I don't know how many of you are followers of Menopausal Musing's blog but if you haven't read her last couple of posts - which tell the tale of a well travelled toy chicken - I urge you to pop over and do so. You'll be in for a good laugh.I was reading some of the comments earlier and came across one from Bad Penny which mentioned knitting Ernest an Aran sweater - you'll need to read the post to understand what I am going on about - and I was reminded of an article I had read yesterday in the Waitrose Weekend paper which talked about knitting jumpers for chickens.It seems that these are ex-battery hens which when finally released from their horrific labour camps are almost always bald and whilst their feathers re-grow they need to be kept warm. I searched out the paper and read it again and then checked out the webpage address given. http://www.monktonelmgardencentre.co.uk/ where I found this article:
The great chicken cover up...knitting in somerset....as many hen jumpers as we can.Before we knew it, a film crew came round to our knitting club - to see Dorothy the hen star in her BBC mini-film click on green link to see OUR FILM STARRING DOROTHY (Dorothy belongs to Jenny Armstrong who rescued her
If you would like to knit some hen jumpers, either come to our monthly knitting group Click here for our clubs and classes or knit at home & drop them off at the craft centre, and we will post them on. Click to get the hen jacket pattern.If you would like to find out more about adopting or sponsoring a hen please click on following links:Little Hen RescueBattery Hen Welfare Trust
It was an interesting site with all sorts of crafts and home items for sale as well as courses in crochet, scrapbboking and so on as well as the info about the hen sweaters. As it is not far from where I live I might pop along one of these days to have a look.
If the weather continues like today those chickens will not need jumpers but sun lotion might be more appropriate to prevent sunburn!! But if you feel you'd like to knit some needy hen a warm woolly pop over to the Monkton Elm Garden Centre website for the pattern!