Kiwis! Finally!

Seriously, finally, I'm done with these:

I used 9mm safety eyes for the knit kiwi. It was easy, I just had so many other things going on.

I gotta say, those legs on the knit version, I'm glad I didn't just throw off her design and do i-cord. I had a feeling the texture of those legs was going to be good bird-leg texture, and I was right. I did make one change, I bound off while picking up a loop from my cast on edge, so I wouldn't have to sew the leg together.

I think it worked pretty well. If you do yours this way, stop picking up stitches when you get to the last 5, so you don't join the toes together. Bind off the last 5 stitches in the normal way. No need for a long tail here. You should be able to sew to the bird body with the cast-on tail, unless yours was very short.

I like these bird legs, and I think I may use them the next time I make a chicken. Which, I guess, would also be the first time I make a chicken. At least, one in knit. I've made some very small simple crochet chickens, years ago. Which is weird, because I like chickens. Decorative chickens, that is. (I think I've got just about all the fabric chicken patterns there are, but, oddly, I don't think I've sewn even one. Maybe that will be my next challenge - all chickens, all the time, until I've finished all the patterns in my collections. Might be boring for those that read my blog, but I might enjoy it. Or, I could get thoroughly sick of chickens. Hard to say.)

My crochet kiwi has too long a beak. I thought, briefly, of removing it from the bird, ripping it back a few rounds. But, in the end, why? So it's too long. Big deal. It's done, dangit. If I ever do another, I think I'll stop after 10 rounds.

I did rework the decreases, staggering them so it's more rounded and less angled and pointy.

And on the last round, instead of decreasing, I just sc in every other stitch - I tried decreasing, but the space was so small. I considered just closing it up instead of working another round. I think you could do either way with that.

Knit kiwi yarn: Vanna in Rust & Mustard. Crochet kiwi yarn: LB Cotton-Ease in Stone, and, I think, Sugar 'n Cream in Cream (lost the label).