Crochet Easter Chick Shakers

My idea: some sort of small chick stuffed with poly-fil that would hold an Easter egg filled with something to make noise. A chick shaker! Or a noise maker?

I knew it would be a great addition to my son’s Easter basket. Although they may be more suitable for tiny tots, my son loves anything that makes noise so this was the perfect little something for him. I got started as soon as I got up and finished 3 last night!

If you’re like me and Easter has popped up out of nowhere, you can definitely whip a few of these up in an evening. They’re really easy and you can use what ever scrap yarn you have! I used a cotton yarn for the yellow one and acrylic worsted weight for the blue and pink one.

I used the scrap yarn I had on hand, and the light pink one happened to be really old scrap yarn. I’m mostly certain it is Red Heart Super Saver.

I remember it being the first yarn I used when I started crocheting at 8 years old. And yes, this yarn was the same yarn I actually worked with 18 years ago.

Long story short – my mom hoards yarn whenever it goes on clearance. There was probably a tote full of this light pink color and I still happened to have some of it. Isn’t that crazy?!

To keep it relevant, although it was a worsted weighted yarn it seemed a bit thicker than the blue color I used, which was also Red Heart Super Saver. I actually had to remove a row or two to keep it the same size as the other two. So depending what yarn you use or what you have in your scraps, your chicks may vary in size. If you have bulky or chunky yarn, I encourage you to try that to make a larger chick! Only thing you will have to do is use an H or I hook.

So I started with the yellow guy. I used safety eyes because I had a bunch laying around. If you don’t have safety eyes on hand, you can sew on the eyes using a french knot. I wanted to make another with a different face, so next came the blue chick with the happy eyes. I was on a roll and three seemed to be a good number, so I also made a light pink one with eyelashes to add a feminine touch.

These chicks are only made with single crochets. You will also need to know how to increase and invisible decrease, which are simple concepts:

increase – SC twice into the same space

invisible decrease – insert hook into front loop only, yarn over, pull through, insert hook into next front loop, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through both loops.

*If you know how to decrease, the invisible decrease is the same as a decrease except you only work into the front loops. It makes your work look much cleaner!

Here are the materials I used and the basic pattern for the chicks:

Worsted weight yarn

G hook

Safety eyes (optional)

Small plastic easter eggs

Rice, Beans, Beads, etc. to fill the eggs

Tape

Poly-fil 

*If you don’t have stuffing on hand or don’t want to buy a bag just for this project, you can rip up cotton balls and use that as stuffing or even scrap yarn if you have enough*

Scissors

Tapestry needle for sewing

Pattern – worked in rounds

Row 1: Starting with a magic ring, SC 8 in the ring, join

Row 2: increase in each stitch around, join

Row 3: *SC, increase, repeat from * around, join

Row 4: *SC in next 2 stitches, increase, repeat from * around, join

Row 5: *SC in next 3 stitches, increase, repeat from * around, join

Row 6-16: SC in each stitch around, join

Row 17: *SC in next 3 stitches, invisible decrease, repeat from * around, join

Row 18: SC in each stitch around, join

At this point you will want to sew on your eyes and/or attach the safety eyes onto the chick. For the safety eyes, I placed the eyes between rows 14 and 15. You can add eyelashes if you’d like. 

If you’re using the safety eyes with the eyelashes, sew on the eyelashes first! What I did was place my safety eyes where I liked them then stitched a small horizontal line and a small diagonal line coming out from the space where I wanted to place my eyes. Then I attached the safety eyes.

For the happy eyes, I sewed on upside down V’s between rows 15 and 17.

You will also need to sew on the beak. I sewed the beak on with a tapestry needle between rows 10 and 13 using a running stitch vertically coming down to one point then horizontally to bring it all together on the top..

You will also want to place your egg and stuffing inside the chick at this point and continue to stuff as you go.

To make the shaker inside, I took an empty plastic Easter egg and filled the bottom portion with rice. I used beans and beads for the other two. You can fill it with what ever you have laying around the house that will make noise when you shake the egg. I used packing tape to make sure the content stayed inside and then placed it in the chick with the poly-fil.

Row 19: *SC in next 2 stitches, invisible decrease, repeat from * around, join

Row 20: SC in each stitch around, join

Row 21: SC in next stitch, invisible decrease, repeat from * around, join

Row 22: Invisible decrease around, join

Fasten off, make sure you have enough poly-fil/stuffing inside and then sew up the hole. I didn’t stuff mine too tightly, I wanted to make it soft and squishy.

For the hair, I cut 6-7 pieces of yarn and tied them to the top.  The pieces were about 6 inches so I had to trim them down. I found that using smaller pieces of yarn made it very hard to tie/attach to the top.