Easter is a wonderful time to bring the family together and enjoy good food and copious amounts of chocolate. Recently our talented residents at Abbeyfield Wessex Society made these charming knitted Easter chicks and were kind enough to share their pattern with us.
Why not spruce up your Easter decorations and have a go at creating your own Easter chicks, designed to fit over a Creme Egg.
You will need:
- Yellow or lemon double knit wool
- A pair of UK Size 11 knitting needles
- Orange felt for the beaks
- Black felt or thread for eyes
- Cotton wool ball for the head
- Coloured ribbon
- Chocolate crème egg to sit your chick on top of
To make the body
1. Cast on 26 stitches.
2. Row 1: K1, increase 1, K to the end.
3. Repeat first row until you have 36 stitches on the needle (10 rows).
4. Knit four rows. (14 rows).
To shape the tail
1. Row 1: Knit 3 stitches, bring yarn to the front of the work, slip the next stitch onto your right
needle, move yarn to the back of your work, move the slipped stitch back to the left needle. Turn.
2. Row 2: Knit 3 stitches to end.
3. Row 3: Knit 2 stitches, bring yarn to the front of the work, slip the next stitch onto your right
needle, move yarn to the back of your work, move the slipped stitch back to the left needle. Turn.
4. Row 4: Knit 2 stitches end.
5. Row 5: Cast off 10 stitches, knit to end.
6. Repeat the 5 rows for the other side to shape the tail.
7. You should have 16 stitches left in the centre of your knitting.
To make the head
1. Rows 1-4: Knit.
2. Row 5: K1, K2tog, K to last three stitches, K2tog, K1.
3. Rows 6-8: Same as row 5.
4. Rows 9-10: Knit.
Finishing touches
You should be left with 8 stitches.
1. Cut the yarn leaving a length 30cm (12") long.
2. Thread a needle with the 30cm length and run it through the 8 remaining stitches, pull them tight.
3. Continue with the yarn to sew up the head, back and side leaving a hole big enough to insert an egg. Stuff the head lightly. Insert the egg, this will give you the body shape making it easy to see where the neck should be.
4 .With a needle threaded with the yarn, do a running stitch to cinch the neck (not too tight) fasten off securely. The eyes are french knots made from black yarn.
5. Sew on a beak made from red felt.