100 raspberry chickens and a second pair of socks

A new year brings new projects and the first to be completed is the order for one hundred raspberry pink chickens for wedding favours at an Easter wedding. After a couple of days I realised that what was needed was a production line with a variety of stages. I assembled the knitted chickens in groups of five at stage one. Stage two involved the sewing up of the finished item, stage three the crocheting of the combs, stage four the sewing on of the comb and the final stage was the felt beak and the stick on eyes. A whole sofa was taken over by a sea of pink but within the week all were finished and packed away to be taken to the bride to be. The project proved to be a learning experience - yet again. My initial thought had been to just get all the knitting over and done with but one hundred chickens in garter stitch was a daunting, and boring task. Breaking the task up into manageable and varied stages was the answer which now seems obvious but didn't at the initial planning stage. Costings also proved an issue. I thought I had costed the materials with accuracy but had somehow neglected the fact that each chicken has 2 eyes and that makes 200 not the 100 I had budgeted for and guesstimates for the number of balls of yarn is not my forte. Time is always a dilemna for the home knitter - if I was making an economic charge for the work then the question would be whether to charge a piece work rate, by the hour, a total for the project? I remember working as a student in a "pot bank" or a manufactuer of pottery items for the non initiated. My job was as a freehand paintress, painting sock and shoes on, ironically, egg cups. As a student I was paid a weekly rate but all the women around me worked on piece work rates and so managed to get through double the number of plankfuls of egg cups that I did. I decided to ignore my inaccuracies in calculating the cost of materials per chicken and put it all down to excellent experience. It was fun and certainly a good topic of conversation. I hope they have a wonderful marriage.

Now that I am free of chickens I can concentrate on the other projects - Charlie's cardigan is making slow progress but I have completed a jumper for Grace and have returned to Jessica's second pair of socks. This time I am trying a different pattern and the two circular needles approach. I am not using proper sock wool but a pretty double knitting which is giving a pleasing effect. This is just another experiment and the socks will never be more than feet warmers on a cold night but a learning experience again and I am feeling the need to learn more and more new things in this new year.