February 7, 2008: Picked up the magazine at a bookstore. I would buy every issue of CRAFT if it had an Anna Hrachovec pattern in it. Perhaps they could convince her to do a regular knitted toy feature, like Alan Dart does for Simply Knitting and Women’s Weekly magazines in the UK? One can only hope.

February 8, 2008: I have too many WIPs to be starting this, but couldn’t resist. Because I knit loosely, I’m doubling the yarn so that there won’t be any gaps.

The egg is done - my, this is going to be one big chicken. The yarn is soft acrylic (for future machine washing), so it won’t be felted, and won’t shrink even a little.

February 9, 2008: Just need to do the legs.

I’m wondering how Anna got her chicken to be so round at the top, and tall. Mine is quite squat. I followed the photo for the placement of the eyes, beak and wings, so it can’t be the relative positions that make my chicken look shorter (I actually count the stitches in the photo when placing the pieces).

Later that evening… Finished! I didn’t think it was possible, but it looks much cuter with legs. It’s 6.5 inches tall, and nearly as wide.

My son loves popping this back and forth, and has dubbed the chicken, “Puffball”, after this classic Foghorn Leghorn short, “Plop Goes the Weasel”. It’s not in the Youtube excerpt, but in the film, the chicks are referred to as “puffballs”.