7 Knit Bird Nests for Wildlife Rescue

I belong to a stitch group at a local library and the librarian in charge of the group was asked by a wildlife rescue group to ask the members of our group to knit or crochet bird nests🐦. I Googled about making bird nests and found out that this is a real need in many states and other countries too. Who knew? They not only use the nests for birds, but small animals too like mice, etc. Google to find out where the nests are needed in your area and most offer free patterns on their sites too.

What all the wildlife organizations out there mentioned in their websites and on the bird nest patterns was to use double yarn (2 worsted weight yarns held together when knitting or crocheting). Worsted weight is probably the best weight to use. Most said acrylic yarns was best, or wool and most said cotton was the least favorite. They need to be washed, so that is probably why acrylic is best to use. Wool can felt, which might make a nice nest, but it will become a smaller nest too. All sizes of nests were needed, with about a 4" base for most. 

They ask for a double yarn to make a firm nest without any holes (so tiny feet and beaks don't get caught) and so when the birds get bigger they can hop up on the rim of the nest and it won't collapse, but will suppose their weight. 

I knit these nests. I wanted to crochet a few too, but I cannot get the hang of crocheting 15 stitches into a circle to get started and I have trouble seeing the stitches and where the round begins and ends. Even if I am supposed to chain 2 stitches at the beginning or the end, and if I use a stitch marker in crochet, it is one of those safety pin kind of markers, I am still not sure where to place it each time, since I am supposed to chain 2 stitches and not sure if it goes before or after the 2 chain stitches, 😜? I can crochet the stitches just fine, but the beginning and ending of a round or a row gets me stumped as where it is and those stitches are confusing to me, since most of the time you skip the first stitch and crochet in the next, but I am never quite sure if I am skipping an actual stitch or what? I prefer knitting as the stitches are all on a needle and easy to tell they are a stitch and I use a ring marker that stays on the needle and only gets slipped onto the needle as I knit and doesn't need to be pinned on the stitches and repined every time I do a stitch at the marker. It looks so easy when I watch a video online, but most go so fast that I just cannot watch what they are doing and then try to do what they did to get that ring started. I need someone in person to help me. I know I will never be a crocheter for most things.

Anyhow, back to the knit nests. Here is what I knit and they knit up quickly. I made 7 nests to donate. Great for using up miscellaneous yarn. These aren't easy to photograph, so I took photos of the top looking into the nests, the bottom of the nest when flipped over and from the side so you could get the idea better.

Nests all stacked up.

Looking down inside some nests.

Inside the nests.

Side view.

Bottom of nests. These were knit with wool yarn.

These are wool yarn nests showing the nest bottoms.

This actually is 2 cotton knit pint ice cream cozies I knit a long time ago and they didn't quite fit the cartons of ice cream. So I placed one inside the other and sewed them together to give them the double thickness for the birds and rolled the top down. Rather a bird use this so it doesn't go to waste.

Side view.

2 acrylic nests.

Bottom of nests.

Side of nests.

Happy bird nest knitting or crocheting.

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