I’m so excited to have a new addition to the PlanetJune Farmyard today, and a new addition to my crochet patterns inspired by fibre-producing animals…

Farmyard Sheep is a mix-and-match pattern that lets you choose the options you want, to make different types of rams, ewes and lambs:

• Horns: Add horns for a ram, or leave them off for most ewes and all lambs.
• Horn length: To make shorter horns, stop crocheting whenever the horns reach the length you prefer!
• Tail: You can choose to leave off the tail entirely.
• Contrast colours: You can choose to make the fleece a different colour from the other body parts, or make the entire sheep in a single colour. You can also choose to make the hooves in a separate colour (to match the horns, if your sheep has horns!), or to have self-coloured hooves.

You choose! Make any of my pictured options in any colour(s), or assemble your own custom sheep and lambs from the included options – it’s up to you.

About the Design

This pattern has been a long time coming – I’ve been adding to my notes with ideas for my sheep design since 2014 (that’s 11 years)! In that time I’ve tried several times to try to figure out how to make the fleece, but although my ideas all sounded promising on paper, none of them gave me a result I was happy with.

In the end, after a lot of experimentation, I developed my own crochet stitch to create a fleece that had specific properties I couldn’t find anywhere else:

• crocheted as you go
• finely textured surface
• firm amigurumi-style fabric
• no gaps between stitches where stuffing will peek out

I’ve called the end result the pip stitch, as it creates very small bobbles on the surface without forming a loose or gappy fabric. But even that wasn’t the end of the story; I still needed to figure out how to use this stitch to create the sheep design of my dreams, and that took the best part of another year to get right!

My first prototype looked very realistic, but just didn’t have my trademark PlanetJune cuteness, so it was back to the drawing board until I could find my signature blend of cuteness and realism… and I’m thrilled with the result! I actually gasped aloud when I added the nose and saw that adorable little face looking back at me for the first time.

And I’m delighted to report that those impressively-curved horns are achieved without any wires. All you need is yarn, a crochet hook, and a little technique magic – you’re going to love how it works!

Design Reflections

There is a magic in design… It doesn’t come easy for me – creating clear instructions is my natural forte, not imagination – but I keep going, trying different things and tweaking my prototypes until it all comes together and it suddenly becomes exactly what it was always supposed to be. Although I don’t know it until I see it, suddenly it’s completely obvious: how could a PlanetJune sheep look any way other than this?

From the end result, it looks simple and straightforward, but you can’t see the 90% of mistakes and failed attempts that form the hidden mass of my design icebergs. But the delight when it all comes together makes it all worthwhile – there’s no other feeling like this!

Ready to Crochet?

You can pick up the Farmyard Sheep pattern from my shop right now and start on your own cute spring lamb or curly-horned ram in your favourite sheep colours!

Or, if you’re not ready to buy just yet, please add my Farmyard Sheep to your queue or favourites on Ravelry, so you don’t forget about it:

I hope you’ll enjoy my Farmyard Sheep pattern as much as I enjoyed designing it! Which version is your favourite?