Counting Sheep Mobile, Perfect Decor for Nursery or Cottage Core and Country Themed Homes!

Create a beautiful hanging "Counting Sheep" mobile using our new fibre kit!

You can get everything you need over at this link: https://www.tregaverfibreshop.com/product/counting-sheep-mobile-kit

You'll also need felting needles and a mat.

I used 100g of recycled yarn scraps for this project.

Split the yarn into 4 piles - you'll need 3 similar size piles of around 25-30 g each for your sheep, and the remainder for the wreath.

You may find pieces of other coloured yarn in the mix, and it's up to you whether you use them for your sheep bodies, or put aside for a later project.

I decided to use only cream coloured yarn for the bodies, so took out any other colours.

I then roughly pulled the yarn into strands - as our recycled yarn is a product we buy from our local mill when spinning goes wrong, the yarn will be tangled etc, so take a few mins to just unravel the tangles a little.

You don't need to make it into perfect strands, as the look of the body will benefit from curls/knots loops and twists!

Once you've done so, make 3 approx same size balls by just winding the yarn around itself.

You may prefer to do 4 or 6 smaller sheep, rather than 3 large ones, but this is up to you!

To make the balls which will be used as a body, you can either needle felt them, or you can use the washing machine method here:

1. Make 3 rough ball shapes
2. Take a pair of tights/pantyhose and cut off one leg.
3. Tie the balls into the tights as pictured
4. Put into your washing machine at the highest heat, with a little wool friendly detergent
5. Once the machine has finished, untie the threads holding the balls, and gently remove them from the tights
6. While they are still damp, give them a good roll around with your hands to make sure they are rounded
7. Allow to dry in a well ventilated warm place

Split your carded fibre into the sections you'll need.

For each of the 3 colours you have, you'll need to split it into 2 sections, of around a 70/30 split - so one larger amount and one smaller amount.

Once each of the 3 colours has been split into 2 sections, you can begin making the heads.

1. Split the larger piece of carded fibre into 2 part way down (see photo 2)
2. Roll the lower section into a ball (photo 3)
3. Felt into a head shape - so the ball becomes the head, and the 2 sticking up sections become the ears.
4. You'll be doing further work on this later, so you are just aiming for the shape right now, rather than a finished head.
5. Create 3 heads using this method.

You'll need to make 2 sets of leg for each sheep

Using around 1/2 of your remaining yarn, plait/braid 6 lengths

Then attach the hooves

1. Keep a small piece of each carded colour aside for tails and eyes/nose/mouth later
2. Using the remaining carded fibre, wrap around the knots on your lengths, and felt them into the knot
3. USE CAUTION as the knot may be tight and you could risk snapping your needle if you felt in too hard.
4. Make 2 sets of legs for each sheep of each colour

Fold the ears slightly and felt them so they look more like ears!

Take another small piece of your carded fibre, and make a small sausage which will be the tail

1. To attach the head, use your felting needle to follow the outline of the head, and felt it into place.
2. Do the same with the tail

Each sheep now needs it's dangly legs!

Place them into place and felt them into the ball

Once you've felted them on, carefully use your felting needle to pull some bits of yarn from the body and felt them over the middle of your legs - this will give it extra hold

Using a different colour fibre to the heads, create the eyes, nose and mouth

As you can see by the photos, I went through lots of variations before I was happy with the colours, positioning and size of them

Use 2 tiny balls of an opposing colour to make the eyes, and roll them with your fingers, and felt them into place - you may just want to felt them in gently at this stage as may need to move them!

Using the final strands of each colour, roll them into thin tiny sausages, and then felt them in for the nose and mouth.

Reserve some of your remaining yarn for your sheep hangers later.

Wrap the yarn around the wreath to begin with

Then take the yarn and split it, and wrap it around the wreath horizontally and vertically, to make a criss cross effect

Tie any ends onto the wreath frame, and then felt it any bumps, loops or knots that may spoil the effect of the wreath.

Using your remaining yarn, make 3 braids/plaits

Use an awl, or your needle to make a hole in the top of the sheep, then felt the knotted end of the plait into the top of the sheep

Use the same technique as step 6, gather pieces of yarn from the body and felt them over the knot too to make it really strong in place

Once you have your 3 finished sheep, loosely tie them to your wreath, and tie a loop of fibre to the top of the wreath

Just ensure that the balance is right during this stage - hold the hanger and ensure that the weight of the sheep doesn't throw the wreath off balance.

Once you are happy with the balance, felt the sheep and the hanger into place.