I was on Instagram and found this pattern: Emotional Support Chicken; then I fell down a rabbit hole to see what an Emotional Support Chicken was: I ended up watching endless YouTube videos that reviewed the pattern and simply got sucked in. I was struggling at work and feeling so down; I was feeling so sad and discouraged that I simply needed an emotional support Chicken. I made so many stuffed animals for others, I needed one of my own now.😔😭 Since I didn't know how it would work out, I decided that instead of making clothes for my Mouche & Friends, I would use my leftovers to make myself an Emotional Support Chicken first (if you look on Ravelry, the multitude of emotional support chickens and their various colours were so inspiring! and it simply convinced me that I had to have a multi-coloured chicken!) before I would consider making any of the clothes or accessories for Mouche & Friends. On top of getting this pattern, I also purchased this book because I could just envision having a multi-coloured short-rowed chicken and it would teach me something new. So, here's how this adventure went:
First, it took me a while to have enough brain power to even think about beginning this project, especially because it was full of short rows and I wanted to make each short row a different colour. So, I finally had enough energy and brain power to start. I did the first back half on Day 1. O-M-G 😱😵💫😖🤦♀️, as I was making it and adding on each colour, it began to turn into a gigantic yarn barf mess! 😱😖 I finally gave in and started snipping off the yarn and then realized that I had to weave it all in!😳😔😱😖🤦♀️ I stayed up all night (literally) to weave it all in.😵💫😖🤦♀️🌙
I slept in on Day 2 and despite that, I managed to finish the rest of the back half and half of the body:
I'm sure you're wondering: Wait, how did you do so much when it took you a whole day to finish the first back half?🤔 Well, upon sleeping on it, I remembered something I had seen on Instagram: someone tied their billions of ends instead of weaving it in on a stranded knitting project so, that's what I decided to do (I figured it was no big deal since this is a stuffed animal, not an article of clothing where I would normally not knot my yarn):
It's not the prettiest but, I figured it'll also add to the stuffing.😁
On Day 3, I finished the rest of the of the chicken and seamed most of it:
Right Side
Left Side
Bottom
Inside (Right)
Inside (Left side)
Actually, while the inside looks ridiculous, you actually can't tell from the outside. I dunno what possessed me to initially weave in the ends on the first back half other than just plain habit. Now that I know better (and I still (miraculously) have quite a bit of leftover yarn), if I want to make another one, no more weaving in ends!
Here's my finished chicken:
Now you must be wondering why I named my chicken 快適 千喜 (Kaiteki Chiki): Kaiteki Chiki literally means Comfort Thousand Joy and is a play on words based on Famichiki. Since we haven't be able to travel, it's in part, an ode to missing eating Famichiki for Christmas as well as my overall feeling when I was making this (well, after I figured out that I didn't need to weave in all those ends! 😳😱🤦😁🤭). I actually had a lot of fun making this project and it did bring me a lot of comfort and joy making it as well as the finished product. And, since I still have quite a bit of leftover yarn, I'm considering making my 快適 千喜 a friend.😉🥰
