Muir Sally - Knit Your Own Farm

For LucyKnit your own Farm is the newest addition to our menagerie of knitted animals. As children we both used to play with Britains Farm Toys, endlessly making and remaking our farmyards now we can do it all over again with the knitted version. We have provided a whole smallholdings worth of animals for you to knit, from the very simple and tiny to the large and complicated. We have also designed a range of baby animals to go with their parents so that you can make farmyard families of pigs, sheep, geese and chickens. We hope that you will want to knit yourself a whole flock of sheep, clutch of chickens, farrow of piglets or raffle of turkeys (which is the collective noun, allegedly). If you want something simple to start off with, we would recommend one of the babies the piglet, gosling, lamb or chick.

The one-colour animals such as the pig, sheep, rabbit, rat, silkie, llama, goat and goose are also simple. Then if you are ready to tackle something more complicated, we would suggest the cat, horse, hen, donkey, sheepdog, cow, calf and bull, before working up to the more complex Highland cow (not difficult, but a lot of loopy stitch), cockerel (quite a few body parts) and turkey (lots of body parts and a big job to assemble). As with all our patterns, you can make them your own; in fact, we hope that you do use larger needles and thicker wool and you will have a larger animal; make them with your own leftover yarns and your own choice of markings and in any colours youd like. Wed love to see what you do with the patterns, so do send us any photos of your own versions. As before, these arent toys and we use pipecleaners to strengthen the legs and make horns etc, so dont give them to children to play with you could leave the pipecleaners out, but without the pipecleaners its hard to get the animals to stand up. Joanna and Sally

A most useful animal, the cow is raised for both meat and milk, as well as for leather. Joanna and Sally A most useful animal, the cow is raised for both meat and milk, as well as for leather.

In the Hindu religion the cow is considered a sacred beast, a symbol of wealth and strength, and deserving of the same respect as your mother. In India, cows wander the streets of all cities and seem to have priority over the cars and rickshaws; it is a criminal offence to harm a cow. Cows sleep for a mere four hours a day.

Many different techniques are used to knit the cow, but its not too difficult. Length: 27cm (10in) Height to top of head: 19cm (7in) Pair of 3mm (US 3) knitting needles Double-pointed 3mm (US 3) knitting needles (for tail and for holding stitches) 15g (oz) of Rowan Pure Wool DK in Black 004 (bl) 30g (1oz) of Rowan Pure Wool DK in Snow 012 (sn) 5g (oz) of Rowan Pure Wool DK in Dew 057 (de) 2 pipecleaners for legs Crochet hook for tail See . See for . See for . See for . With bl, cast on 11 sts. With bl, cast on 11 sts.

Beg with k row, work 2 rows st st. Row 3: Inc, k2, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k2, inc. (11 sts) Cont in sn. Row 4: Purl.** Row 5: K3, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k3. (9 sts) Work 13 rows st st. (9 sts) Row 20: Purl. Row 21: K2tog, k1, inc, k1, inc, k1, k2tog. (9 sts) Row 22: Purl. Row 23: K3, inc, k1, inc, k3. (11 sts) Work 3 rows st st. Row 27: K4, inc, k1, inc, k4. (13 sts) Row 28: Purl. Row 29: K5, inc, k1, inc, k5. (15 sts) Row 30: Purl.* Row 31: Cast (bind) off 7 sts, k to end (hold 8 sts on spare needle for Right Side of Body and Head).

Work as for Right Back Leg to *. Row 31: K8, cast (bind) off 7 sts (hold 8 sts on spare needle for Left Side of Body and Head). Work as for Right Back Leg to **. Row 5: Inc, k2, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k2, inc. (11 sts) Row 6: Inc, p2, p2tog, p1, p2tog, p2, inc. (11 sts) Row 7: K2tog, k7, k2tog. (9 sts) Work 7 rows st st. Row 15: K2tog, k5, k2tog. (7 sts) Work 3 rows st st. Row 19: Inc, k5, inc. (9 sts) Row 20: Purl. Row 21: K3, inc, k1, inc, k3. (11 sts) Row 22: Purl. Row 23: Inc, k9, inc. (13 sts) Row 24: Purl.*** Row 25: Cast (bind) off 6 sts, k to end (hold 7 sts on spare needle for Right Side of Body and Head). Udders Light stuffing is needed for the udders to make them hang down. Udders Light stuffing is needed for the udders to make them hang down.

Tweak the bobbles so that they protrude outwards for teats.

Work as for Right Front Leg to ***. Row 25: K7, cast (bind) off 6 sts (hold 7 sts on spare needle for Left Side of Body and Head). With sn, cast on 2 sts. Row 1: Knit. (4 sts) Row 3: Inc, k2, inc. (6 sts) Row 4: Purl. Row 5: Inc, k5, with RS facing k7 from spare needle of Right Front Leg, cast on 12 sts. (26 sts) Row 6: Purl. Row 7: Inc, k13, inc, k7, inc, k3, cast on 3 sts. (32 sts) Row 8: