Product Review - Make your own Knitted Chick

On a day out to Malvern we stopped at the retail park to get a bite to eat. Seeing that Poundland was one of the many shops there, I quickly ran in before we went home to pick up some wooden kebab sticks to use as the holder for my make shift weaving loom. Unfortunately, it's not BBQ season yet so they had none in stock.

I had a wonder around regardless to see if they had any other bits and bobs, as crafters do and I found in their easter section this 'Make You Own Knitted Chick', so I bought it to try it out, can't go wrong for a £1.

It reminded me a little of the toys my grandmother used to make and sell at local village hall sales. 

So once we got home, I decided to test it out.

What you get:

1 x large round knitting loom
1 x small round knitting loom
1 x hook
1 x large sewing needle
2 x googley eyes
Yellow wool
Orange Wool
Stuffing
Instructions


First off, the instructions for this are so detailed with images and words. Very easy to follow and on the back they are in Spanish. Excellent start.

Both the knitting looms were so easy to use. Producing quite fast results. Only issue: don't use the hook to harshly as it is liable to snap, try to keep the wool tension to light.

First Steps - Creating the wings and body of the chick

I made the wings first then the body.

I found if you wove the excess wool around the outside of the loom and held it with you thumb underneath, as you moved the loom around your hand, the wool was less likely to unwrap itself from around the loom pegs.

The body here is not the full 15cm recommended in the instruction (more like 10cm) as there wasn't enough wool to do the whole body. Lucky I did the wings first or else it would have been a wingless chick.

Second Steps - Stuffing body and wings then sewing it all together

I stuffed the body then sewed the ends together. I did thread the wool from one end to the other with the needle to round of the bottom edges a little more then in the instructions.

Even though there wasn't enough wool to complete the body, I prefer the look of this body as it is short and chubby like that of a chick anyway. 

Final Step - Feet, Beak and Eyes

Next I made the feet and sewed them on as instructed.

To finish off though, I couldn't bring myself to sew the chicks beak on as the instructions told you too. I shorten the recommended length by 1cm to 3cm. Stuffed the beak and sewed around the edges of the tube to create a beak that stuck out. Much better in my opinion.

The eyes just stuck on but for a more permanent solution I would recommend using PVA or a glue gun to fix them, as the adhesive is not strong enough to last.

The overall product gets an 8/10 and a must do. So simple and easy to use. Project can take between 2-4 hours, possibly longer depending on who's doing it. The only thing I feel that let it down, was not the fact there wasn't enough wool supplied, as this created a pleasing error due to the chubbier body but it was the actual overall design of the finished product which didn't do this product justice. I know it's cheap and cheerful but the beak was just so wrong. 

But it was amended gracefully and I actually ended up with quite a cute looking teddy, which my foster sister now wants to steals. ;)

Once the project has ended, the tools can be used to make other toys. So overall bargain buy, resulting in many other simple and cute teddies. Here's a photo collage of the rabbit I made after finishing this project. A BIG Thumbs up and please don't be put off by the Easter Chicks design.