The Emotional Support Chicken has taken the knitting and crochet world by storm! Have you made one, or two, or three yet? If you have no idea what we're talking about, read on.

As of today, there are 4801 knitted Chickens listed on Ravelry (it went up 2 projects in the time I wrote this!). The original 1997 felted chicken pattern by the late Beverly Galaskas was modified by Annette Corsino, who says,

"Life is Hard. We all need a chicken to make it all better!
This is a modification of a pattern by the late Bev Galaskas for Fibertrends called Henrietta and Family. It is written and publshed with permission, and royalties are being paid to Fiber Trends.

You can create your own magical comfort chicken, that doesn’t need a permit to always be with you! It is loveable and huggable and you don’t even have to feed it to love you back!"

Edit: After we posted this blog, Sally wrote in and told us a bit more about the Australian story behind the pattern that Bev Galaskas designed. Sally says, "After the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the local community was in tatters, and as a way to help the kids and the community, a local knitters' group approached the school and asked the kids what they'd like a chook to look like, if they could have one. The kids were given a basic line drawing of the chook with the shaping panels shown, and they coloured them in. The knitters then made the chooks to look like each of the children's versions." You can find more out about it here.

Olga (one of our team) has made several chickens. This one uses: Spinning Yarns Weaving Tales Dooish in colours 3594 Treacle and 3036 Bell Heather

Olga is up to her fourth chicken - this is her first in progress and more waiting to be stuffed (below). She loves doing them as they're a nice filler in between larger projects. She says, "With garter stitch, short rows, and lots of stash busting, they're really fun to make. The pattern is well-written and it's so cute watching what everyone else is making."

To check out other chickens, take a look through the Projects tab on Ravelry. And if you can think up a fabulously pun-ny name (like Starsky 'Hutch' Cluckster or Meggaret Houlihen) then even better!

What you need:

The pattern is designed for 10ply / worsted weight yarn but you can really use anything you like as long as you match the needles to your yarn. All that will change is the size - if you use a thinner yarn it will be smaller. Tweed yarns are perfect or you could hold two 4ply / sockweight yarns together to get a beautifully marled effect at a 10ply gauge. 

To make a 32cm long chicken, the materials you need are:

Knitted version:

• 180m of worsted weight yarn 
• 4.5mm knitting needles

Crochet version:

• 230-270m of worsted weight yarn 
• 3.75mm crochet hook

Plus:

• safety eyes
• stuffing
• tapestry needle

You can find the pattern for the knitted version here, and the crochet version here.

Have a look at these beauties by Marj. She'll have a whole flock soon! 

Laura sent in this pic of her fantastic Emotional Support Chicken. She says, "The most recent one is Hennifer Aniston. I make them for our local hospital, and rainbow was a special request." 

Have you made one? We'd love you to share it with us!