Knitting Shaun the Sheep socks

(This post is an English version of the Finnish/Swedish one which is to be published in a moment...)

Hi! 

First time blogging in English... but don’t get too used to it, at the same time this is a last finishing challenge for my blog that I’ve been writing in my two mother tongues, Finnish and Swedish, to friends and family back in Finland while living in Germany ;) The blog has been a fun project, and through the years I have shared insights on both scout events and entomological PhD research, handicrafts and various small everyday phenomena. 

In this post I want to share a lovely knitting pattern that I found in another Finnish blog, “Lempipäiväni tänään” (My favourite day today) by the blogger Maiju. In her blog she describes a pattern for children’s socks, looking like the cute cartoon character Shaun the Sheep, and immediately I wanted these for myself as well, in grownup size. As a beginner at knitting I spent quite some time figuring out how to make the socks larger… and once the work was done anyway, I decided to share it – these socks deserve to be made! 

Why in English? Because so many of my international friends have been wondering, what I’ve been knitting on long train rides or at scouty campfire evenings at Rieneck Castle ;)

Just a brief word of warning: I have never written any knitting patterns before, in any language. I can barely read patterns myself, with the help of a vocabulary. This said, I hope that my pattern can be understood at all…

As I wrote, the original pattern is not my own – a great thanks goes to Maiju, whose lovely socks have already warmed many cold toes both in Germany and in Finland :)

Shaun the Sheep socks

Models: Model A is closest to Maiju’s original model: the black sheep face starts after the heel, and the ears hang on either side of the head. Looks a bit dangerous, but so far I have not yet heard that anyone would have stumbled on the ears. You learn pretty quickly how to walk carefully with the socks.

Model A, the original patternby Maiju

I got the idea for Model B from a practical scout friend: what if each sock only had one ear, on the outer side of the foot, so that both feet together form one big sheep? That should make the socks a little safer…

Model B, two socks - one sheep

Model C was Maiju’s own idea. In her blog she proposes, that the socks could be made safer by starting with the black yarn already at the ankle so that the ears would be positioned higher up. Now I’ve tried it out!

Model C, safety first :)

Size:  A ”grownup sock”, my own foot is EU size 37/38 (US 6,5-7,5), and the sock would have room for a little larger feet as well.

Material and starting loops: I used a little bit different yarns for the different socks, whatever I happened to have in my yarn basket! For the traditional Finnish “7 veljestä” –yarn from Novita (100g/200m) I used 3,5mm needles (UK 10, US 4) and started with 48 loops (12 on each needle). With a little thinner, unknown yarn I used 2,5 mm needles (UK 12, US 1,5) and cast on 60 looks (16/12/16/16). In her instructions, Maiju reminds the reader that the number of loops needs to be a multiple of four (because of the tuck stitches, see below)! I crocheted the eyes with a crochet hook number 2,5 (at least the thicker yarn, it could be I used a smaller hook for the thin yarn). 

Instructions:

1. I first knitted 12  rounds 2/2 ribbing, that is, always ”knit two, purl two”.

2. The leg of the sock continues with ”tuck stitches”, a fascinating drop-and-unravel stitch that was completely new for myself! Luckily “Knit Purl Hunter” has made a good how-to –video on the stitch. I myself knitted 7–9 “bubble layers”, until the total length of the leg was about 16 cm, and after the last layer of bubbles I just knitted one additional round. 

3. Maiju’s pattern has ribbing behind the ankle, which was also new for me. A good idea, especially for socks with a little “heavier” leg, like these ones! If you want the ears at ankle height [model C] switch to black yarn at this point!

-          Start the ribbing on the first needle: knit two together through the back loop, and then purl two together. Continue with *knit one through the back loop, purl one* until the end of the first needle (10 loops with the “7 veljestä”-yarn).

-          [Models A and B]: continue knitting layers of tuck stitch with the 2^nd and 3^rd needle (24 loops)

-          [Model C]: continue knitting with the 2^nd and 3^rd needle.

-          4^th needle: *knit one through the back loop, purl one* until only 4 loops remain on the needle. knit two together through the back loop, and then purl two together. (10 loops)

-          At this point I had 10/12/12/10 loops on my needles (and 14/12/16/14 when I used thinner yarn).

-          Continue 1/1 ribbing (without knitting any loops together, the number of loops remains the same!) on the 1^st and the 4^th needle, and tuck stitch [A & B] or knitting [C] on the 2^nd and the 3^rd needle.

-          [Model A and B]: continue with the ribbing until you have two layers of bubbles on the front of the sock.

-          [Model C]: continue ribbing for 16 rounds

4. Time for the heel! I myself use a simple heel from a German sock knitting booklet I have, but it is basically the same pattern that can be found on the “Hands Occupied” blog, divided into a heel flap, turn and gusset. The heel is knitted on the 1^st and the 4^th needle. [Model A & B]: continue with tuck stitch on the 2^nd and 3^rd needle. I ended up with 1–2 additional layers of bubbles here, depending on sock. [Model C]: continue knitting on the 2^nd and 3^rd sock.

5. After the gusset I once again had 48 loops divided evenly on four needles (60 loops when using the thinner yarn, now 15 loops per needle). [Model A and B]: switch to black yarn at this point.

6.  Continue knitting rounds until the foot is about 17 cm long (or long enough to cover the little toe). In my socks, that was about 30 rounds.

7.  Finish the sock with a simple toe, such as the one from “Hands Occupied”

8. Next I knitted the ears following Maiju’s instructions. I cast on 18 loops of black yarn on three needles (21 loops with thinner yarn) and started by knitting 9 rounds. After that, I increased with one loop on every second needle (that is, 1 or 2 new loops per round) until I had a total of 27 (30) loops. Then I continued knitting up to a total of 20 (23) rounds. After that, it was time to decrease towards the tip of the ear: at the end of each needle, I knitted two loops together until only 6 loops remained in total, which I could easily sew closed. Last I sewed together about 1 cm from the beginning of the ear to make a “stalk” for the ear. I waited with sewing on the ears to the socks until the eyes were done, so that I could more easily see how it all would fit together.  

9.  Only the eyes left! A post by TheSpruce Crafts shows how to crochet circles. For me, a 3,5 cm diameter for the white circles and a 1,5 cm diameter for the black circles worked perfectly, but by changing those measurements your sock sheep can get a totally different expression!

10.  Sew on the ears and the eyes on the socks with a big-eyed darning needle. I had to do this several times, sewing and unraveling, because some ear or an eye was always hanging weirdly when I pulled on the socks. This last drop of patience however pays off in the end, because it is exactly the eyes and the ears that make these socks so cute!

Here you’ll find all the instruction links in one place. While you may not be able to understand the Finnish or Swedish instructions, they all have videos/pictures that you might find helpful!:

Maiju’s original Shaun the Sheep Sock pattern (in Finnish): 

http://lempipaivanitanaan.blogspot.com/2015/12/late-lammas-kuplasukat.html

Tuck stitch: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xykq6DxjtJc&feature=youtu.be

Tuck stitch (in Finnish, “kuplaneule”): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CXY67faxno

Tuck stitch (in Swedish, ”sjömansbubblor”): 

https://www.garnstudio.com/video.php?id=262&lang=se

Gusset heel:

https://www.handsoccupied.com/knit-along-day-2-heel-flap/

http://www.handsoccupied.com/knit-along-day-3-heel-turn/

https://www.handsoccupied.com/knit-along-day-4-the-gusset/

Heel and toes (in Finnish): 

https://yhteishyva.fi/artikkeli/villasukan-kantapaa-kolme-ohjetta/article-77624

Heel (in Swedish, ”klassisk häl”): 

https://hjalpstickan.se/halskolan-klassisk-hal/

Toes: https://www.handsoccupied.com/knit-along-day-5-the-toe/

Toes (in Swedish): http://www.my-design.se/sticka-strumpor/

Crocheting circles (the eyes): 

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-crochet-a-circle-4051535

Crocheting circles (the eyes, in Finnish): 

http://www.ullaneule.net/0214/artikkelit_ympyranvirkkaaminen.html

Crocheting circles (the eyes, in Swedish):   

http://www.jarbo.se/virkskola-del-3/