mama hen egg cosy… free pattern

What I originally set out to make before I became thoroughly distracted by the tiny chicken pattern was an egg cosy for my kids’ Easter eggs. I couldn’t find exactly what I was envisioning, nothing nearly cute enough to match the cuteness of the tiny chickens, so I looked to some of the other patterns for inspiration and then created my own. Of course I had to match the style of my tiny chickens as closely as possible. I’m now planning to put the tiny chickens in plastic easter eggs under the egg cosies, so the kids can let them hatch again and again.

I’ve never publicly published a pattern I’ve created before, so this will probably not come across as completely professional, but it was so fun to make and I liked how it turned out, so I wanted to share it.

Yarn: A small amount of Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift (or similar) 100% wool in whatever colors you want for body, comb & beak (I used a pale yellow & light turquoise for the bodies, deep red for the combs, and dark orange for the beaks, with a bit of black silk/alpaca mix yarn for the eyes)
Needles: size 2 (2.75 mm) double points or long circular using magic loop method (my personal preference)

Body:
CO 40 stitches with the main color.
K4, P4 (5 times) and join in the round.
Continue pattern for 8 rows.
Change to K all the way around for 16 rows (I did 12 rows here for the yellow hen, but I found I liked a little more egg coverage).
Bind off 24 stitches
.
K 16 stitches and join these in the round for neck
.
K 8 rows.
K2tog 8 times (8 stitches)
.
K2tog 4 times (4 stitches)
.
Break yarn and thread through 4 stitches, pull closed.

Finishing body:
Mattress stitch at base of neck along the back for 8 stitches with edges tucked in, then pull edges up to be visible and lightly close by sewing a running stitch back and forth underneath the edges. This gives a slightly raised look to the tail.

Wings: (make 2)
With the main color, starting 5 stitches down from the top of the back, and 6 stitches from the tail end, pick up and knit 8 stitches.
Row 2: Knit (starting a garter stitch).
Row 3: K2tog, K 4, K2tog (6 stitches).
Row 4: Knit.
Row 5: K2tog, K 2, K2tog (4 stitches.)
Row 6: Knit
Break yarn and thread through 4 stitches and pull closed. Weave in loose ends.

Comb:
Pick up and knit 4 stitches along the top of head with red yarn.

Row 2: Knit
.
Row 3: Knit
.
Bind off.

On one side of the head there will be stitches of the body color showing through, so cover these with the red yarn by looping over them when you weave the ends in.

Eyes:
About 3 stitches from comb and 4 stitches from front of head, wrap one stitch with black yarn 3 times. Repeat on the other side of the head.

Beak:
With orange yarn, starting 1 stitch below eyes at the front of the head, pick up and knit 2 stitches down vertically.

Using iCord method knit 3 rows.

Break yarn, thread through 2 stitches and pull closed.
Weave in loose ends back toward head, and weave a couple more times around the base of the beak to make it a bit triangular.

Wattle:
Just below beak, pick up and knit 2 stitches down vertically.
Using iCord method, Knit 2 rows.
Break yarn, thread through 2 stitches and weave in loose ends back to head.

Finish head by lightly stuffing it, and weave some of the loose ends from the embroidery underneath the stuffing back and forth lightly to secure it.

Place cozy over plastic egg or hard-boiled egg. It looks best with the pointy end toward the tail. This would also work well to keep a cooked egg warm and cozy.

Hopefully they will make it to Easter. My cats seem to have adopted them: