Needle Felted Sheep

Here it is, I am adding another animal to my wool felting craft tutorial, please welcome Ramie the needle felted sheep. After the Lion, Owl, Carrot, Little Birds and Easter Eggs (wet felting method), this is the 6th addition to the needle felted wool animal I have made. Hooray!!!!

Ramie is a needle felted sheep, the size is about 6″ x 4″ x 5″ (H). He is a friendly and happy ram that comes from the famous Merino breed. He lives on the farm and needs to be shorn during summer.

Ramie is very proud of his wool as he produces the finest and softest wool among the sheep. He knows that human needs his high-quality wool which makes him a very happy sheep. Ramie is very pleased with his well-kept horns and his big brown nose, these give him a distinguished look that no other sheep has.

The sheep is constructed using rolled-up yarn balls as the sculptural core. The sculptural core is then wrapped by the wool followed by the needle felt. It saves up a lot of wool with this method. You may add jingle bell in the body to make it rattle if you are making it as a toy for the kid.

I will be adding more needle felting animals in the near future, please stay tuned!!!!

Needle Felted Sheep

Biography of needle felted sheep
Name: Ramie
Personality: Ramie is a friendly and happy ram that comes from the famous Merino breed. He lives on the farm and needs to be shorn during summer. Ramie is very proud of his wool as he produces the finest and softest wool among the sheep. He knows that human needs his high-quality wool which makes him a very happy sheep. Ramie is very pleased with his well-kept horns and his big brown nose, these give him a distinguished look that no other sheep has.
Size: 6″ x 4″ x 5″ (H)

Materials & Supplies:
1. Wool roving in off white (50 gram), a little on pastel yellow, brown, pastel pink and black.
2. Yarn – white
3. Black beads, about 3mm, 2 pcs.
4. Dark Brown crochet thread
5. Multi-Needle Pen Style Needle Felting Tool, Clover with Heavy weight needles
6. Felting needle, Fine weight
7. Felting sponge / foam block
8. Long sewing needle and white thread
9. Wooden / Bamboo skewer
10. Wooden toothpick
11. Erasable marker
12. Scissors

Note:
1. When doing needle felting, pierce your needle straight into the object (don’t bend or prick the needle) to avoid the needle from breaking.
2. Use multi-needle in heavy weight for quick felting and use fine needle to perfect the finishing.
3. Draw and mark the outline of the shape on the felting object will guide you on where to felt.
4. Never cut wool instead pull it out from the roving, unless instructed otherwise.

Reference tutorial with video:
1. Easter Carrot
2. Little Birds
3. Basic Needle Felting in shape with cookie cutter (external Youtube video).

Get ready all the materials and tools as listed above.
Roll the white yarn into shapes of body, head and 4 limbs as shown in the picture.
You may insert a jingle bell in the body to make it rattles if you are making this as a toy for the kid.

Pull a few inches of off white wool from the roving.
Loosen up the wool and wrap the wool around the yarn structure of the sheep. Try to cover as evenly as possible. Add more wool if needed and make sure to cover it completely.

Try to cover as evenly as possible. Add more wool if needed and make sure to cover it completely.

Repeat the same to all the yarn balls you have rolled.
Briefly felt the wool to the yarn ball so that the wrappings are in good order.

Needle felt the body with the felting needle until it is smooth.
Place the 4 un-felted limbs to the bottom of the body and felt them on.
Add some wool to patch up any uncovered space if needed.

Attach the head to the body and felt.

Roll a small yarn ball and place it on the face as the snout of the sheep.
Cover the snout with some wool and felt.

Mark a triangle shape as the nose on the tip of the muzzle. Felt to fill up the triangle nose with brown wool.
Roll little black wool on a toothpick to make a tiny black strip, felt it under the nose and extend a little downward to make the philtrum.

Mark the eye positions of the sheep, pierce them with a felting needle to make 2 indent points.

Sew the eyes into the 2 indent points. You may glue them instead of sewing.

Pull about 3 inches of pastel yellow wool from the roving. Split it into 2 equal parts. These are for the horns of the sheep. If you are making a ewe / female sheep, omit the horns.

Felt it into a cord with one of the end rolled up. Don’t felt the wool at the other end.
Repeat the same to felt another horn.

Wind the dark brown crochet thread onto the horns, pierce with the needle to keep the thread in place.

Felt the loose ends of the horn to the head to attach them in place.

Pull about 8 inches of off-white wool from the roving. Split them into very thin strips of wool.
Wrap the wool onto the wooden skewer in a helical direction.
Make abundant of them to assemble as the wool coat of the sheep.

Mark the outline on the sheep to define the area of the wool coat. Face, 4 limbs and bottom of the sheep have no wool coat.
Start piercing the wool strip onto the sheep, pierce one end of the strip to the sheep, twist the strip to make a small loop, pierce the strip again, then loop again. Repeat until the whole area is covered up.

Felt the ears and tail as shown in the picture.

Attach the ears and tail to the sheep. Add blushes to the cheeks, tie a small bell to its neck to complete Ramie the sheep.

The side view of the sheep.