This pattern is retired and not usually available. However, I make many of my retired patterns available for a few days twice a year, and this is one of those times! It will be available from now through some time on Monday, December 2. Then it will go away again.

In the summer of 2022, I realized that I found maintaining a back catalog of hundreds of patterns overwhelming. I couldn’t do it and still release new things. So I took my old patterns down so I could keep doing new work.

A few favorites have come back, and lots of new things have come out! But the vast majority of the old patterns are retired and are no longer generally available.

However, enough folks have asked about old favorites that I make many of the retired patterns available for a few days twice a year (usually in early summer and around Thanksgiving).

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available!
• If you don’t see the buy buttons on this page, then it’s not currently available.
• If you want to hear when the retired patterns are available, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

Cracked adjective broken so that the surface is fissured

It’s ok. Either you looked at this, thought ‘huh, weird, what happened to that poor egg,’ or you thought ‘yup, that’s exactly what I need in my life right now, a whole bunch of them, as soon as possible.’ And either one is ok!

If you’re team no thanks, it’s totally cool. There are many other wonderful things out there waiting for your yarn and your time and your skills.

If you’re team yes please, we’re going to have some fun. Because while these are absolutely not practical in any way shape or form, they are an awfully good distraction. And I suspect I’m not the only one who could use a distraction right now.

What to do with the sweet, silly little things:

• I mean clearly at least some of them are destined for easter baskets…let’s get that out of the way up front
• Hang them from a branch (bonus points if it’s covered in flowers) and have the coolest flower arrangement ever
• Make a wreath or a garland
• Totally win your spring brunch or egg hunt (you know, once we’re allowed to do such things again) with absolutely competitive levels of cute

Your imagination is the limit here. I suspect you already have a whole host of ideas for exactly how you could use a few of these!

The pattern is tremendously detailed and gives you lots of possible variations to experiment with. There are three different stitch patterns, and several size options to fit everything from chicken eggs from the grocery store to goose or duck eggs if you want to get a bit fancy (mine are shown on duck eggs, which are surprisingly easy to find at your local farm stand or natural foods store).

It’s quick knitting (each one takes just a few hours). Each egg needs about 25 yards of yarn (and you’ll want to use a fairly thin yarn so you’ve got room to show off your pretty stitch work on something this size).

The only special equipment you’ll need is the eggs. You can use chicken, duck, or goose eggs, and you can either blow your own (blog post about that over here) or buy them pre-cleaned from places like etsy. Depending on the vibe you’re going for, you could even use plastic ones (I recommend against using ceramic or wooden ones because they’re a bit too heavy for the delicate knitting to support).

And just in case you’re feeling a bit nervous, the pattern includes a lengthy photo tutorial to walk you through every step of the process. There are all sorts of helpful tips on everything from how to deal with your eggs to how to block the pieces to how and when to weave in your ends. It’s almost absurdly detailed, but it really does mean you can totally make these!

These are perfect for you if:

• You completely understand that these are wildly impractical…and you don’t care even a little bit
• You suddenly find you have an awful lot of eggs on hand, and maybe a bit more spare time than you’re used to, and you could really sort of use a distraction

They’re not for you if:

• You don’t like charts (the pattern uses charts)
• You’re looking for something somber or practical