YOU! Go crochet a chicken ;)

That was a message that greeted me last night when I signed in to facebook. Probably one of the strangest things that anyone has ever posted on my wall, especially since it actually made sense. My friend, mooseinakilt, has recently taken on the role of providing weekly challenges at Hogwarts at Ravelry and she posted the first assignment last night at midnight EST. The assignment was "Poor Hagrid is loosing roosters left and right! He needs your help rounding up some more chickens so we don't have to resort to eating flobber worms or blast-ended skrewts." Of course, her midnight is my 9pm, so I decided that I should really crochet a chicken before going to bed.

Now, what you have to understand is that I couldn't find any chicken colored yarn last night and the closest thing I had to my computer was a skein of lime green Red Heart Super Saver yarn. I also happened to have a crochet hook. Knowing that nothing good can come from this combination (especially after just seeing Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland), I grabbed a box of peeps and started crocheting away. As an added bonus, I'm totally going to use it for my upcoming spring themed cat toy swap! Yay!

Marshmallow Chick

Materials

-Worsted weight yarn (in main chick color and a scrap of black for eyes)

-F hook

-Tapestry needle

-Polyseter fiber fill (or other type of stuffing)

Gauge tight enough so stuffing doesn't show

Special Stitches
sc2tog: *insert hook in next st, pull up loop* 2 times, yo and pull through all 3 loops on hook
sc3tog: *insert hook in next st, pull up loop* 3 times, yo and pull through all 4 loops on hook

Directions

Rnd 1: ch 11, sc in second ch from hook and in next 8 ch, 3sc in end ch, 8sc working down opposite side of ch, 2sc in same ch as first st, ss to first st. (22 sc)

Rnd 2: ch 1, hdc in same sc and in next 8 sc, 2hdc in next st, 3hdc in next st, 2hdc in next st, 8hdc, 2hdc in next st, 3hdc in next st, hdc in same st as first hdc, ss to first hdc. (30 hdc)

Rnd 3: ch 1, working in back loops only sc in same st and in next 25 sts, sc3tog , sc in next st, ss to first sc. (28 sts)

Rnd 4: ch 1, working in both loops sc same st and next st tog, 8 sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, 8 sc, sc2tog, sc3tog, ss to first st. (22 sts)

Rnd 5: ss in next st, ch 1, sc in same st and  next 6sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, 7 sc, sc3tog, ss to first st. (18 sts)
Rnd 6: ch 1, 2 sc in same st, 5 sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, 5 sc, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, ss to first st. (19 sts)
Firmly stuff bottom of body up to this row
Rnd 7: ch 1, 2 sc in same st, 4 sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, 5sc, 2sc in next 3 sts, ss to first st. (20 sts)
Rnd 8: ch 1, *3sc, sc2tog* 4 times around, ss to first st. (16 sts)
Rnd 9: ch 1, *2sc, sc2tog* 4 times around, ss to first st. (12 sts)
Finish stuffing head
Rnd 10: ch 1, *sc, sc2tog* 4 times around, ss to first st, finish off, leave long tail for sewing top closed and adding beak. (8sts)
Using the tapestry needle, run the tail through the top 8 stitches and gather tight to close. Stitch a triangle over the middle of rnd 8 and 9 for the beak.
Stitch eyes between rnd 8 and 9 with black.