Miss Henelope Featherington is our diamond debutante of the season!
I thought her name was Aubergina, but perhaps that’s her middle name. I was watching Bridgerton last night, and realized that this chicken needed to honor Penelope. So she’s Miss Henelope Aubergina Featherington.
Miss Featherington enjoys the pianoforte.
She joins her family, waiting to be knocked over by Calvin the Cat.
Is this a come hither look or what?
Notes: Pattern is Emotional Support Chicken, available on Ravelry or from the Knitting Tree LA. I used Malabrigo Rios and a US 7 needle; if I were to do it again I’d use a smaller needle so I could stuff it more firmly without the stuffing showing through. Seaming wasn’t as awful as I thought it might be. And I used scraps of yarn to close up any gaps that showed in the fabric (like where the tail feathers come together, and next to the decreases on the beak) before stuffing.
I FINALLY sewed in my ends (there are just two, beginning and end) on Bellini Bubbles because I’m taking pictures with my sister tomorrow. Nothing like the power of a deadline! But do you see what made me gasp?
See the unsecured bent petal of that middle flower? I’m going to guess I dropped a stitch somewhere above it, because…see the two loose stitch columns above the unsecured petal? Clearly there’s a column of stitches missing above that unsecured petal. There’s no stitch missing from the flower above, so it happened somewhere between the two flowers.
I hooked up the column with a crochet hook: The loose pink loop was the first to get picked up on my hook. Then I hooked up the running thread *between* those two loose stitch columns. That takes up the slack that made those two stitch columns become loose when the in-between stitch dropped down, so it’s firming up the green stockinette area, as well as rescuing my loose loop.
To secure this, I put a piece of yarn through the last loop at the top of the column (right before the next flower), pulled it to the back of the work, and fastened it there. Whew! And now I have four ends sewn in, instead of the original two.
There’s a little gap between the first 2 petals of the next flower because now there’s a stitch column where there wasn’t one when that flower was made. That’s a small price to pay for securing my flower petal. All better.
Bellini Bubbles is nearly done with test knitting, and I am seeing some stunning colors. Assigned pooling is so much fun! I’m planning to publish this next week, May 21. Get your yarn ready!
In other news, Chickalong Day 6 finds me waiting for my wet blocking to dry. Stuffing and seaming up next! I have a forever bag of poly fiberfill from some project in the distant past, so I’m ready.
I finished the body/head/beak this afternoon. Behold the spatchcocked chicken!
That bit of orange yarn is where I started picking apart the tail seam. I had crocheted it at night. Dark purple yarn and low light meant I wandered off my straight line. I started picking it out to fix it, and then realized I was picking from the beginning, not the end. Just like knitting, crochet only ravels in one direction (you have to tediously pick in the other direction). So I yanked the whole seam from the other end, and it’s much better now.
Folded in half, you can see that it really is going to be a chicken! I’ve also knit the comb and the wattle, and I’m halfway through the undersection. After that, it’s just seaming and stuffing, and picking an eye color. I now own enough eyes for dozens of chickens; you can’t just buy a couple sets online. But at least I’ll have a range of colors to choose from.
Calvin is looking forward to meeting Aubergina. You can see he’s quite comfortable with Gromit and Wocket, and the korknisse, too. Yes, my little Christmas tree is still up. Up until this week, Calvin had stopped sitting with/knocking over Gromit. But suddenly the tree doesn’t intimidate him any more, so it’s time to take it down!
She’s coming along nicely! I’m about to start the breast. More short rows! In garter stitch, short rows are no big deal. I don’t use them a lot in my knitting life; I tend to think in straight lines. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at safety eyes on Amazon; she’s going to need some peepers!
We had a great weekend. Yesterday the kids came over to make dinner for Mother’s Day. My pick? Oxtails. We used this Instant Pot recipe. Yummmm. I think next time I’d sub apple cider vinegar for the balsamic. It didn’t need a deeper flavor, but the brightness was nice. And we added more fish sauce for perfect umami. It’s super fun to hang out with these guys and play with food!
Friday night my Facebook feed blew up with pictures of the aurora borealis, seen from here in Portland and points further south, too. I went out at midnight to find a bit of dark sky. I ended up on Marine Drive on the Columbia River, looking across to Government Island by the I-205 bridge.
Glenn Jackson I-205 Bridge, waxing moonset
I couldn’t see the aurora with my naked eye, but my iPhone XS picked up some color.
If you can’t see it with your eye, can you say you’ve seen the aurora? My eyes didn’t see the sky as green; it was black with a little bit of white-ish haze.
Aurora Borealis
I edited the previous picture to pop a bit more, and to match the background of what my eye was seeing (the blackness of trees on the island). This pinkness matches more what friends with newer phone cameras were seeing. I invited DH out the next night to see, so I could try his newer phone.
No aurora Saturday night, but night mode on his camera works great! (No flash, and the red is from the neighboring car’s tail lights). Our kids went out to Powell Butte to try to see, but there was’t anything to see. The lesson here: Wait until your Facebook feed blows up with pictures, and then you know it’s time to go!
So I’ve “seen” the aurora, and I haven’t! But it was fun trying. It’s still on my bucket list. Did you see it?
I’m on my way to an Emotional Support Chicken. I’ve been seeing these pop up in my Instagram feed, and they’re all really cute. I bought the pattern last month, but I wasn’t inspired to actually knit…until Franklin Habit announced a chickalong on his Patreon. Sold!
My chicken will be mostly purple, because it takes about a full skein of worsted (200 yards), and that’s what I have in a full skein. It’s Malabrigo Rios. My stripes will be that blue/purple and orange/purple; I don’t have enough of either color for all the stripes, so I’ll need to choose one for her body stripe and one for the 2 stripes near the neck. The orange stands out more, so maybe it should be by her face, but there will also be a yellow (?) beak and red comb and wattle. Too much excitement all together? Would the blue/purple be better by her face?
This half of her tail is almost done, then I’m on to the other half. This is definitely a short row eggstravaganza, but it’s wrap and turn in garter stitch, so no big deal. I’m working on a name for her, maybe Egglantina Rose, or Aubergine (a shade of purple, and also EGGplant!).
Beignets, ben-dYAY!
What else have I been up to in my nearly 3 week radio silence? DH and I went to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Lots of music, and we made time for beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, and crawfish-stuffed beignets and cocktails, too.
I went hiking with a friend in the Columbia River Gorge yesterday; the wildflowers were beautiful on a perfect spring day.
Catherine Creek trail, Mount Hood in background
So much variety.
I’m also still knitting my brioche and assigned/algorithmic knitting shawl. It’s a really fun knit, but I haven’t had a lot of time for it in the past couple weeks. Now I’m back at it, and I have chicken knitting, too. Which isn’t the same as yarn chicken. Yet.
What’s on your needles? Are you tempted by the chicken?
I worked very hard at not working on my current design project during the week before I went to the coast. I wanted to have an established work in progress so I could be sociable while I knit.
Fan stitch
I want to combine brioche and assigned pooling, two of my favorite types of knitting! I was planning to use a V’d stitch like in Fanfare. In my imagination, they’d be airier because there would be the brioche purl stitches between the knit stitches, and I was going to dip down and out to the side to make upside down Vs. But I found out pretty quickly that it would not be very much fun to make those Vs if the pooling color happened on the wrong side of the fabric. I need a pooling stitch that will work on both right and wrong sides. And it needs to fit into the rhythm of brioche.
I used brioche increases to make my Vs instead. So sweet! I set the project aside, ready to knit at the coast.
It took 70 rows of coastal knitting, but I finally realized: All of those cute stitches *really were* increases, and they were going to throw off my shawl shaping. You can see in the picture above where all the increases have thrown off the straight edge on the right. Oops. Also, I had elongated the Pear Leaf edging from 10 to 12 rows, and it didn’t really look like a leaf any more. Double oops.
So this is my project, frogged, at the coast. Since then I’ve knit and frogged and restarted it at least 5 more times while settling on the syncopated cream colored edging pattern (not pear leaf after all) and how to handle the pooling stitches. Remember, I make the mistakes so you don’t have to! And now I’ve figured out where it’s going. I’m kind of obsessed, and all I want to do is knit this gorgeous yarn. Why yes, that’s Yarn Snob Keith’s Bellina colorway again, this time paired with cream. I love the combo; it tones down the green just a little bit. No previews yet.
I’m teaching a weekend workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology August 10-11 on the Oregon Coast. The setting is lovely, nestled among the trees on a slice of land on Cascade Head near Lincoln City.
This knitting workshop offers several ways to make your plain knitting fancy! Drawing inspiration from nature, we’ll start with elongated fancy stitches that evoke the beauty of flowers, stars, butterflies, and bees.
Moving forward, we’ll delve into the art of color pooling, a hot technique that is the current darling of indie dyers.
To add a finishing touch, we’ll learn herringbone and other braids to elevate our knits to new heights. Join us for a creative journey where you’ll learn to infuse flair into your knitting, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Sound fun? Register here. The workshop fees are for the workshop only; you’ll need to book lodging of your choice. It’s a wonderful relaxing weekend away. I taught a brioche workshop here last year, see that post for a taste of the experience.
I’ve run away to the coast with friends. Apparently the unofficial first year for Crafty Moms was 2003 with kids and husbands, and the first year with just moms was 2004. This is the 21st year? Egad.
I have my knitting with me, but this is a great opportunity to explore some other fiber fun, too.
On the way to Rockaway, we stopped at Latimer Quilt & Textile Center in Tillamook to see the Homage to Audrey Moore, founder of the Damascus Fiber Arts School near Portland, Oregon.
Homage to Frida, Feeling Pink, Summer Days (Audrey Moore)
These are pieces from her series, The Ladies. They’re tapestry weavings on a Navajo style loom.
There are many pieces by Moore, and many pieces by her students. Reading their comments on their own pieces gave a good idea of her teaching style: Suggestions, comments, but she’d let you figure it out yourself. Perfect.
Besides the exhibit room (you can tell that it was a school auditorium at one point), there are two other large rooms. One is full of looms and other fiber fun, and the other is full of quilts and even more fiber fun. Some of it is for sale, and some are just for exhibit.
Loom RoomOn the loom
I found some beautiful hand painted roving for sale by Mary Torrey of Manzanita. It’s 75/25 BFL and silk.
Wait, I don’t spin! Why do I want roving? Well, I saw a reel on Instagram where someone was using a Lemonwood mini minder to hold her roving while spinning. I commented on it, and Veronica from Lemonwood offered to send me one. I love it. It’s so much more ergonomically friendly than throwing roving over your elbow and hoping to keep it out of the way of your spindle!
Heart Heart Heart Mini Minder
I love how the hearts look like knit stitches.
I think the Mini Minder is really meant for holding a cake of yarn so you can knit or crochet while you walk (or not); your yarn unwinds off the outside of the cake. I’m usually knitting 2 color brioche, so that wouldn’t work for me. For a one skein project, sure! Many of my assigned pooling projects would love this. And you can take it off the spindle at any time, too.
Thank you to Veronica for the Mini Minder. She offered it to me with no expectation of a review, positive or negative.
I thought I’d practice with old fluff on hand. The Mini Minder works great; it doesn’t unwind before it needs to. Clearly my cop winding skills could use some work; I got distracted and suddenly I was off. Oh well; this is practice, and my new roving awaits!
Cordsmith i-cord maker
I also took some time to play with the Cordsmith that I bought at VKLive NYC. If you need yards and yards of 3 stitch i-cord; this may be your jam. It’s a little fiddly to get started, and then it starts rolling along. Occasionally I accidentally drop a stitch off the needle, and have to figure out how to get it back in sequence. Practice is helping, for sure.
I don’t actually mind knitting i-cord on double pointed needles. Also, I’ve made i-cord on any number of stitches on dpns, 3, 4, 6… And my usual fake way to make a cord is to cast on a big whack of stitches, and bind off on the next row.
It was lovely when we arrived yesterday; Carole and I walked up to the jetty and were pleased to see sea stars, and a seal frolicking in the waves.
Sea stars and anemones and barnacles, oh my!Zoom in to see everything!
There are several bald eagles hanging out here. They like this post outside the house. Sorry for the blur; I can’t get close!
I hope you’re having a fiber fun weekend, too. And food. OMG so much food when we get this crew together! Delicious.
We did it! We sped right past our goal and raised $379,010 to fight hunger both here in the United States and abroad. This was our biggest year yet. In 2021 we raised $265,810, in 2022 we raised $271,761, in 2023 we raised $340,000. That means knitters have raised over $1.25 million with our knitting needles!
Thank you so much for your support. I’ve sent coupon codes for a free pattern to everyone who donated to my campaign. Everybody wins!
Hat cranking station
We had a great time at the Puddletown Knitters Guild Knit for Food party, too. We worked on our own projects, and we also knit hats for Rose Haven day shelter here in Portland. We had 3 hat cranking machines; they are quick and efficient! It was my first time using a knitting machine.
I’m knitting for food again this year! I’m participating in this 12 hour knitting marathon to raise funds and awareness for food insecurity. The money we raise will be equally divided among Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels.
Please support me by donating through this link. If you donate to my link, I’ll send you a coupon code for a free pattern from my Ravelry store. (If you’ve already donated, I have you on my list and will send out codes next week.) Today (Saturday) is the last day to donate this year.
Puddletown Knitters Guild is having a knitting party from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church in Portland, OR. We’ll have door prizes and activities. Come knit with us! RSVP here. Not local? Check the Knit for Food website for local watch parties, wherever you are! You can also sign up to fundraise yourself, if you wish.
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 