 9 inches long and 7.75 inches height.

Instructions on how to create:

For the leaves you will be using 8 pegs altogether, but start as follows:

First, cut one 24" piece of the green yarn and set aside.

Cast on pegs 1-4 and 5-8. You will cast on pegs 1-4 with the working yarn and knit off 4 rows. Then with the separate piece of yarn you cut earlier, cast on pegs 5-8 and knit off 4 rows.

Next, take the working yarn and knit off pegs 1-8 for 27 rows. Decrease by putting yarn from peg 1 onto peg 2 and yarn from peg 8 onto peg 7. Knit off 4 rows.
Decrease by putting yarn from peg 2 onto peg 3 and yarn from peg 7 onto peg 6. Knit off 4 rows.

Decrease by putting yarn from peg 3 onto peg 4 and yarn from peg 6 onto peg 5. Knit off 2 rows.

Bind off. Knot and sew in loose yarn near top of shamrock leaf. And you have completed the first leaf! Repeat the process for two more leaves.

Stem:

Stem is a flat panel 1 over 2 stitch on 6 pegs.

Cast on 6 pegs and knit off 8 rows.

Decrease by putting yarn from peg 1 onto peg 2 and yarn from peg 6 onto peg 5. Knit off 18 rows.

Decrease by putting yarn from peg 2 onto peg 3 and yarn from peg 5 onto peg 4. Knit off 2 rows and bind off. Sew leaves together, sewing stem on last. And there you have it!

Hang in there...

It has been a rough couple of weeks here, getting clobbered by major snowstorms pretty much back to back, over 2 feet of snow combined. Once my fingers thaw out from the cold I will be back on here to share some new things I've been working on! They should be thawed out by the end of this week...

New scarf, blue scarf...

I've been pretty busy lately, what with digging out from 14-16 inches of snow on Wednesday, and working on various knitting projects. I completed another scarf for a coworker, and here it is below:

The coworker who ordered it said it was for his Mom, who has a dark blue coat with a purple lining. At first I was going to see if I could pair a purple yarn with a dark blue, but it just didn't look right. So I tried using a lighter shade of purple, and it still wasn't working. I did all this in the store, I didn't buy any of it :).

Finally I found Lion Brand Homespun Tudor and paired it with Homespun Colonial, which is a rich, dark blue, and it worked just right. What was so nice about Tudor was that blue and purple are interwoven throughout the white yarn. It turned out that I started the scarf using Tudor white/purple, which transitioned to white/blue just when I was about to start using Colonial. It makes it look as though the blue from the Colonial bled into the white of the Tudor:

And it picks us aspects of the purple from the lining in her jacket, without being overwhelming. The coworker liked it very much. I had never used Colonial before, but the color was so rich and beautiful that it made me want to make something for myself!

Scarves and mittens too

I finished the scarves for my coworkers and am about to start another for a coworker's spouse. Also, someone out of the blue asked me to knit a pair of mittens for them! So I will be posting the results of that project on this blog as well. So much to knit, so little time...