A crochet Highland cow pattern with a long coat you trim yourself

This crochet Highland cow pattern makes a shaggy little cow with curved horns, a soft muzzle and long hair that you style and trim yourself. The crochet underneath is plain and calm. The coat is what makes it special, and it is also what makes every cow look a little different from the next one.

The head, the body, four legs, the muzzle, two horns and two ears are crocheted separately with basic stitches, then sewn together. The shaggy coat comes last, made from short strands of yarn knotted into the stitches and cut to the look you like. The PDF is honest about this: the crochet is simple, and the hair takes time and patience.

Twelve pieces and a shaggy coat

Each piece is worked in continuous rounds without joining. Only the legs have one joined round, at the colour change:

• Head: light brown, 19 rounds, 42 stitches at the widest, with the eyes going in at round 10.
• Body: light brown, 33 rounds, with a small waist in the middle and a wider back end of 40 stitches.
• Legs, make 4: a dark brown hoof, a light brown leg and a small flap on top that is sewn against the body.
• Muzzle: cream, an oval worked around a chain, with two black nostrils.
• Horns, make 2: small curved cream tubes, where the shaping makes them bend by themselves.
• Ears, make 2: light brown pouches of 8 stitches, flattened and sewn in front of the horns.

How the coat works in this crochet Highland cow pattern

You cut a good pile of strands about 7.5 cm (3 in) long. Longer strands are easier to knot, and you can always trim them later. To make the hair knot, you fold a strand in half, thread both ends through the needle, push it under one stitch and out of the next, bring the needle back through the loop and pull down tightly.

The knots go on in rings. You start around the body at the level of the legs and cut that first layer short, because it fills gaps and gives bulk. Then you work up the body ring by ring. For a very bulky cow you use every round, and for a lighter coat you skip a round between rings. That choice alone changes the character of the finished animal, so no two cows need to look the same.

What you get in the 21 pages

This crochet Highland cow pattern holds 54 numbered steps and 58 photos, covering each body section, the horns, the muzzle and the coat. It is rated Easy+, and the extra care goes into the hair and not into the stitches. The stitches are basic rounds, increases and invisible decreases, with a stitch guide in US terms.

There are quick reference pages with the counts and a troubleshooting page written around the problems this shape really has. If your muzzle has 13 stitches after round 1, for example, you work 1 more single crochet into the last increase so the round ends with 14. Small holes along the muzzle chain get closed from the back with the long starting tail, and that repair has its own photo.

Yarn and tools for this crochet Highland cow pattern

Use worsted weight (#4) yarn, and the Craft Yarn Council yarn weight chart will confirm the weight if your label reads differently. The colours are light brown for the head, body, legs and ears, dark brown for the hooves, cream or off-white for the horns and the muzzle, beige for the hair and a short piece of black for the nostrils. The rest of your list looks like this:

• A 3.5 mm (E-4) crochet hook, about 0.5 mm smaller than the yarn label suggests
• A pair of black safety eyes with their backs, 10 to 12 mm
• Polyester fibrefill, and a stuffing stick if you have one
• 2 stitch markers, scissors and a yarn needle with a large eye

You can knot the coat in beige for contrast, or use the body colour for a softer, one-tone cow. The pattern lets you choose, so think about it when you buy your yarn.

Who this crochet Highland cow pattern suits

If you can work in the round and do not mind a slower finish, you can make this cow. It suits someone who has already sewn a few amigurumi together and fancies a project that is more about texture than stitch skill. If you are only starting out, try something with fewer pieces first, such as our free crochet dinosaur amigurumi tutorial.

The cow is also in the cuddly friends pattern pack with a teddy bear and a mini penguin.

What happens after you buy

This crochet Highland cow pattern is a digital PDF, so you make the cow yourself and nothing arrives by post. After you check out, sign in to Whop with the code that lands in your email, and your file is ready to open. Keep it on a tablet or print it, then start with the head and leave the hair to look forward to.

On the blog: Crochet Dinosaur Amigurumi: Easy Long-Neck Gift to Make