Knitting

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Red Scarf Project

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Knitters are wonderful, giving people! The [tag]Orphan Foundation of America[/tag] put out the call for help to create Valentine’s Day care packages for the [tag]orphans[/tag] they foster.

The results were an overwhelming success.

OFA students rarely receive mail and a Care Package sends much needed support and encouragement. Juggling independent living now that foster care has ended, working multiple jobs, and achieving academic success is challenging for these young people without parental support. Receiving a Care Package is especially meaningful and can ease the loneliness and anxiety OFA students often experience. The Care Package Program is part of OFA’s web of family-like support that helps to ensure graduation and the bright futures of these courageous students.

OFA partners with America’s corporations, volunteer and community groups to prepare and send thousands of Care Packages three times per academic year – September, February (Valentine’s) and late April.

Since this is an ongoing project, you can get involved at any time. Visit this page for more information.

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Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

Knitting Patterns for Little Chicks

Tiny Hens to Knit