Cabled Chicken Sweater

Do you remember the Chick Cozy?

I can hardly remember when the chickens were that small! Good thing we have pictures, or I wouldn’t believe it… This post was over a year ago, and here’s what I said about it:

I’m planning to do a larger version when they’re all grown up, too.

I think they count as all grown up…or close enough!

The chickens were not happy when I tried this on them. Harriet was the best about it (she modeled the Chick Cozy as well) but she managed to remove it while I was trying to take pictures. This is really just a photo prop – if you want a practical chicken sweater, check out this pattern. It’s worth just google-imaging ‘chicken sweater’ for some adorable pictures.

I, of course, did not invent the crochet cable; I learned it from various sources like this Craftsy tutorial. Actually, that link is the exact pattern that I used for the cable, although I made this whole sweater whilst sitting with the chickens. I will write it out in the pattern, but go there for a photo tutorial. (Yay for pictures!)

Materials

• Small amount of worsted weight yarn (Red Heart Eco Ways for me in Aquarium) (I love being able to tell you the exact brand and color I used! It hardly ever happens!)
• I (5.50 MM) hook
• One chicken, 1 year or older

Special Stitches and Notes

• Front post triple crochet (fptr): Click here for a tutorial on Moogly. The tutorial shows front post double crochet, so just do a triple instead and you’ll be good (wrap the yarn 2 times instead of 1.)
• Cable Pattern (worked over 6 stitches):
  1. Right-side Cable (RS Cable): Skip next 3 stitches. Fptr over the next 3 stitches. Then go back to the 3 skipped stitches and fptr around each of them.
  2. Wrong-side Cable (WS Cable): Bptr around each of the next 6 stitches.
• I use US terms in all of my patterns!

Starting from the bottom, ch 20, dc in 3rd ch from hk and in each ch across (18 sts.)

Row 2: Ch 2, turn, dc in first 6 sts, work RS Cable, dc in last 6 sts.

Row 3: Ch 2, turn, dc in first 6 sts, work WS Cable, dc in last 6 sts.

Rows 4-7: Repeat Rows 2 and 3.

Row 8: Repeat Row 2 one more time.

Row 9: Ch 2, turn, dc2tog, dc in next 4 sts, work WS Cable, dc in next 4 sts, dc2tog.

Row 10: Ch 2, turn, dc2tog, dc in next 3 sts, work RS Cable, dc in next 3 sts, dc2tog.

Row 11: Ch 2, turn, dc2tog twice, work WS Cable, dc2tog twice.

Row 12: Ch 2, turn, dc2tog, work RS Cable, dc2tog.

Row 13: Ch 2, turn, 1 dc, work WS Cable, dc in last st.

Row 14: Ch 2, turn, 1 dc, work RS Cable, dc in last st.

Lay your chicken sweater out with the RS facing you and make sure that your yarn is at the upper left-hand corner. Next, chain 40 and slip stitch to the upper right hand corner to form the neck strap. Slip stitch across Row 14 to bring you back to the left-hand corner. Sc down the left edge, making your stitches into the row ends. When you reach the bottom left-hand corner, chain 20 and attach to the bottom right-hand corner with a sc. Continue up the right side, and slip stitch to the first stitch to join. Fasten off, weave in ends.

Now the hardest part: try to put it on a chicken! The ‘easiest’ way is to put the strap around their neck (carefully!), then put the bottom strap around their tail, and quickly take a picture before they get too angry at you. You can see that I failed here…

Nevertheless, if you do make a chicken sweater, please let me know!