Skip to main content

The Chicken

Image
By

 Last summer, a woman posted a photo on our ward FB page:



I waited a while to see if anyone else would respond.  I had just finished my year-long afghan (which I gave to Teresa) and was feeling pretty confident that I could crochet anything.  When nobody else responded, I told her that I would be willing to give it a try.

Let me tell you: it's a much different thing, following a pattern and creating a pattern.  I had looked so simple in the picture, but as I tried to reproduce it, I had problems.  I put it on the shelf (literally) for months.  Yes, I was so worried about something happening to this family heirloom that I kept it in a Ziploc baggie on a high shelf above my Polish pottery.

A few weeks ago, Amy reached out to me, asking me how it was going.  I can't blame her--I'd had the thing since August.  I determined then and there that either I would have one made by the end of the week or I would give it back to her to find someone else.

Several months ago, my Young Women class hosted an activity on goal setting.  It was a fantastic activity with Isabelle, our president leading it.  She taught us about "watermelon goals" and "watermelon seed goals".  Watermelon goals are the big ones: learn a new language, build a house, lose 50 pounds.  Goals that are typically never ending and which sometimes lead us to feeling bad about ourselves because we can't accomplish them.  Watermelon seed goals, however, are doable.  Learning some phrases in a new language, learning how to use a nail gun, starting an exercise program.  

So when I looked at my daunting chicken, I realized that she was a watermelon--so much to learn--but taking apart the chicken were the seed goals.  I needed to figure out how to crochet the head, the body, and make a pom pom tail.  Then I could take those three pieces and complete the larger goal.  So I took it apart.

I thought I could just crochet the head in a circle, but it left a hold in the middle.  Enter the "magic ring", a way to crochet a round without a hold in the middle.  It took me all of ten minutes to figure it out.  Then, I could make a rectangular body, but I couldn't figure out to squeeze the top row.  It took me a moment to look at the body a different way, like a beanie, with a gathered top row.  Yep.  Ten minutes to figure that out too.  And then I've made pom poms before, so it wasn't hard.  In 24 hours, I had the chicken made!  I couldn't even contain my excitement last night after I embroidered the details and put the plastic egg in.  It wasn't almost identical!

My chicken, and the original chicken

So today I took the chicken to church, and I saw Sister Romney up practicing with the choir.  I held up the chicken, and the look on her face was priceless.  When I brought it over to her after sacrament meeting, she got emotional.  And I felt all those feelings.  She feels like it's a big inconvenience for me, but for me, it's been such a creative outlet for me.  The challenge of figuring out how to make something beautiful has been wonderful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By
I'm writing this, not as a complaint, but as a plea.  If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it. My children are talented.  In fact, every child that I have ever met is talented in some way.  That's the fun thing about meeting kids--discovering those hidden talents. Some of the talents my children possess are very public--you guessed it...music.  Some aren't so public--kindness and generosity. My kids are frequently judged by other children because of their musical talents.  Other kids see them as "snobs" because they play their instruments well and because they are willing to share those talents whenever asked. My kids never play with arrogance.  They recognize that they are better at music than most kids their age, but they never, ever show it.  In fact, they are very generous with compliments towards other kids and their efforts with music.  I have raised them to appreciate anyone who tries to do anything with music--it's ...
9 comments
Read more

Redefining Charity

By
I like attending church on Sunday for many different reasons, but I dislike the meetings for one very large reason:  discussions regarding charity. In case you don't remember your Sunday School lessons, charity is defined as the pure love of Christ.  If you were to actually look up the word in a dictionary, it would say, "See John Kennedy". That's right.  My wonderful husband is the perfect embodiment of charity. His life basically moves from one charitable act to another. Take any given Saturday.  He can found building some large structure on our property because I think we need it.  He can be found, rebuilding a pond for an old Indian woman who lives alone and needs some help.  On his way to a church picnic, he will stop to help an old woman reseal her driveway, missing one of his favorite meals in the world:  a POTLUCK! Other days?  He stops to help any person on the side of the road with car troubles. He'll drive 2.5 hours to a ...
7 comments
Read more

The TOOTH that Broke the Camel's Back

By
1.  Take an already busy doctor and install an EMR (Electronic Medical Record) in his office.  Kiss him goodnight at midnight as he begins to "preload" charts for future visits. 2.  Host a general authority of the church for our stake conference this weekend.  Receive a long "to do" list of jobs just five days before the conference. 3.  Feel stress because John is stressed.  Try to do his jobs around the house so that he doesn't have to worry about them. 4.  Have 16 puppies. 5.  Decide to build outside area for puppies.  Borrow backhoe from neighbor.  Watch John work long past the setting sun, and wake up before anyone else to dig. 6.  Use our own tractor to move the dirt.  Watch bucket malfunction, cut the fuel line and destroy the fuel pump.  Try to catch the leaking diesel fuel in a bucket. 7.  Catch cold last weekend.  Dread colds like a hemophiliac dreads a small cut.  Nurse fever, congestio...
8 comments
Read more