Emotional Support Chicken

I just couldn't resist the allure of the Emotional Support Chicken any longer. Meet Scrappy Henrietta! 😍

This pattern arrived on the knitting scene sometime in 2023 or 2024 (I believe), and the internet practically EXPLODED with excitement.

I added the pattern to my Ravelry favorites for safe-keeping but decided to wait before making one. I noticed, however, as the months went by the way the emotional support chicken consistently remained on the first page of Ravelry's "hot right now" designs, suggesting that the internet's adoration for the ESCs had yet to abate. It was on FIRE.

Eventually, I just couldn't resist the pull of the ESC any more.  

I think the thing that put me over the edge was when I discovered that The Knitting Tree LA had made a companion video for the pattern. Checking out the video was my undoing. 😂

Tail part 1

I grabbed a long old scrap of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn in the Jazzy Stripe colorway (left over from an Infinite Granny Square afghan project) and cast on to follow along with the video, which starts at the tail.

Tail part 2

For part 2 of the tail and the main part of the body, I used a couple of long scraps of Red Heart With Love in the Pewter Gray colorway that were left over from when I made my Autumn Mists vest with no pattern.

Tail and main body

I don't know which yarn I used for the neck and head, but it was one long scrap of an ombre-ish yarn with purple, dark pink, and raspberry colors that is probably something by Red Heart, but I didn't have a label for it anymore.

Neck and head added

I used up the remainder of the raspberry ombre scrap for the top end of the undersection piece, and more of the gray yarn to finish the undersection.

Henrietta got a bit wonky as I was sewing her up, where the two ends of her neck stripes don't line up at the front, but hey. She is still adorable, and I wuv her!! She has 15 mm blue safety eyes from a pack that I bought off Etsy years ago from a seller named 6060, who is no longer active on the site. Whenever I'm installing safety eyes, I always use this tool to help set the backs, because it makes it a lot easier for my arthritic hands to handle the task of snapping them on securely.

You might be able to knit a whole ESC by only watching the video, but I think the video really makes a better accompaniment if you also own the written pattern, so before I reached the end of the first tail section, I bought the pattern: And the emotional support chicken claimed yet another willing (happy) victim. 😂

I followed this up by making a friend for Scrappy Henrietta, another Emotional Support Chicken, Scrappy Patty, in colors to match our guest bedroom.

Scrappy Patty and Scrappy Henrietta

 

Scrappy Patty sitting on the bed in our guest bedroom

Scrappy Patty side view

Meet Pierre

A while back, I bought a Woobles kit for Pierre Penguin at my local little yarn shop, and today I finally made him. 😊

Isn't he adorable? Here's a link to my Ravelry project page, which has info about the yarn colors, etc. The kit comes with everything you need to crochet your own little Pierre, and if your local LYS doesn't carry the Woobles kits you can also buy them online, but you can also buy the Woobles Easy Peasy Yarn in 13 different, bright, amigurumi-ready colors on Amazon.

Pierre kind of reminds me of the old Weebles toys. Am I the only person who remembers the Weebles?? 😆

Doughnut Buddies

These Doughnut Buddies toys are so sweet (pun intended) and quick and easy to make. Each one can be made in an evening (about 4-6 hours each max, depending on the level of detail). Watch out -- these are fun and addictive. 😊

The only reason these project took me multiple days was because I had to wait for an order of safety eyes to arrive in the mail. 😄

Rachel Zain, the designer of all these adorable Doughnut Buddies, generally doesn't tell you in the patterns which colors to use at each step -- and that's fine because it allows for individual creativity. I made my Baby Yoda buddy on a burlap-brown base doughnut to represent The Child's robe, with green icing (of course) for his face and ears. (Rachel used the same green doughnut base on her alien as the icing, which is perfectly all right, too, of course.) 

And, of course, I simply HAD TO make a Mandalorian to go with my Baby Yoda. 😜

Tip: Leave a 14-inch-long tail before chaining to make the icing layer. This gives you the length you need to attach the center ring of icing to the doughnut.

I freehanded a couple of Doughnut Buddies last year as a gift for Lilliana, but it's fun to now have the official patterns to learn from and use as a jumping-off point for more creativity.