sheep pattern

Ok, I'm still not in the mood for doing anything serious. The winter holidays are approaching, everyone is already tired and eagerly waiting for New Year. We don't celebrate Christmas today in Russia. Although, the Soviets made the whole country switch to the Gregorian calendar, the Orthodox Church didn't join. So, our Christmas is a purely religious holiday held on January, 7. Religious people must fast till that day and just can't eat meat or drink alcohol on New Year's Eve... Nah, I'm not religious... However, Merry Christmas to everybody involved!

Now, to the subject. To make the sheep one needs:

- 2 crochet hooks, sizes 2.5 mm and 4.5 mm (US B/1 or C/2 and G/6 or 7, UK 12 and 7, respectively),

- fringe yarn (I used 2 skeins for 7 sheep),

- 4mm or/and 6 mm safety eyes (or tiny buttons, or, like in my case, hematite beads),

- some Light Worsted or Sport Weight yarn (I use this, due to the wide range of colours and comfortable crocheting): natural colours for the head and legs, 20 cm of a contrasting colour thread for embroidery, some pink for the ears, red and green for the hat,

- 8 mm or 10 mm jingle bell,

- and fiberfill.

The sheep is worked in spiral rounds without joining, in single crochets (US terminology) or double crochets (UK terminology), I use the US terms and sc abbreviations. There will be a half-double (US) or half-treble (UK) crochet, abbreviated as hdc. 2 sс crocheted into 1 chain are called ‘increase’ and shortened to incr. 2 sc crocheted together are known as ‘decrease’ and shortened to decr. Ears are worked in rows.

Beginning with the body, fringe yarn and 4.5 mm hook:

1 Rnd: 2 ch., 6 sc into the 2nd ch. from the hook = 6 sc,
2 Rnd: 2 sc in each ch. around = 12 sc,
3 Rnd: (1 incr, 1 sc) – rep. 6 times = 18 sc,
4 Rnd: (2 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 6 times = 24 sc,
5 - 13 Rnd: 24 sc,

14 Rnd: (1 decr, 2 sc) – rep. 6 times = 18 sc,

stuff the body,

15 Rnd: (1 sc, 1 decr) – rep. 6 times = 12 sc,

16 Rnd: decr around = 6 sc,

fasten off and weave in the ends.

Change the hook to a smaller one, take the yarn in natural colours and begin the head:

1 Rnd: 2 ch., 6 sc into the 2nd ch. from the hook = 6 sc,
2 Rnd: 2 sc in each ch. around = 12 sc,
3 Rnd: (1 incr, 4 sc) – rep. 3 times = 15 sc,
4 Rnd: (5 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 3 times = 18 sc,
5 Rnd: (1 incr, 6 sc) – rep. 3 times = 21 sc,
6 Rnd: (7 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 3 times = 24 sc,

7 - 10 Rnd: 24 sc,

insert the safety eyes somewhere between Rnd 8 and 9, or leave it as is, if you use beads or buttons,

11 Rnd: (1 decr, 2 sc) – rep. 6 times = 18 sc,

stuff the head,

12 Rnd: (1 sc, 1 decr) – rep. 6 times = 12 sc,

13 Rnd: decr around = 6 sc,

fasten off, leaving a long thread for sewing.

Leg (make 4):

1 Rnd: 2 ch., 8 sc into the 2nd ch. from the hook = 8 sc,

2 - 7 Rnd: 8 sc,

stuff, fasten off, leaving a long thread for sewing.

Ear (make 2):

with pink:

1 Row: ch. 8, sc in the 2nd ch. from the hook and 5 more, 3 sc in the last ch., work 6 sc in the remaining chs. of ch. 8, fasten off and weave in the ends.

with natural:

1 Row: ch. 8, sc in the 2nd ch. from the hook and 5 more, 3 sc in the last ch., work 6 sc in the remaining chs. of ch. 8, 

2 Row: turn the ear, holding the pink and natural details together and working through both thicknesses:

6 sc, 1 incr; 1 sc, 1 hdc, 1 sc in the next sc; 1 incr, 6 sc, fasten off, leaving a long thread for sewing.

Hat (working with 2 skeins simultaneously and changing the colour in the last stitch of the round like this):

let's start with green and switch to red in even rounds:

1 Rnd: 2 ch., 4 sc into the 2nd ch. from the hook = 4 sc,

2 Rnd: (1 incr, 1 sc) – rep. 2 times = 6 sc,

3 Rnd: (2 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 2 times = 8 sc,

4 Rnd: (1 incr, 1 sc) – rep. 2 times = 10 sc,

5 Rnd: (2 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 2 times = 12 sc,

6 Rnd: (1 incr, 1 sc) – rep. 2 times = 14 sc,

7 Rnd: (2 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 2 times = 16 sc,

8 Rnd: (1 incr, 1 sc) – rep. 2 times = 18 sc,

9 Rnd: (2 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 2 times = 20 sc,

10 Rnd: (1 incr, 1 sc) – rep. 2 times = 22 sc,

11 Rnd: (2 sc, 1 incr) – rep. 2 times = 24 sc,

12 Rnd: 24 sc,

fasten off, leaving a long thread for sewing.

Sew everything together, embroider the nose with a fly stitch - and voila!

Feel free to ask, if anything's not clear.
UPD: You can download a pdf version now. Just click the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwiweezqm_GNZU9HU3A4d05UbTA/view?usp=sharing