Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Loomed leghorn: an egg cozy

It's official, I have spring fever! All I can think about are springtime looming projects. I've got patterns brewing for all types of baskets, bunnies, ducks, chicks and eggs. You could say that I'm "egg-cited" over all the possibilities.

Making an egg cozy
To start things off, I whipped up a little leghorn hen egg cozy that will fit nicely over an egg: both real and plastic. I just happened to have a bag of plastic Easter eggs that I bought on sale a few years ago stashed in my craft supplies, so that's what I used. The hen is loomed on the Knifty Knitter 12 peg flower loom. I did a chain cast on using a medium tension and two strands of worsted weight yarn and then with a flat knit stitch I worked K1/P1 rib stitch for 4 rounds.

The body & head
The body is done in alternating flat knit & purl stitches for 12 rows to form a garter stitch pattern, then I did a flat panel bind off on 6 pegs and continued with the garter stitch pattern for 6 more rows of flat panel work on the remaining 6 pegs to form the head. End by doing a flat panel bind off, remove the hen from the loom and whip the head & back opening shut.

Finishing
The beak, cone and tail trim are made using crochet chains in the corresponding colors and whip stitched in place. Small googly eyes were added for the eyes, but little black buttons or beads would work nicely. If the number of rows for the hen's body is reduced, the cozy could be used with a Cadbury Egg.

Note: A detailed pattern can be found by clicking the link for the Loomed Leghorn Egg Cozy in My Pattern Box on the right sidebar.