Toft - Blog Posts

Aimée the Sheep

Made using a kit from TOFT.

It's limited edition but if you're familiar with their body construction you can probably very easily recreate it. The only 'special ingredient' is La Bien Aimee Confetti Cake yarn - it's also the main reason for the kit being on the expensive side I guess. The yarn came in hank and I was dreading it based on my previous experience but it turned out that DK weight yarn was significantly easier to untangle than sock weight. 😌

You can also still get the Sheep magazine with patterns (including previously featured Seth and Tobias) if you do want/need a pattern.

I've not got super much to say about this one to be honest... I forgot to put in the safety eyes so it's a bit of blue sparkly Rico yarn which I think suits her. I made bulk of the body in a queue waiting for a sample sale and I thought it was quite solid but upon inspection later the holes between stitches were once again HUMONGOUS. Thank sheep god for the fleece on top, and a note to self to pay more attention and keep my tension *tight* (but then relax it for granny squares, I started one and it's a wrinkly mess 🫠).

The project helped me overcome my hate on hanks and the yarn seemed like a qualitt product, it's a serious contender if I ever need to make a Quality gift. 👌

Anywho, here's a pic of all three existing sheep I made (Seth and Tobias post). No denying that Seth is still the most bombastic.

Why do they make me think of Will and Hannibal with Abigail? 🥺

tl;dr i finished two sheep from TOFT (Seth the Wensleydale and Tobias the Hebridean) and this is what they look like

Things that went well:

I think they are very cute and I 💖 them, I guess that's the most important : )

I'm glad I changed the colour palette for Tobias, crocheting so much in a dark yarn would have been hell even with my new neck light

Safety eyes, look much cuter than the pattern. I wish the toft patterns had more instructions on where to place the eyes, I go through A LOT of trial and error. :|

I added a second coat of sligtly longer chains to Tobias' fleece and I think it was a good decision, he looked hella flat otherwise (and it wasn't actually that much more work).

Seth has very fun texture! Reading the pattern I could not imagine how a chain you work back down can become fleece but in the end it's even more extreme than the picture. Leading to:

Things that did not go so well:

Holy fuck did I use A LOT of yarn on Seth. Obviously I misinterpreted something in the instructions about curliness or density but if I only used the 50g provided I think he would have looked patchy AF? In the end I think I used 50g just on the head, and about 125g in total - needing not one but TWO deliveries (since I thought extra 50g would do... idiot). I could tell early on it looks different but obviously was too stubborn to undo what's already been done. I'd like to say I'm gonna learn something from this but I'm not gonna sit here and lie. 😑

Black yarn fortunately means no one can see stitches on Tobias' horns, not just me. 🙄 I felt like I followed all instructions and even made 3 of each just to test if I fucked up by accident but all of them ended up looking a bit off.

Future improvements

I want to learn different ways to do a decrease (sc2tog), or maybe figure out how I'm doing it wrong - it always stands out and looks like shit. The fleece helped hide it in this instance but I won't always be so lucky...

I need more patience when sewing things together, or I'll never make anything that looks straight ahead. 💀

Fortunately I found both a crochet class from end of March and a stitch circle in my local library that just started mid-Jan so I should be able to bother some people irl for advice when a pattern does not make sense to me and just as a second pair of eyes. :')