at long last

 I finally finished the knitted chicken for my niece. This is the third one I've made (I made one back in May for myself, I made one this summer for a colleague with an awful schedule, and now I made one for my niece.

I was anxious about getting it done; her birthday is Saturday and of course I had to build in travel time for the chicken (I sent it UPS; it was expensive but they will also pack it in an appropriate sized box)

I got all the knitting done last night but ran out of steam for  sewing it up. Here it is "spatchcocked" (not shown: comb, wattle, and underbelly)

I managed to get home early enough today to sew it up and wrap it, and write out the card, and then get it out to the UPS place on the other side of town. Too late for it to go out today, but it'll get on their truck tomorrow. The woman said it would most likely get there by Friday, I have a tracking number I can check

 

 I think is came out pretty well but I'm glad to be done with these, at least for a while. That's a LOT of garter stitch, which gets tedious to do

 

I hope she likes it. She's going to be 13, which is a tricky age: some thirteen year olds want to be VERY grown-up and don't like to be reminded that not so very long ago, they were children. 

Then again, she is in 4-H and one of her specialties is raising chickens, and this is almost as much a cushion as it is a soft toy, so maybe it will be okay.

I'm happy to make gifts when they are appreciated but I admit it's also nice to get back to my own knitting