A hobby farmer from Vulcan County in southern Alberta has taken her crocheting skills to the next level.
Jasmine Entz started spending her downtime crocheting sweaters for her Nigerian Dwarf goats.
“When they’re newborn, a lot of times they kind of struggle to maintain temperature at birth, so I would put these teeny-tiny little sweaters that were like too small for a cat,” said Entz.
Once each sweater was completed, Entz would have leftover yarn — until an idea popped into her head.
“And I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I made one for the cow?” she said.
So she did just that.
Outside her home on an acreage in Vulcan County lives a retired dairy cow, Josie, who serves as the inspiration and model for the sweaters.
“I just started crocheting and I would go out there every day and I would put it on her and see how it fit and then if I needed to backtrack, I could undo it and redo it,” said Entz.
During the evenings or on the weekend, Entz would spend her time working on the sweater.
“It takes me about 25 to 30 hours,” she said.
‘Internet absolutely loved it’
Once the first creation was complete, Entz posted a photo of Josie wearing it to Facebook and TikTok.
“The internet absolutely loved it,” she said.
“It brought so many smiles to people, which really made me smile because that was kind of the whole point is because it’ll be fun.”
But that was only the beginning.
Entz says people encouraged her to think about creating a calendar featuring photos of Josie wearing a different sweater for each month.
So now, she’s crocheting one sweater a month — with a hope to have 12 by the end of the year.
“This is my July one for Canada Day, which features a red and white pattern,” she explained.
Last year, Entz’s other steer, Beef, caught national attention as the world’s tallest steer, according to Guinness World Record.
Beef is 1.95-metres tall (6’5”), weighs 1,090 kilograms (2,400 lbs) and eats a minivan-sized salad of alfalfa each month weighing 1,130 kilograms (2,490 lbs).
While Entz says she was thrilled with showing Beef to the world, she says now it’s Josie’s turn for the spotlight.
“She’s just such a special animal ... I’m excited that the internet saw exactly how special she was,” said Entz.
“That made me smile that so many people felt the joy from her going through the whole cute process of putting the sweater on.”
Entz hopes to have her calendar ready for 2027.
