Spring is for the birds-literally!

Finally it is beginning to feel warmer! Bird watching is a daily event at our house with bird feeders outside the front room window and kitchen window at the back. A friend of mine makes Chubby Chirps (little knitted birds) for friends and I decided to try one also. I wanted to make a bluebird for my sister and thought this would be a challenge, so I began with a male cardinal-- all red should be easy.

Then I made a baby chick, next a female cardinal--you see where this is going. The bluebird was an interesting challenge to incorporate the different colors. Baby chick isn't in the picture, he went to live with a former student, who just happens to have chickens who were once chicks. Now they make the most marvelous eggs--which are great for baking brioche! That is another story.

Here, from left to right are the bluebird, male cardinal,
female cardinal and a red-bellied woodpecker!

Male and female cardinal.

My sister loves bluebirds. Her bird houses have seen many families of bluebirds over the years. This one is the second bluebird I made. In the first I used 'duplicate stitch' to overlay the colors on top of the blue body. On this one, I knitted the colors in as I created the body. I like that process better. None of these birds came with color directions. For that I rely on my copy of Peterson's Field Guide to Birds of Eastern  and Central North America and the internet.

The red-bellied woodpecker has just a tinge of pinkish-red on the underbelly, rarely seen. The female may not have any red at all on the belly, but the males have the most fabulous red on the back of the head and a zebra-stripped back.

The red-headed woodpecker is solid black on the back, not zebra-stripped. The bald eagle used up some chunkier yarn knit on larger needles, so he is enormous by comparison to his little buddies.

OK, who's next?