January 7, 2021

In the spirit of feeling like the year needs some help to be better, a pattern happened to pop up at a time when I had some moments to knit and modify, so that my re-decapitatable goat from a few years back, would have some company. Decapitation mechanism setup much like the goat, and could probably do with a more considered thinking through to make it less of a fiddle to reset.

Modifications:

1. At the point where the colour change for the head was meant to happen, I knit a purl row and then knit a bit of a tube that wasn’t quite as long as the body height. I then stuffed the chook from the tube before k2tog around and pulling the yarn through to finish. This pocket was then pushed down into the body along the chest wall of the chicken.
2. For the head, I cast on 12 with a picot cast on (knit cast on 3, cast off 2), and added an extra round before decreasing and pulling the yarn through to finish the top of the head. I then picked up ~10 stitches on the inside of the head and immediately reduced stitch count while knitting a cover for the head’s stuffing (I think I went from 10, to 6, to 3?), adding stuffing before the hole got too small.
3. I tacked the pocket down to the bottom of the chook - in hindsight, I should’ve left it loose even though it was fiddly to get into position compared to the goat.
4. I pulled the ends from sewing on the comb and beak through to the underneath middle of the head to show some chicken innards
5. I had some pink/brown variegated yarn to set up a simple pull cord with a knot at the end, to show more innards and also allow resetting of the chicken decapitation.
6. I added a couple of French knots for eyes, because why not?