Hi. I’m Hannah.
These big fat bumblebees have been coming to the little garden by the deck every single day this week. I just love them! They are so fat and slow. They are fuzzy and look just like a cat toy, right? They come right up to the wire to climb into the flowers, and I got my paw out and onto one of them this morning; he just bumbled off to another flower. These guys are awesome!!
The Mother of Cats is doing much better and hasn’t worn her wrist braces in days. She finished up the knitting on one of her Emotional Support Chickens (ESC) and then spent a couple of days sewing them up. One chicken was done Saturday morning, so she took it to her Frayed Knots knitting group to show it off to the other knitters.
The Mother of Cats wanted to show off the chicken because it has been a big hit with her scleroderma support group and at the Kaiser infusion center last month. Everyone wants a chicken!! Like… four of the members of her support group want one, and she figures that the infusion center should get a least a couple. The Mother of Cats is kind of thinking that lots of people who are having a hard time (like, the families at the Ronald McDonald House, or at other infusion centers) would like a chicken. Yeah. It was a good idea, but she lost control, and things went crazy really quickly… the chicken got passed around and people hugged it. And hugged it. One lady wanted to keep it. The Mother of Cats got requests for FIVE more chickens and was asked to think about teaching a chicken knitting class for some of the ladies. One of the ladies swore that she could get chickens sold at craft shows up north (in Boulder, Colorado) and the money could be used to buy items for the personal care packages that are created by the Frayed Knots volunteers. Another lady asked for the pattern so she could start knitting chickens too…
Yeah. A little out of control. The Mother of Cats now has a spreadsheet going with 17 chicken requests on it.
Today she wound up a lot of yarn (luckily, she had bought all the yarn earlier in the month…) and she is torn about what color to knit next. Maybe it is time to make a chicken that is knit in all solid colors. Should she use some fluffy alpaca? She still has some beads that can go onto another chicken. Whatever… she needs to just get to work knitting and somehow the chickens will all find a home, right? Obviously, the need for emotional support chickens is real.
This is Hannah, signing off.
>^..^<
Notes from the Mother of Cats:
- I woke up to a text this morning: another request for an ESC. A pink one, please.
- The pattern is Emotional Support Chicken, and it can be found in knit or crochet versions on Ravelry.
- Here are the official portraits of the three chickens. I have to send the pictures out to people so they can pick their chicken.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Hannah, somehow you have to ensure than the MoC doesn’t get exploited ! – coz it sounds to me that there are some people taking advantage of her kindness. The ESC craze is definitely out of control ! 🙂
Beautiful photos of a beautiful animal, Marilyn – AND in a beautiful garden !!!
Hannah: don’t worry, I’m keeping my eye on her!
MofC: Not to worry. I am attempting to put my yarn stash to good use, and I am driven to knit, so this is a great use of my time and materials. People who are normal (AKA not chronically ill and worrying about end-of-life plans) are pretty focused on money, and they keep giving me more than the shipping costs, so I just donate the money to Frayed Knots. The feedback from chicken recipients more than makes up for my time, and if I wasn’t knitting chickens I would be turning out chemo hats and PICC line covers.
All true, as I know. So I’m a worrywart – apologies, m’dear ! 😀
And they are excellent damned things, them chickens – so very pleasing to look at as well as clutch !
How I love those chickens! No wonder so many people want them; they’re adorable.
(And btw, I’m jealous of your bumble bees. Haven’t seen one in many years. All I get around here are wasps! Ugh.)
Now I’m thinking that we all need a giant huggable knit bumblebee…
I had wasps last year that were terrible. I put out the traps already and so far I have caught a grand total of… one wasp.
I tried all kinds of wasp traps with zero success. Then a few years ago tried those sticky green ones that look like lanterns. Haven’t seen a wasp in the air since then, except stuck in those traps. Only trouble is, those traps would probably catch the bumble bees too.
I bought a trap that is supposed to attract several different types of wasps, and they do seem to work. I baited another trap with ham, and boy did that work!!
This is quite amazing. I hope Mother can keep it up
My tendonitis has faded back into the background again and I am back to knitting chickens.
Very good news
Beautiful, happy-looking chickens! Who wouldn’t want one? Maybe you have the start of a new Build-A-Bear sort of franchise – Pick-A-Chick. Kids and adults could pick out the yarn combos for their mechanically knitted and stuffed chicks and watch them made, with all profits going to your/their favorite charities.
Gosh, doesn’t that sound like fun? I’m stealing your Pick-A-Chick to use when I send out the pictures of the finished ones to people who requested one.
I’m glad you like the Pick-A-Chick label. Be my guest.
Watch out for those bumblebees, Hannah! Lovely photos today. Your garden is really blooming!
The garden has taken off in a big way even though crushing heat arrived last week. I think that the roses are actually thriving in the hot weather, which is amazing because the humidity is really, really low. I’m so glad to see the bumblebees out among the blooms, but it seems to only be in the cooler parts of the day. There are a lot more this year.
Wow, what a tremendous kindness you are doing by knitting so many chickens. Love the Pick-A-Chick name even if it’s just for your spreadsheet. Hmm – a Go Fund Me page as a means to raise money for chicken yarn and stuffing? I’d contribute. We have lots of Carpenter Bees who seem to enjoy my wood frame pergola more than I do. They are basically harmless so I live and let live.
I started out knitting lots of chemo hats for the community gifting organization Frayed Knots, but once the chickens arrived on the scene I switched over because I knew people who just desperately needed emotional support. A spouse suddenly diagnosed with a serious cancer. A newly diagnosed scleroderma patient falling apart because the family thinks she is a hypochondriac. A sudden death in the family. It just keeps going and going. I do have a huge yarn stash, and I pretty much knit every day for my own mental and physical health, so why not chickens. Frayed Knots keeps offering me yarn, but I do have a lot. I am asking people for shipping money, and if more comes in that will be for stuffing. I don’t have carpenter bees, but there are paper wasps here that are going after my wood patio furniture to get the building materials that they need. Like your bees, they don’t really bother me so I leave them alone. Hornets are different. Death to hornets!!
Beaded chickens? How fancy! 🙂 They all look great, though. I love the colors you’re using. And the bumblebees are so cute! They’re favorites of mine—well, all bees are, really. (Not wasps, but that’s because they’re not cute and fuzzy honey makers.)
The bees really make me happy! I have the lavender plants on the deck this year, and I am getting a lot of bees. I saw today that the largest lavender plants are putting out lots of new flowers, so there are more days of bees ahead. Yay!
Oh, yay! I love bees. One more reason to plant lavender! (Which I also love.)
WOW! Each EMC is prettier than the previous one! Love the beading, too! You’re so creative and thoughtful! Your garden is also gorgeous!
I’m doing a teal multicolored one now and I’m going to struggle another visit to the yarn store. So cute! There are 5 scleroderma patients right now who want chickens, and one is in a pretty extreme clinical trial that involves high doses of chemo. This requires teal chickens for sure!
The lure of the chickens is that they are kind of blank slates that allow me to be as creative as I like while using up yarn from the stash. The colors in the garden right now are giving me lots of chicken ideas, too.
Honestly, who wouldn’t want an ESC? You’ve really hit on something here, Marilyn. They’re whimsical, big enough to hug but not overwhelming, and the colors are cheering. I’m glad you’re feeling better, and I’m also happy to know that you are giving your wrist a rest. Hi Hannah (waving)
Seventeen, eighteen requests? That’s a lot of chickens! I’ve knit two, and I don’t know that I will another. So cute, but work knitting calls…
You’re very kind!
It is a lot of requests, but since I was going to knit 50 chemo hats this year, it really is nothing to switch over to knitting chickens to give away instead. Some of these will be going to the infusion center that the chemo hats and PICC line covers were destined for, so I’m just adjusting to the needs of the center and the patients that they serve.
I’m retired and it is good to have something to do that gives me purpose and fills a clear need in my little scleroderma community, circle of friends and family, and then the larger community.
Talk about work knitting… we need an emotional support octopus, don’t you think?
Oh that’s a funny looking bumble bee, it’s like a big hornet with a fluffy coat on. Our bumble bees here are much fatter and shorter. We get buff tail, yellow tail, white tail bumblebees in our garden. Some are nesting in the front border soil which is a good excuse not to weed the borders 😂. I love the EMCs, hard to pick a favourite as you just keep making them in colours I love. Glad to hear your wrist is a bit better.
A designer bumble bee, maybe? Or a wanna-bee? Sorry. I couldn’t resist saying that. 🙂
😂
An Emotional Support Wanna-Bee? I’m starting to think that I need an emotional support octopus…
Aww. I think you need your own personal Giant Pacific support octopus. It’s arms are guaranteed to give you the suction power you need to help you come to grips with a solution to the pesky situations you’re encountering.
I absolutely need that octopus!!!
Oh I wish I hadn’t zoomed in on that bumblebee picture, yours are far too leggy! (No I don’t know why bug legs creep me out more than the bugs themselves)
18 is a heck of a lot of chickens, I hope there will still be enough room for Hannah and the coalbear when they’re all done!
I jut took more pictures of the bumblebee today, and I couldn’t help seeing those legs…
Those chickens are going out the door as soon as I have mailers for them!!
Sorry if I ruined bumblebees for you!
I did it again – bad fingers! I typed the possessive “its” with an apostrophe in my last comment. Yikes!
Spellcheck does some crazy changes on me, must have been that!
Nope, this one’s on me. You’re very kind, but I have to assume responsibility because I got rid of the annoying spell/grammar check. It’s lost on literary license, British diphthongs, and a host of other oddities that make writing creative.
It absolutely does not work for scientific and medical terms, which is when I really could use some help!
I agree. Frustrating at times, isn’t it?
Beautiful photos of Hannah amid the flowers and bees. I love your chicken color choices. I’ve had the ESC in my knitting queue for a long time—too many knitting projects to add another, but your photos keep it in mind. My husband and son both spend time in infusion centers; I should knit up a couple of chickens for them to take along. Regarding your comment about a knitted octopus, I knit one for my son when he was first diagnosed with MS, and he still keeps it around. I found the “knit octopus” pattern on the Purl Soho site in 2013. It’s a nice huggable size.
https://ravel.me/knittinghiker/ko
(Not sure whether that link will work on this site)
I already have located the yarn for the octopus in the stash. I just have to get some chickens knitted up first…
Woohoo! What color(s) will the octopus be?
I have a ton of hand dyed blue/green/purple lace that I can combine with alpaca/silk lace in glues and greens to give some texture and shine. It will be an awesome octopus!! First, I need to clear out the chickens.
Beautiful! I can’t wait to see the finished product, after the chickens have been sent to their homes to roost.
Wow! Your ES chickens are all so lovely – you have some lucky friends 🙂 You are so kind to share your efforts this way. I know your chickens are going to emotionally support a lot of lucky recipients! Also, lovely photos of Hannah and the bee 🙂
It’s hard to go wrong with the ESC knits. The pattern is so easy to adapt to lots of different color and yarn types/amounts. Walking into the infusion center really motivated me to knit, and then people kept contacting me.