For the past 7 years or so I have been working with an amazing art studio here in Kansas City by the name of The City Girl Farm. They are the home of the original chicken footstool! If you’re intrigued, so was I!
Years ago I saw an ad at my favorite local yarn store advertising for “Contract Chicken Feather Knitters needed.” Wouldn’t your curiosity have been piqued? It took a while, but I eventually got a phone call and went to the studio to meet the “chickeners.” So what they have created for many, many years are chicken footstools. The chickens have wood bodies, and brass feet and beaks. They are then covered in wood and muslin to add padding, and finally covered in a variety of wool treatments. Each chicken is unique and they are truly art pieces.
The wool treatments fall into two types: felting and knitting. I was not a felter (though their work is amazing!) but I primarily worked as a knitter, creating all kinds of feathers and coverings for the chicken bodies. Occasionally I spun the yarn that I knit, but most often it was spun by talented art yarn spinners in a variety of textures.
Sadly, in 2025 the owner of the City Girl Farm decided to close the studio so the business is no more. But before the year was over, I got a chance to make a chicken for myself! It actually took me more than a year to even decide what I wanted to do, and then probably another year to actually spin and knit the yarn I wanted. In the end I used a combination of handspun Hello Yarn fiber in the colorway Enchilada Night. Then I added some of Ross Fiber Farms sport weight Shetland for some pinstriping in the feathers. I spun a variety of yarns and knit them in different ways and then one of my fellow chickeners artfully arranged my pieces onto the body. Yet another lovely human sewed everything into place and brought her to me just a few days ago.
I think her name is Rita (short for Margarita) and I love her. This whole seven years has been such a delightful creative process. When I design knitting patterns, or tech edit, or knit samples, or do any of the things I do in my day job, accuracy and organization is important. Everything has to fit and the math has to math. The City Girl Farm was a place where I took my left-brained self to enjoy the company of so many lovely right-brained folks. It was a little more free form and the more creative the idea, the better. It was such a lovely group of women, all artists in their own right, and such an amazing community to be a part of. I am SO sorry that this chapter of my life is coming to an end, but I will always have Rita and so many amazing memories.
