My December gnome was another mystery gnome. The Advent mystery gnomes work a little differently, though: instead of pattern updates every few days, you get an update every day (in this case, from 1st-21st December). Not all of the updates are knitting clues, though— there are also festive recipes, miscellaneous patterns and periodical instalments of the festive story behind the gnome, so the knitting itself isn’t too overwhelming.

I wanted to wait to post my Gnandad until the mystery knitalong was finished to avoid any spoilers for people participating in/following along with it. I meant to post this in January but time just got away from me… No matter, we’re here now, excitingly (albeit belatedly) bringing the curtain down on my Year of Gnomes 2025 experience!

So, finally, I can introduce… Gnandad!

Gnandad is a rather impish gnome: when he’s not having a nap in his chair by the hearth, he can often be found in the local store, pottering around the fruit and veg aisle and plotting to ambush his grandchildren at the next family dinner with the most obscure produce he can find. He’s a morning gnome— he wakes up bright-eyed and bushy-stached before the sun has even risen, but, the minute the sun starts to go down in the evening, you’ll catch his eyes (and moustache) beginning to droop.

Table of Contents

• Choosing December’s Gnome
• Updated MKAL Thoughts
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing December’s Gnome

While you didn’t have to participate in the Gnandad MKAL (mystery knitalong) as part of the Year of Gnomes (you can make any gnome you want!), I thought it would be a nice way to finish off the experience, so I decided to go for it, despite not loving the mystery format in my previous two attempts (I’m a girl who likes to plan ahead, what can I say?). Plus, Gnandad felt like he was going to be very festive, which is an easy way to convince me to give something a go (I, like Mariah Carey, defrost for Christmas), so I was sold!

Updated MKAL Thoughts

This was my third time participating in a Mystery Knitalong (MKAL), so I thought I’d give you my updated thoughts on the general experience of knitting with absolutely no idea where you’re heading.

Overall… I’m still not obsessed with MKAL gnomes. I think I just prefer knowing what I’m getting myself into, so that I can be really intentional about the colours I pick. I also like seeing the gnome as it gradually comes together, which I feel you miss out on a little bit with an MKAL?

I was actually super late to the party this time around: I fully intended to start my gnome on 1st December butttttt…. I ended up starting it on 19th December instead. Because I was so late, I actually spoiled the surprise for myself on purpose and looked at other people’s progress photos. Honestly, I just didn’t feel like I had the energy to enjoy the mystery of it all and trust the process, which I know isn’t really in the MKAL spirit, but it definitely helped me this time around (so, I guess this was really just a KAL for me, then?).

However, I do think MKALs can be fun: it’s kind of exciting to see everyone else’s gnomes evolving in real time and you do feel like you’re part of a gnome-y community!

The Yarn

As with most of my other Year of Gnomes projects, I picked my yarns for Gnandad from my mum’s fingering-weight stash, which mainly comprises of little balls of yarn leftover from making socks. For her sample gnome, Schira used a teal shade for the contrast colour that I really loved, but I couldn’t find anything remotely similar in the stash, so I picked a paler, mint green shade.

Reader, this was a mistake. I started knitting Gnandad‘s hat, then quickly realised that there wasn’t enough contrast between the green and grey shades, which was rendering the colourwork that I was so painstakingly working… absolutely useless. I lived in denial for a few more rows, then realised I needed to go back and start again, so I did, substituting the green with this rich, magenta-y purple. I figured it was a good shade because (most importantly) the contrast was much better, but also because it’s kind of festive, but in a classic, casual, not red-and-green kind of way, if you get what I mean?

I was a little bit worried when I was knitting with the darker grey shade, because it felt a little thinner than the other yarns and I was concerned that the stuffing would show through (which would be especially noticeable, given the contrast between the dark yarn and the white stuffing!). Luckily, this turned out to be a case of worrying over nothing (my modus operandi) because you truly can’t see any stuffing at all through the fabric! A win for Gnandad!

In the end then, I used the following colours for my Gnandad:

• C1: Purple
• C2: Light Grey
• C3: White
• C4: Dark Grey

Thoughts on the Pattern

As mystery gnomes go, I actually thought Gnandad was pretty simple— often, I find that Schira’s mystery gnomes are much more complex and fancy than her other gnomes, but Gnandad was pretty understated. I think the fun of him is in the unusual techniques used to make him, rather than his overall look at the end. Because of this, there were definitely some new techniques for me in this project: a new type of colourwork (which I believe is called mosaic knitting?), Estonian braids and moustache-making!

One thing I did notice about this pattern is that the needle size you need to use changes around quite a bit (particularly when you’re making the hat!), so I would recommend paying extra attention to that throughout.

Things I Loved!

There are so many cute details on Gnandad that I absolutely love!

• Gnandad’s Moustache

It always amazes me how Schira seems to be able to come up with new & innovative designs every time: the moustache took me by surprise (I’m used to lonely beards), but it’s so cute!

• The Estonian Braid Element

This was my first time working an Estonian Braid and (once I’d actually watched the recommended video, so that I knew what I was doing) it was really simple to do. I really enjoyed learning a new technique and I think it’s a really fitting feature on Gnandad: it looks super cute and it helps to balance out the colours nicely.

• Gnandad‘s Suspenders

I wasn’t entirely convinced by the idea of the suspenders at first— not for any particular reason, I just didn’t know how they’d work? But I love them. My favourite thing about them is that I can tuck Gnandad’s little arms into them like he’s about to settle in for a jolly ‘back in my day…’ kind of story. I think they really make him!

• Gnandad‘s Feet

The return to gnome feet! I can’t tell you how excited I was when I realised Gnandad had feet: I love making them (the three-needle bind off is SO satisfying) and I love how cute they make the gnomes look.

• I-cord Toppers

I’ve made (or attempted to make) these i-cord toppers before on Gnectar, back in August, but… they didn’t end up right. Luckily, with Gnandad, I must have conquered my i-cord demons because they turned out perfectly! I’m so much happier with them.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

As always though, there are a couple of things that I am not so fond of…

• Gnandad‘s Beard

I have a couple of issues with Gnandad‘s beard: firstly, I’m not super happy with the cast-off edge— I think I made it a little too tight because the beard has a slightly odd curve to it. Secondly, and this is entirely a me-problem, the beard is kind of… weirdly long and it just… well, it reminds me of a giraffe tongue and makes me uncomfortable. I guess not all beards are made equal?

• Gnandad‘s Moustache

I know what you’re thinking: ‘But Gemma! You said you loved his moustache!’. I did! And I do! But I think I could execute the ‘stache better: it’s a little smaller than I think it’s meant to be and pretty… diamond-y? Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing when I read the instructions, so I just snipped and hoped for the best? It looks good, but I think it could look great.

• Mosaic Colourwork

I can see the appeal of this technique and yes, it looks great, but honestly, it wasn’t my favourite to work up. I kept feeling frustrated at having to work double the number of rows (I actually missed stranded colourwork!) and it felt like it took forever because of it. I do like the effect, but the process was endless.

• The Shape of Gnandad‘s Hat

The shape of Gnandad‘s hat feels a little less smooth than some of the other gnomes I’ve made from Schira’s patterns that have similar, conical hats. This could be to do with my tension/stuffing skills (or lack thereof), but it just irks me a little.

Final Thoughts

If I’m being completely honest, I was a little underwhelmed by Gnandad at first. I think a big reason for this is that I had made Gnoel just before and he was my absolute favourite gnome I’ve ever made. Really, poor Gnandad, how was he supposed to top that?

However, over time, I’ve grown quite fond of him! His little moustache and suspenders (and, most importantly, the fact that I can tuck his hands into said suspenders) give him such personality! He’s like a slow-burn gnome: he doesn’t immediately draw the eye but, once you’ve spotted him, there are all these little features to admire.

On the whole, he was a pretty quick knit, except for his hat, which felt like it took forever (this is me, formally picking a fight with mosaic knitting). The new, more complex techniques are used sparingly, so there are large sections of just basic knitting, which helped speed things up too.

And that is Gnandad, my December gnome and the final gnome in my Year of Gnomes 2025. 12 months, 12 gnomes, a plethora of new techniques and a whole host of whimsical fun and cosy knitting. While I’m not necessarily in a rush to embark on another year-long knitting challenge any time soon, I did enjoy participating in this extended knitalong: I loved seeing all of the gnomes everybody made and I love my own little 2025 gnome collection.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have! Year of Gnomes 2025: over and out.

If you're interested...

You can find the pattern for Gnandad on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnandad here.

Gemma

xxx

The Ovis Socks by saskie&co are a super popular design in the knitting sphere: they feature a simple, sheep-inspired colourwork pattern that runs across both socks, despite the colours being inverted to make a ‘mismatched’ pair. I’ve wanted to make them for a while, but they’re knitted with a fingering weight yarn held together with a mohair yarn and I don’t love the feel of mohair (in general, really, but particularly on my feet!). Luckily, my mum loves a cosy, fluffy sock (and a sheep motif, she is a knitter after all), so I figured she would be the perfect person to make these socks for!

Full disclosure: these socks took me a while to finish, not because the knitting itself requires a lot of time/effort (they’re actually pretty quick to work up!), but because I ran into so many problems with gauge/fit/trying to knit them without my mum knowing. I started them in early summer and I finished them… in the New Year. Poor Mum had to open a single sock on Christmas Day (and the ends weren’t even sewn in…)!

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience making this pattern, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Ovis Socks, you can purchase the pattern from saskie&co on Ravelry here!

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
• The Knitting Process
  • Cast-On
  • Colourwork
  • Afterthought Heel
  • Toe
  • Blocking
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The pattern for the Ovis Socks is super clear & concise, without being too brief (I’ve talked before about how I like to be spoon-fed when it comes to knitting patterns!). Each section has a little subheading (e.g. ‘TOE’ or ‘AFTERTHOUGHT HEEL’), which makes it super easy to navigate your way through the instructions— it’s a small thing, but it made a big difference for me!

My favourite thing about this pattern is the design: I think the colourwork pattern is simple, but so effective and I really like the whole mismatched vibe. Not only does switching the colours balance out your yarn usage of each colour (yay for saving money!), but I also just think it’s a really fun, unusual feature. I think saskie&co does this for all of their sock patterns, which I love!

In terms of the construction itself, the socks are knitted cuff-down with an afterthought heel. This was my first time knitting an afterthought heel and I actually quite enjoyed it! The socks are pretty short on the leg: if I made them again, I’d be tempted to make them slightly longer so that they can be worn comfortably with hiking boots (I just feel like they’re hiking socks?!). Luckily, that would be super easy to do with this pattern: you’d just knit more repeats of the colourwork chart!

My only real issue with the pattern was the recommended needle size. The pattern instructs you to use 2.25mm needles, which seems pretty small for what is essentially a DK weight sock (especially one with colourwork!). For the first sock I made, I used the suggested needles for the ribbed cuff, toe and heel, then used a 2.5mm needle for the colourwork (because I just couldn’t bring myself to use a 2.25mm needle for that too). I made the whole sock (at great cost to my fingers, which, let me tell you, were SORE from fighting the yarn) and… it didn’t fit on my mum’s foot. Admittedly, this may have been my fault (the main problem area was the stripe of 3-colour stranded colourwork, so maybe my floats were too tight?), but the fabric was so stiff that it was a) no fun at all to make and b) just didn’t give me the right vibe for a sock (socks are supposed to be soft and cosy, right?!).

Ultimately, I decided to switch to using 3.00mm needles for the whole of the next sock (cuff, heel, toe, leg AND foot) and it was much better: the socks fit perfectly and my fingers were (slightly) less sore. I don’t have a particularly tight tension typically, so I don’t think that was the problem here, but no matter, it worked out! Naturally, because mohair is a menace to frog, I opted to just make a third sock instead of trying to rip back the first one, so, if anyone can think of a use for a lone, almost unwearable, but very beautiful Ovis Sock, let me know!

The Yarn

I decided to make things a little easier for myself by using the same main yarn as the one used in the pattern: Istex Einband (in the shades Almond Heather (9076) and Light Ash Heather (1026)). I get most of my wool from Wool Warehouse, but they don’t stock this particular brand, so I bought it from LindeHobby instead.

This was my first time using Icelandic wool and I have to say, it was a pretty different experience! Usually, I knit socks in wool/nylon blend yarns, so they’re soft and stretchy, but still hardwearing. This yarn is not at all stretchy and not overly soft (I did find it a little hard on my hands!), but it made a really great pair of socks that I know will last for a long time (plus, the mohair softens up the fabric, so it works out). I do like how natural this yarn feels though and I really love the two neutral shades used in the pattern.

The mohair yarn suggested by the pattern (Ritual Dyes Fae) was a bit out of my price range, so I opted to use a cheaper mohair that I knew pretty well already: DROPS Kid Silk. My mum had actually used this particular yarn for mohair socks before and really liked it, so I figured it was a safe bet. It’s very soft and it has a pretty extensive shade range, so I was easily able to find shades that matched the Einband ones (Off White (01) and Toffee (51)). It does tangle pretty easily, but I think that’s a bit of a classic feature of mohair yarns, so I won’t hold it against it.

I made the 5th size and bought two balls of each colour in each yarn (which, in hindsight, was a ridiculous amount of yarn? If only I could explain the actions of past Gemma but, alas, I have no idea what was going through my head…). After making 3 socks (2 with the brown shade as the main colour, 1 with the grey shade as the main colour), I had approximately 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 balls of each leftover. Yes, I know, I know: mistakes were made. The required yardage listed for both shades/yarns in the pattern was 251m and the Istex yarn comes in 50g/250m balls, while the DROPS yarn comes in 25g/210m balls. I guess I must have been very worried about running out? Whatever the case, I am writing this realising I have all of this leftover yarn and will, inevitably, have to make another pair of hard-on-the-fingers socks. Sigh. Maybe I’ll try one of saskie&co’s other sock patterns? Or maybe even… the Ovis Mitts?! I do have some dreams of an Ovis Gnome too… urgh, someone restrain me!

The Knitting Process

This pair of socks posed a lot of new challenges for me: it was my first time making socks with no-stretch yarn, making mohair socks, working an afterthought heel, making a DK weight sock AND making mismatched socks! When I think about that, it’s no surprise that I encountered a few issues throughout the process: that’s a lot of first times for one pair of socks!

Cast-On

The pattern calls for using ‘your choice of stretchy cast-on method’, so I opted to use the German Twisted Cast On, because I’d been using it a lot for my various gnomes at this point. However, I have been finding that it hasn’t been working up super neatly for me recently (can you see the slightly uneven edge on the grey sock?), so I wonder if Alternating Cable might have been a slightly better fit here?

Colourwork

I’ve been working on my colourwork technique over the past year (previously, my technique was, quite literally, dropping and picking up the yarns as needed, which wreaked havoc on my tension!) and have started using a two-handed approach, which I first saw on this Instagram video, by @engineeringloops. I’ve been loving this method! It works so well for two colours, but I haven’t found a way to make it work with three colours, so, whenever there are three-colour sections (like the sheep in this design), I revert back to my drop-and-pick-up method of old.

The main colourwork pattern that repeats throughout the leg and foot of the sock is super simple and easy to remember, which makes the knitting process that bit quicker. I love the subtle, rustic effect the design gives the socks.

The sheep that sit along the top of the sock are a little more complicated, because they contain a third colour. I was so careful with my floats, making sure they weren’t too tight, but I think just having that extra yarn in there really tightens up this section, which definitely affects the fit of the socks. I can see why some knitters opted to duplicate stitch on the heads/legs of the sheep, but it just felt like too much of an extra step at the time! Luckily, on the larger needle size the socks actually go over my mum’s heel, so all’s well that ends well!

Afterthought Heel

As I mentioned, this was my first time working an afterthought heel and it was so much simpler than I expected! I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m a convert (I am loyal to my beloved Shadow Wrap Heel!), but I can see that there is a time and a place for an afterthought one (that time and place being a sock featuring intense colourwork!).

It’s a little bit of a drag to have to go back and work the heel after finishing the toe, and it does feel pretty odd essentially knitting a… second toe? I did also have to look up a separate tutorial for picking up the stitches for the heel (apparently, the rule is you always go into the right leg of the stitch, in case you’re wondering too!), but, once I knew that, I was absolutely fine!

Toe

The toe shaping in the pattern is really easy to work, but the finished result is ever so slightly too pointy for my taste: it’s not bad by any means, but I am a big fan of a more rounded toe, so I think I’ll stick to my usual method with future socks.

Blocking

Once I’d made both of the (correctly sized) socks, I wet-blocked them and left them to dry on sock forms (which make the process so much simpler!) to really even out the colourwork and make the knitting (and, by extension, the socks) look super neat! I definitely felt this was necessary, especially with my slightly looser gauge on the 3.00mm needles, which looked a little less neat than the smaller gauge had (but also, you know, actually fit and felt like a sock!). Once blocked though, both sock sizes looked just as neat as each other, so I’m happy.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy with these Ovis Socks: I’d definitely make them again… for the finished product, not necessarily for the process. If I’m being honest, the yarn hurt my fingers (rip) and the 3-colour section was a bit of a sticking point for me, but I love the design and I really enjoyed learning the new heel technique.

My biggest problem that I ran into with this project was definitely the gauge (and it’s subsequent effect on the fit of the socks). If I did make them again, I do think I would use the 3.00mm needles again: it does make the finished socks ever so slightly less neat, but the fabric is much better (and more sock-suitable!) and it didn’t destroy my fingers in the same way that using the 2.50mm needles did!).

Also, most importantly, my mum (who now finally has her finished Christmas socks!) loves them, which is all that really matters in the end!

If you're interested...

You can buy the Ovis Socks pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ovis Socks project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart)(no, just kidding), Petite Knit released a free knitting pattern for a Christmas Caramel, a stuffed ornament that looks like a little wrapped candy. I fell in love but, alas, I had too many other projects on the go to make one last year, so I set the pattern aside for this year.

Serendipitously, while I was making my Christmas Caramels this year, DROPS released a pattern for a Holiday Confection as part of their Christmas Calendar, which I always love following along with this time of year. This pattern makes a very similar, though slightly smaller and rounder, stuffed candy ornament.

So, naturally, I made two candies following the instructions from each pattern to compare them (you know, for science).

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience following these patterns, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Christmas Caramels, you can find the free pattern on Petite Knit's Ravelry page, here. If you want to make your own Holiday Confections, you can find the free pattern on the DROPS Design Ravelry page, here.

Table of Contents

• Materials
• Christmas Caramels vs Holiday Confections
  • Size
  • Shape
  • Initial Stitch Count
  • Shaping Method
  • Edges
  • Design
  • Design Symmetry
• The Pick ‘n’ Mix Sweet
• Final Thoughts

Materials

To make these knitted sweets, I used the following materials:

• 2.5mm circular needles.

Both patterns call for 3.0mm needles. This makes sense with the Christmas Caramels, because they use a worsted weight yarn, but is slightly surprising with the Holiday Confections, which use a fingering weight yarn (and a particularly fine one at that: DROPS Flora). I used a fingering weight yarn for my sweets (more on that below) and I think it’s always better to have a tighter gauge whenever you’re working on a project that will be stuffed, so I used a 2.5mm needle for all of my candies.

• Fingering-weight yarn (I used DROPS Fabel in the shades Off White 100, Blue 107 and Ruby Red 113, plus a scrap of a gold yarn with unknown origins).

Are you sick of seeing these colours yet? They’ve kind of become my unofficial Christmas 2025 colour palette and… I’m not mad about it!

• Stuffing.
• Darning needle.
• Scissors.

Christmas Caramels vs Holiday Confections

While these patterns are very similar to one another, they are not identical and they do produce quite different candies.

Here are the key differences between the two patterns:

Let’s go through these one by one!

Size

The Christmas Caramels are significantly larger than the Holiday Confections. This is achieved simply by knitting more rows (as the starting stitch counts of each pattern are the same).

Shape

The Christmas Caramels have a longer, more oblong-esque shape, while the Holiday Confections have a rounder shape. Again, this is caused by the number of rows: working fewer rows produces a rounder shape, while working more rows produces a longer, more rectangular shape.

Initial Stitch Count

Both patterns start and end with the same stitch count: 24 sts.

Shaping Method

The shaping method used is one of the most significant differences between the two patterns: I think the Christmas Caramel version is easier to work (and work with, when stuffing/ finishing), but the Holiday Confection version gives a slightly more defined shape.

Edges

The first and last row of the Christmas Caramel is worked plain, while the first and last row of the Holiday Confection is worked in 1×1 rib. I was surprised by the addition of the rib row at first, but it a) stops the ends of the sweet from curling and b) somehow makes the ends look even more gathered and realistic, so I’m team 1×1 rib all the way!

Design

The Holiday Confection pattern has a greater variety of design variations than the Christmas Caramel but, admittedly, 4 out of the 6 of the designs are just slight variations on a horizontal stripe. I made all my sweets using the 2-row stripe pattern, for continuity.

Design Symmetry

The main problem I encountered with both of these patterns was the (potentially unintentional?) asymmetry of the stripe pattern!

As written, the main colour sections at the start and end of the body piece are different sizes (a natural consequence of the way the shaping is worked in both patterns), which drives me slightly crazy. In the photos above, the red sweets are worked according to the pattern and have this problem (the far left end of the Christmas Caramel (left) and the far right end of the Holiday Confection (right)).

On my second attempt at each pattern, I made a a slight adjustment to rectify this:

For both patterns, on the striped, body section, always START with two rows of the contrast colour and END with two rows of the main colour.

To achieve this, I made both of my second attempt sweets 2 rows shorter than the pattern suggests (these are the blue sweets in the above photos!). I’m much happier with them this way!

The Pick ‘n’ Mix Sweet

After making 4 sweets of various pattern origins, colours and alterations, I decided to combine my favourite features of each pattern and make my ultimate, knitted ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ sweet. Here’s what I did:

• Used 2.5mm needles (magic loop method) and fingering weight yarn (omit extra glitter yarn).
• Followed DROPS pattern for BONBON-2 from cast on to Round 4, leaving long tail for later.
• Worked 3 closure rounds as per Petite Knit pattern.
• Worked 12 plain rounds of 2-round stripes, starting with contrast colour and ending with main colour.
• Worked 3 closure rounds as per Petite Knit pattern.
• Followed DROPS pattern for BONBON-2 from Round 27 to cast off, leaving long tail for later.
• Tied off contrast yarn ends inside the sweet.
• Used tail ends of cast on/off to tie off each end of the sweet. I wove in the end until I reached the closure rounds, then wove the end in and out of the holes created by the yarn overs. I pulled the yarn tight to gather the fabric in, then wrapped the yarn around the outside 3 times to cinch it in even more. I then secured the end by threading it up underneath the yarn wraps and darning it in on the inside of the work.

Final Thoughts

And that was my (super scientific) process of knitting up some little sweet decorations! I’m so happy with my finished ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ pattern— I’ve obviously opted to go for the slightly rounder shape, but I could definitely knit more rows for the body to make it more of an oblong shape if I ever needed to.

I think these little candies look so cute just dotted around the place, but you could also attach a loop of yarn or thread and they’d make adorable little Christmas tree ornaments too! I feel like there are a lot of creative possibilities for these… maybe I need to cut myself off from making them now, lest I end up surrounded by sweets that I cannot even eat…?

If you're interested...

You can find the free Christmas Caramel pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find the free Holiday Confection pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my Christmas Sweets project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

Anddddd… welcome back to my Project Knitwear series, where I’m documenting my journey into the world of knitting my own clothes! This time, it’s the first post in a two-parter (big wow!), because I’m tackling the Season Set by Ullen Knitwear: a wintery, cabled hat and mitten duo. In today’s post, we’ll be focusing on the Season Hat. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
• The Knitting Process
  • Italian Cast On
  • Cables
  • Decreases
  • Sizing
• Techniques
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

I haven’t made many hats before (read: I’ve made exactly 2, and both were samples for my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, so I was less concerned with the hat itself and more concerned with the yarn/colourwork pattern), so I didn’t really know what to expect going into this pattern.

In light of that, I do have to say that I probably wouldn’t recommend this particular pattern for a beginner hat knitter: there are definitely some clearer, simpler hat patterns out there that would make a better starting point!

There are two main things to keep in mind if you’re planning to use this pattern:

• The sizing

For both the hat and the mittens, only two different sizes are supplied and the only difference between those sizes is the needle size you use (i.e. the gauge of your work). I would have loved to see a larger size range and a stitch-count based variation, because I’m quite picky about how my gauge looks and I feel this would have made the pattern more versatile/easier to work with, particularly for less confident knitters.

• The yardage

I ran into this problem before when I was making the jumper from the Atlantis Set from Ullen Knitwear: the yardage given in this pattern is for BOTH the hat and the mittens (they are not given separately). This means that if you want to make only the hat, you don’t know exactly how much yarn you’ll need (and vice versa, for the mittens). Luckily, I was making both this time around, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

The Yarn

I have been desperate to try Knitting for Olive‘s Compatible Cashmere for a while now, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it because of the price! I finally bit the bullet and decided to use it for this project, though, because I figured it was a good way of trying it out: a small knit (which means a small required yardage), where warmth & softness is a top priority, and something that looks a little fancy and can live up to that cashmere name.

For this hat, then, I used one strand of Knitting for Olive‘s Merino, held together with one strand of Compatible Cashmere. I chose the shade ‘Dusty Dove Blue’, which is a bit of a departure from my usual colour palette (I tend to favour warmer, autumnal shades), but I think it will go really well with my fancy winter coat (it’s a black/grey/white plaid situation).

For the set (i.e. hat and mittens), I purchased 2 x 50g balls of the Merino and 3 x 25g balls of the Compatible Cashmere.

The Knitting Process

This was a slightly trickier knit than I expected it to be: I was hoping for a quick, simple knit and it was… anything but!

Italian Cast On

I encountered a problem as soon as I began with this project: the Italian Cast On! This was a new cast on for me and I found it pretty tricky. It took me a few tries to get it right (I found it really helped to set it up on straight needles, then switch to circular needles afterwards to knit the hat) and, if I’m being honest, the finish isn’t as neat as I would have liked for something that was so fiddly to set up!

I think for the mittens I will try a different cast on (maybe the alternating cable cast on?) and see if I like that a bit better (and find it easier to work!).

Cables

In general, I love the way cables look, but I have to admit… I just don’t love working them! I find them pretty fiddly and time-consuming, but I keep finding myself drawn to cabled projects because of how pretty and cosy they make things look.

The cables in this pattern aren’t super crazy, but they’re a little more complex than your typical 2×2 twists. I didn’t particularly enjoy working them but, again, I do like how they look, so I guess it’s worth it? I just wish I could find a love of cabling to rival my love of cables…

Decreases

My main struggle with this hat came with the decreases: I could not work out how they were supposed to fit into the pattern (and, honestly, I’m still not sure I did it right— actually, I’m pretty sure I did not do it right). Truthfully, I was baffled throughout the whole of the decrease section, right up to the end of the hat— this could 100% be a result of my inexperience, but I’d love to see some more detailed instructions for that section in the pattern to really help guide you through it, because it is tricky to juggle the cables and decreases.

The hat does have a bit of a ‘point’ at the top: it’s not so noticeable when you wear it, but it’s more prominent when it’s off (and it was very noticeable before I blocked it). I wonder if increasing the frequency of the decreases towards the top would help this?

Finally, within the pattern, the decreases are written as ‘d1r’ (I assume, ‘decrease 1 right’) and ‘d1l’ (‘decrease 1 left’?). This terminology is not used in the abbreviations/explanations section, instead, SSK and K2tog is listed. I had to do a quick bit of googling to figure out which one was which (for reference, SSK = d1l and K2tog = d1r) and I used those decreases throughout.

Sizing

The sizing was a big issue for me with this project! As I mentioned, there are only two sizes supplied (and the only difference in the pattern between those two was 0.5mm in needle size). I ended up making the smaller hat (Size 1), because a) my head circumference is within the range for that size (admittedly towards the higher limit, but still within the range!) and b) I tend to prefer the appearance of a tighter gauge to a looser one.

However… the finished hat is a little small on me. It fits, but it’s not super cosy and it rides up a little bit. Plus, I blocked it on a head mannequin (let’s not even get into that) and I think it stretched it out slightly (so it’s not just me having a big head! Woohoo!), so the gauge (even on the smaller needle size) is quite loose and open, which makes it even less cosy. Overall, if I made this hat again, I’d definitely play around with the sizing.

Techniques

There were a couple of new techniques to me in this pattern, as well as some opportunities to practise techniques I’ve previously met (as always, previously encountered techniques are marked with an *):

• Italian cast on
• 5-stitch cables
• SSK & K2tog*

Final Thoughts

I went into this project with the false impression that it would be a simple, quick and easy knit. Alas, it was much more challenging than I expected and I didn’t enjoy the process quite as much as I had hoped to!

This is one of those projects where you know you’ll wear it and you love how it looks from afar, but up close it’s full of little things you wish you did differently. I wonder if, in the future, once I’ve got a bit more experience knitting hats, cables and decreases, I could come back to this pattern with more confidence and make a hat I’m happier with?

Nonetheless, I love the colour of this hat and I do love the general, cable-y vibe, so I’m excited to wear it throughout the festive season! Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Season Set, where I make the matching mittens!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Season Set pattern by Ullen Knitwear on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Season Set here.

Gemma

xxx

You can probably tell, but this year has been a really gnome-y one for me! I’m currently working on my December entry for the Year of Gnomes 2025, but it’s another MKAL (mystery knitalong), so I can’t share that one with you this year (I must protect the gnome secrets)! It wouldn’t be right to let the festive season pass by without a nod to my gnome-ing era, though, so I decided to make a different, Christmassy gnome outside of the year-long challenge.

Enter: Gnoel!

Gnoel is in charge of the Grimblewood Carol Singers: he picks the songs, assigns the parts and maps out the route every single year. His favourite carolling pick is The First Noel (for obvious reasons), but he is also partial to We Wish You A Merry Christmas, because, on occasion, the gnomes of Grimblewood have been known to take the lyrics literally and bring the troupe some actual figgy pudding (Gnoel‘s favourite treat!). Some of the members say he rules with an iron fist, but he would say that he rules with a firmly knitted mitten: there’s a difference.

Sarah Schira (a.k.a. Imagined Landscapes), released the pattern for this festive, colourwork gnome back in October (you can purchase it here) and I just loved all of the little details— I mean, just look at the hat bobbles, the fringe beard and the little mittens! Honestly, I think Gnoel might be my favourite gnome I’ve ever made. Scratch that: he is my favourite Gnome I’ve ever made!

Table of Contents

• Yarn Choices
• Thoughts on the Pattern/Gnome-Making Process
• Changes/Adaptations
• Final Thoughts

Yarn Choices

I think my favourite thing about Gnoel is the colours I used for him: I wanted something really festive, but something a little different to the more classic, red/green/white combo from the pattern. I spent a little while looking through other knitters’ projects on Ravelry (you can find my Ravelry profile here!) and saw lots of people using blues and purples, which I thought looked really nice, so I decided to take inspiration from that and make my own, blueish Gnoel.

Just as with my Year of Gnomes knits (or the majority of them, at least), I used scraps of fingering weight yarn for Gnoel. The pattern actually calls for DK weight yarn, but I just used fingering weight and sized my needles down accordingly (more on that later), because I wanted Gnoel to fit in nicely with my other gnomes, size-wise.

Gnoel requires 5 colours (I know, it’s a lot!), so I chose a navy blue; a mid blue; a deep, raspberry red; a slightly variegated gold and a cream. Coincidentally, all of the yarns (bar the gold, which I cannot place), are DROPS Fabel (a sock yarn that is particularly good for colourwork), which made them great choices for this particular project. The cream shade is Off White (100), the navy blue shade is Blue (107), the mid blue shade is Grey Blue (103) and the red shade is Ruby Red (113).

I absolutely LOVE how these five colours work together: it’s a really rich colour palette that, while not inherently Christmassy, still feels very festive and cosy. I did mess around with the arrangements of the colours in the various charts a little, just to get the best out of my specific choices, but it wasn’t anything too crazy!

Thoughts on the Pattern/Gnome-Making Process

I had the time of my LIFE making Gnoel. Actually, let me rephrase that: I had the time of my life making Gnoel’s hat and body (the arms, bobbles and beard… not so much). I was quite nervous going into this project because I knew it was going to be on the bigger side and that there was a lot of colourwork, but I honestly enjoyed the process SO MUCH. I think that’s partly to do with my colour choices (it was such a joy seeing the patterns work up in those beautiful shades!), but also, I just do love knitting colourwork— particularly when it stays nice and even and I don’t run into any problems. I was so glad I used DROPS Fabel for this— the colourwork sections using that yarn worked up so neatly and I definitely noticed a difference when I used the non-Fabel gold shade!

Worked in the fingering weight yarn, my Gnoel is about 24cm high. The shape of both his hat and body are relatively simple (albeit large): the wow factor really comes from the colourwork design and the small features: the fringed beard, the mittened arms and the bobbles on the hat! As much as I LOVE how all those little features look on the finished Gnoel… they were a bit of a pain to make. The beard includes a lot of cutting and re-joining the yarn, the mittens are exactly as fiddly as you might expect them to be and the bobbles… well the bobbles are straightforward, but having to make three of them (including the nose) feels like a bit of a chore. However! You cannot argue with results and boy, does Gnoel look cool. It’s worth a bit of faffing around to make him so absolutely adorable and wintery and warm: I love him.

Changes/Adaptations

I usually don’t make any changes to gnome patterns the first time I make them, but I did end up making a few alterations to Gnoel this time around:

• Fingering weight yarn (and needle sizes)

First of all, as I mentioned, I used fingering weight yarn instead of the DK weight yarn suggested in the pattern. Because of this, I used 2.25mm and 2.5mm needles instead of the 3.25mm and 3.5mm needles called for. As always, I made this gnome on circular needles using the magic loop method, not DPNs.

• Colour positions

I used 5 colours, as called for in the pattern, but I rearranged the positions of them in some of the colourwork charts, just to make sure they fit well together.

• Needle positions

In the body instructions, the pattern suggests not having a needle join at the centre-front, to ensure that the colourwork pattern looks super neat there. I would actually recommend applying this principle to the hat as well, because there is a larger tree motif at the centre-front of the hat that falls right where your needle join would be (particularly if, like me, you’re using the magic loop method). I rearranged my stitches so that my BOR marker was in the centre of one of my needles and the two needle joins were on the left and right-hand side of the hat, respectively, which made my Gnoel look much neater than he otherwise might have! I’m really glad I did this.

• Beard fringe length

I made the fringe on my beard 1.5cm long, which is a little shorter than the pattern calls for, because I think it looks better on my Gnoel this way. I did cut it to the original length to start with, but it just looked a little too long and straggly!

While we’re on the topic of the beard fringe: I found the best way to cut it was to stick a piece of washi tape along one edge of the beard, right on top of the fringing, then hold the whole thing up in the air and trim the fringe right up against the edge of the washi tape, with a small pair of scissors (and, then, of course, repeat that process for the other side). Handily, my washi tape was already 1.5cm wide, so it was a perfect marker, but it also keeps the fringing secure while you trim, so you can hold it up and get a super neat, even cut.

Final Thoughts

I said it earlier and I meant it: I think Gnoel is my favourite of all of the gnomes I have made this year (and I’ve made a lot…). I love the colours I chose, I love the colourwork design, I love his shape and size and general festiveness. I even love those fiddly little mittens, the fringe on his beard and the little bobbles on his hat. He just brings me so much joy to look at, and brought me even more joy to make: long story short, he’s my dream gnome. This was definitely one of my favourite knitting projects of the year!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my festive gnome-ing (and my beloved Gnoel)!

If you're interested...

You can find the pattern for Gnoel on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnoel here.

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post is all about my November gnome… Gnoodles the First!

Gnoodles the First‘s favourite food is spaghetti (she’s not picky about the sauce), but, because she’s so small, she only needs a single spaghetto to fill her up! When she’s not eating pasta, she spends her time working on her potion-brewing and spell-casting skills. She’s hoping that the Guild of Grimblewood Witches will finally accept her application to join if she wows them with her witchy prowess: she already has the perfect hat, right?

Table of Contents

• Choosing November’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing November’s Gnome

Throughout this series, I’ve been slowly but surely working my way through Sarah Schira’s book, The Gnomes of Grimblewood. The book contains 8 individual gnome patterns (plus the ability to mix & match different elements to make your own gnome designs) and, before this month, I’d made 7 of them. There’s another mystery gnome on the horizon for December, so I figured November would be the perfect month to get in the last gnome: Gnoodles!

Gnoodles is also known as ‘Gnoodles the Smallest Gnome’ and boy does she live up to that epithet! She’s a pretty tiny, super quick knit— I whipped her up in 2 days of (very gentle) knitting.

The Yarn

I dipped back into the ol’ yarn scrap stash for Gnoodles and picked out some autumnal shades, because, you know, it’s my last chance!

I chose a dark purple for the hat, a copper-y colour for the body (the same shade I used for Gnorri‘s hat wayyyyyy back in January) and a cream shade for the beard, nose and hands. The dark purple yarn was a little finer than the other two, so I did have a little trouble with the white stuffing showing through, but I just stuffed it lightly, gave it a bit of a squish and it was barely noticeable!

Thoughts on the Pattern

Gnoodles is definitely the simplest pattern of all of the gnomes in the book: she’s made up of a simple, cone-shaped hat (similar to, though obviously significantly smaller than, that of Gnorri (left) and Gnectar (right)), a plain, slightly rounded body, a loopy beard and some tiny i-cord arms. There aren’t any super complicated techniques, colourwork or shaping and, because she’s so small, she works up super quickly!

Gnoodles was exactly what I needed this month (given the fact that the festive season is fast approaching!): a quick, simple knit that didn’t require any faff or inner turmoil: just some good old fashioned gnome-ing.

Changes/Adaptations

Seeing as this was my first time making Gnoodles, I didn’t make any changes to the pattern. In general, I prefer to make the gnomes as intended for my first go and then tell myself I’ll make some adaptations the next time around (even if the next time around is still… very far in the future).

Things I Loved!

There’s so much to love about Gnoodles!

• Her tininess.

Gnoodles is small. ‘Small’ here means the following: a) quick to knit, b) less of a drain on the wool-y resources and c) CUTER than CUTE. I mean, look at her tiny little hat! Her tiny little arms! Her tiny little nose!

• The colour scheme.

I love an autumnal colour scheme and I think this one is so cosy and perfect! It reminds me of hedgehogs and blackberries and witchy, Halloween-y vibes.

• The loopy beard.

The first thing I love about this beard: you don’t have to block it (in fact, you actually can’t block it, or else you’ll end up with a curly beard). The second thing I love about this beard: the fact that it looks like spaghetti (which I’m guessing is what inspired Gnoodles‘s name?). I too love spaghetti, so this feels very fitting.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

There was only one major problem that I ran into with Gnoodles…

• Stuffing Gnoodles (particularly with the weighted stuffing).

Gnoodles is very small (have I mentioned that?) and while that made stuffing her with the fluffy stuffing a little challenging, it made stuffing her with the weighted pellets an absolute ordeal. I’m seriously considering buying myself a funnel for future gnomes because this process? It was painful. Pellets, everywhere! Gnoodles, unstuffed! Me, losing the will to live! If I made Gnoodles again, I would a) use the aforementioned, currently non-existent funnel and b) consider adding the weighted stuffing before Round 37 (as opposed to after), to give myself a little more room to play with.

Final Thoughts

I love Gnoodles. I love her for her tininess, her colour scheme and the fact that, after leaving my recent gnomes right to the wire, I worked her up early on in the month, super quickly and easily and, as a result, saved myself a whole load of stress.

It also makes me feel very at peace that I have now made (at least) one of each of the 8 gnome patterns in The Gnomes of Grimblewood: I feel like I have a solid gnome base now and I can start having even more fun with them!

There’s one post left in this series: I’ll be participating in the December MKAL (mystery knitalong), ‘Gnandad’s Grand Adventure‘ for my December gnome! The December MKALs are daily affairs, so it’ll be a whole new experience for me! I can’t wait to see how Gnandad ends up! Because this is an MKAL, I won’t be able to post about it until January, so keep an eye out for it then.

Fear not, though, because I have another festive gnome up my sleeve that I will be sharing in December, just to bring some gnome-y joy to your festive season. Stay tuned!

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnoodles on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnectar the First here.

Gemma

xxx

Just like my April gnome, my October gnome has the added fun of being a mystery gnome, which I made as part of a separate knitalong, also run by Schira. This knitalong has now finished: the mystery has been unveiled and the full pattern has been released (you can find it here), so you can make the gnome(s) at your leisure!

There were two options for this mystery gnome: Gnumpkin (a pumpkin-inspired gnome) or Gnettle (a witch-inspired gnome). I opted to make Gnumpkin, because I am not fond of spooky witches (I was traumatised by both the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz and the Hag from Snow White as a child), but I am a very big fan of pumpkins. In other words, it was a no-brainer.

Anyway, here is my October gnome… Gnumpkin!

Gnumpkin recently tried to enter himself into the local garden show, in the ‘Best Gourd’ category (obviously). He figured he was a shoo-in for ‘Best in Show’, considering he is both sentient and excellently formed. Alas, he was very miffed to be beaten out by a particularly obnoxious butternut squash. Worse still, he didn’t even place in the competition: his stalk was deemed ‘disproportionate to his body’ and his legs were labelled ‘disturbing’. Instead of coming away with the grand prize (a jar of Gnectar’s homemade blackberry jam), he came away with an unfortunate identity crisis. Poor Gnumpkin.

Table of Contents

• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

The Yarn

Last time I participated in a MKAL (mystery knitalong), I went a little… rogue with my colour choices (which is why I ended up with a blue and red mushroom gnome and discovered that actions do, indeed, have consequences). Don’t get me wrong, I love my Professor Fungi gnome, but I figured I should go more by the book this time around!

Because of this, I opted to stick to a super pumpkin-y colour palette, just as suggested in the pattern. Luckily, I had some fingering weight yarn leftover from my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, in the perfect, gourd-y colours! For my Gnumpkin then, I used the following yarn:

• Orange: Scheepjes Metropolis in the shade Liverpool 65.
• Brown: Yarnsmiths Merino Sock in the shade Rich Brown 2K079.
• Cream: King Cole Anti-Tickle Merino Blend 4ply in the shade Aran 46.

I was really happy with these colour choices (though I did see some AMAZING Gnumpkins made with tweed yarns on Ravelry too, which I’m very tempted to try!). The only problem I ran into was that I did have two instances of the Scheepjes yarn breaking while I was trying to tighten up the indents on the pumpkin body— pretty disastrous, but I managed to fudge my way through it! Nevertheless, I think a slightly stronger yarn would be a better fit for this project.

Thoughts on the Pattern

I’ve mentioned before that I tend to find the patterns from the book, The Gnomes of Grimblewood, significantly easier to follow than Schira’s individual patterns (particularly the ones that start out life as MKALs, i.e. mystery knitalongs). However, I actually found Gnumpkin really straightforward and easy to work up! He’s a deceptively simple design, with just a few specific techniques that work to give such a fun, effective finish. Admittedly, there’s quite a lot of knitting in Gnumpkin, but most of it is pretty plain, so it takes more time than effort, if that makes sense?

Actually, my Pumpkin Patch project from last year set me up really well for this project, because I was already familiar with the process of knitting the purl channels and using the yarn to create the indentations of Gnumpkin‘s pumpkin body.

The technique used in the hat to ‘scrunch’ it up and make it look kind of crumpled and organic was new to me, but Schira’s instructions were so clear and the whole thing worked out really well!

Things I Loved!

There is so much to love about Gnumpkin!

• His pumpkin body.

I mean, this is kind of Gnumpkin‘s whole thing, but his little pumpkin body is just so perfectly pumpkin-y. I love it!

• The fact that his hat is the pumpkin stalk.

I was baffled and bemused while I was knitting this hat: it really felt like a witch’s hat, so I could see how it would work for Gnettle, but not necessarily for Gnumpkin. Once I got a bit further through the clues, things started to make more sense and I was so impressed by Schira’s creativity!

• The ‘pinches’ in the hat.

The hat is intentionally crumpled up a little bit on one side, which gives it a nice curved shape AND makes it look more witchy and organic. The method used for this is so simple and easy to do, but so clever: I really enjoyed it.

• The legs.

The legs were the first pieces that I made (as per the order of the clues) and I realised pretty quickly what they were. I’ve never actually made a gnome with legs before Gnumpkin and I have to say, I was a little worried about it? Not because it was tricky— the legs were actually super straightforward to make— but because I just wasn’t sure how they would look. I have to say though, I absolutely love them: they’re so cute and stripe-y and fun! I think they give Gnumpkin a lot of personality.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

Of course, there were a few things I wasn’t quite so crazy on. As always, these observations are completely personal preference and nothing against the original design! I love Schira’s patterns, but I also love adapting things to make them fit my needs/preferences, which is what the musings in this section are all about!

• The size of Gnumpkin‘s nose.

I feel that Gnumpkin‘s nose is slightly disproportionate to the rest of him: it’s pretty big (especially compared to most of the other gnomes in my ever-growing collection) and I just don’t think it sits right on his little body? I’d like to try using the ‘large nose’ pattern from The Gnomes of Grimblewood and see how that looks!

• Gnumpkin’s beard.

I was SO excited when I saw that this was another beard featuring twisted rib, because that’s a feature of my all-time favourite beard pattern by Schira (the one from Here We Gnome Again). I do like the texture of this beard, but the shape is a bit off for me: it’s quite thin and pointy, which I don’t love paired with Gnumpkin‘s squat, bulbous body. I think I’d maybe prefer one of the wider (maybe even curlier?), beards here?

• The brim of Gnumpkin‘s hat.

This, I know, is very much a me problem, because all of the other Gnumpkins on Ravelry do NOT seem to have this problem, but the brim of my hat refused to lie flat to Gnumpkin‘s body? It was very intent on flipping up, which I thought might be part of the pattern, but, alas, it is not. I’m thinking this probably had something to do with my tension? Nonetheless, I had to stitch it down in a few places around to get it to sit right, so, in the future, I’d like to find a way to get it right first go!

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really like Gnumpkin, and I enjoyed participating in this MKAL even more than the Professor Fungi one back in April (perhaps because Gnumpkin‘s a slightly more straightforward pattern? Or maybe because I’m happier with my colour choices? Who knows!). I really like the fact that he won me over when it came to his stripe-y legs, because I was so not on board with them at the start, but I think they really give him a little extra pizzazz.

I’m not entirely won over by the beard + nose combo: if I made Gnumpkin again I’d definitely be tempted to try something a little different in that department. I’d also be tempted to try giving Gnumpkin some arms as well as legs, just because I think that could be fun!

Despite my deep-rooted fear of witches, I have seen some super cute Gnettles on Ravelry, which has very nearly inspired me to make one of those too. Maybe next spooky season? I don’t think I can bring myself to make her nose and beard green though: that would be a step too far.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my October gnome! I really enjoyed making Gnumpkin: he was a perfect, spooky-season project.

If you're interested...

You can find the pattern for Gnumpkin and Gnettle on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnumpkin here.

Gemma

xxx

I’m a little behind in sharing my gnomes, so today’s post is all about my September gnome: if you missed the previous eight gnomes in this series, you can find them all here.

The prompt for September was ‘Mod Along’: the suggestion was that you adapt an existing gnome pattern, mix and match different gnome elements, or just embrace random gnome chaos in general to make something new and exciting! Because of this, today’s Year of Gnomes post will be a little different…

Table of Contents

• Introducing: The Gniederegger Gnomes Project
• The Yarn
• September’s Gnome: The First (Official) Gniederegger Gnome Prototype
• Changes/Adaptations for Future Gniederegger Gnomes
• Prototype #1 as part of my Year of Gnomes
• The Future of the Gniederegger Gnome Project

Introducing: The Gniederegger Gnomes Project

Okay, so sometimes (read: every 5 minutes) I have these crazy, ridiculous ideas for projects. 99% of them get left in the graveyard of my Notes app, but every now and then, there’s one that I just can’t forget about. The Gniederegger Gnomes Project fits into the latter category.

Let me take you wayyyyy back to my Gnew Baby project, where I made a trio of gnomes for my cousin, his fiancée and their new baby (because, of course, right?). When I was trialling patterns for the baby gnome (a.k.a. Mini Gnarley), I made a 75% size Gnarley with a striped hat and… it was one of the cutest things I’ve EVER seen.

It occurred to me that, if left unstuffed, 75% Gnarley‘s hat was the perfect size to hold a small, sweet treat (I tend to think in crafts and sweet treats, so this was pretty on brand for me). From there, I realised that if I made 24 x 75% Gnarleys with unstuffed hats, I’d have the CUTEST advent calendar. From there, I realised the only real sweet treat that could possibly be used for this project was one of my favourites: a mini Niederegger Marzipan Loaf.

Thus, my Gniederegger Gnome, advent calendar project was born: 24, mini Gnarley gnomes with open hats, perfect for housing a single marzipan loaf, one for each day of advent. The plan is to use the same colour palette for each gnome, but mess around with the placement (more on that in a sec!). I’d also like to switch up the beard styles to add a bit of whimsy and intrigue: Schira has so many different beard patterns, it would be great to incorporate lots of them!

The Yarn

I decided to use one of my favourite Christmas films, Klaus (remember my December bullet journal setup from a couple of years ago?), as the colour inspiration for this project: I absolutely love the folk-y, festive but not too festive colour palette of the Sami people in the film. I decided to use that same colour palette for my Gniederegger Gnomes, so I ended up with 4 colours:

• Red
• Navy
• Gold
• White

The red and the navy will be the main colours for the gnomes’ hats & bodies, the white will be for the noses & beards and the gold will be an accent colour: I’m thinking of using it in one, small area on each gnome, for a pop of fun and festivity!

With my colour palette decided, I started looking into yarns. I needed a fingering weight yarn for this project, and I wanted to use one made with natural fibres (just to really roll with the whole more-sustainable advent calendar alternative). Finally, I didn’t want anything too expensive, because I feel like I’ll need quite a bit of yarn to make 24 gnomes, especially when working with 4 different colours!

In the end, I settled on DROPS Flora, a 65% wool/35% alpaca blend. I chose the colours Red (18), Indigo (10), Caramel (25) and Off White (01).

September’s Gnome: The First (Official) Gniederegger Gnome Prototype

Finally, onto my September gnome for the Year of Gnomes! This gnome doesn’t have a name, but he is the first official prototype for this project, so I guess that’s something. The charts/instructions referenced here are all from the ‘Gnarley‘ pattern in Schira’s book, ‘The Gnomes of Grimblewood‘.

To keep the hat open, there needs to be a solid ‘shelf’ at the base of the hat. This keeps the stuffing in the body and leaves the hat free to be filled with marzipan!. I tried a few different methods for this, but found that the majority of them tended to suck the gnome in too much, making it look very skinny and… slightly deformed?

In the end, I found that knitting the hat and body as two separate pieces was the best method: you start the body with a pinhole cast-on (6 sts) and knit a flat circle (which ends up being the ‘shelf’ in question), as follows:

R1: (kfb around) – 12 sts 
R2: (k1, kfb) around – 18 sts 
R3: (k2, kfb) around – 24 sts 
R4: (k3, kfb) around – 30 sts 
R5: (k4, kfb) around – 36 sts 
R6: (k5, kfb) around – 42 sts 
R7: (k6, kfb) around – 48 sts 

Then, you work a purl round, followed by a knit round (to make a nice, clean edge) before jumping back into the body instructions (working from the start of Chart 2 onwards). I used navy for the body, then switched to red from the first row after finishing Chart 4 onwards, so that the base is a different colour, which I think adds a bit of extra fun!). I also added a circle of cardboard to the top of the body before stuffing it, to ensure the ‘shelf’ stays flat, even and the right diameter. With that, the body was done!

I knitted the hat as instructed, using a slightly smaller stitch count than the one in the pattern (42 sts). I knitted the hat in 2 row-stripes, alternating between red and navy. I used the gold shade for the brim of the hat. Instead of using a three-needle bind-off to finish off the hat, I used a 3-stitch i-cord bind-off. This makes a super neat, clean edge, even when the hat is left open (as it is here).

Once the body is made, stuffed and finished off, the hat is sewn onto the purl round of the body, right around the brim, along the stitch line on the hat that is marked with a stitch marker earlier on in the pattern instructions. This, along with the cardboard circle at the top of the body, prevents too much ‘sucking in’ and keeps the gnome looking nice and proportional, while also helping with the advent calendar function!

For this prototype, I made the beard from Here We Gnome Again, which is one of my all-time favourites of Schira’s beard patterns (and, handily, happens to have a built-in nose!). It’s a pretty small beard, so I didn’t have to scale it down, but other beards will definitely require a bit of reconfiguring! I did forget to size up my needle before knitting the beard, so mine is even smaller than it should be, but that is easily remedied in future iterations.

To finish off the gnome, I used some navy sewing thread to attach a metal snap fastening to the top of the hat, positioning it in the middle, just below the i-cord bind-off. This means that the hat can be ‘closed’ and ‘opened’: when open, it can be filled with a marzipan loaf and, when closed, it has a more authentic, gnome-y shape.

Changes/Adaptations for Future Gniederegger Gnomes

The first time I tried to replicate the original pattern that I used for my 75% Gnarley, it just didn’t quite work out: I made a few changes that had a significant (negative) impact that really scared me off (most notably, omitting the zig-zag rib pattern, which made the gnome super skinny and deformed— an unpleasant vibe that was only exaggerated by the fact I had not yet solved my shelf conundrum!). For this prototype, then, I went a little too far the other way, so my gnome ended up the right height, but a little too pear-shaped and wide for my liking (nothing against curvy gnomes— just not what I was going for here!).

Naturally, I think my initial pattern (sans ill-advised changes) was the best, so I think my next trial will combine that original pattern with everything I’ve learned about inserting that inner shelf.

So, here’s what I plan to do for Prototype #2 (and, hopefully, if all goes well, the 24 official Gniederegger Gnomes!):

• Try working charts 1-3 instead of 2-4 for a slightly slimmer shape.
• Stick two layers of cardboard together at the top of body to keep the shelf extra firm (my cardboard did end up bending a little when I stuffed the body).
• Add another few rounds at the top of body (so maybe, just before starting the chart work: 1 round of k all, 1 round of p all, 1 round of k all, then sew hat onto the purl row here (i.e. not the initial purl row marking the edge of the shelf) to keep the shape better).
• Make the hat slightly taller: perhaps add another 2-row stripe?
• Secure cardboard in place at the top of the hat, maybe by sewing some long stitches underneath it, right across the diameter? I really want the cardboard to sit perfectly within the initial purl round to keep everything neat and even.
• Leave a long end at the start of the hat for sewing it onto body.
• Use the right-sized needle for beard!

Prototype #1 as part of my Year of Gnomes

Despite being part of something bigger, Prototype #1 is still my September gnome for my 2025 Year of Gnomes, so here’s how he fits in with the rest of the gnome crew…

Obviously, Prototype #1 has a pretty festive vibe, just like Gneville (left) and Gnolan (right). In general, gnomes feel inherently festive to me, so I love making them in Christmassy colour palettes!

Sizewise, Prototype #1 is most similar to Gneville (so, not very big!). For reference, the gnome on the right is a full-size, fingering weight Gnarley, so you can see how much smaller the prototype is.

Anddddd here’s the whole crew (plus a lil’ marzipan, for good measure) together!

The Future of the Gniederegger Gnome Project

Let’s be real, making 24 gnomes is no small undertaking and I want this to be a project that I can enjoy, rather than one I’m trying to ‘get done’. At the moment, I’m leaning towards not participating in the Year of Gnomes next year (if there is one) and instead getting my gnome-y fix by working on my own, year-long gnome project: my Gniederegger Gnomes. 24 mini gnomes over the course of a year doesn’t sound too unmanageable and I think, this way, I’ll be able to enjoy the process a lot more!

Long story short, stay tuned for more Gniederegger Gnomes!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! I know it’s a little different to my other Year of Gnomes posts, but I’m super excited about this project and I can’t wait to work on it some more next year!

Gemma

xxx

My August gnome is coming to you a little late (I mean, it is October tomorrow…), but I promise that I did actually knit this one in August! I’m just only getting around to sharing her here now, but she’s been on my Ravelry page for a while now.

Introducing… Gnectar the First!

Gnectar the First’s favourite time of year is when the blackberries are ripe. She likes to go out foraging, stuffing her pocket full of the berries (although this has led to it being tinted a rather deep shade of pink!). She’ll try any blackberry recipe she can get her hands on: jams, jellies, cakes, muffins, crumbles, crisps— you name it! Outside of blackberry season, Gnectar busies herself with perfecting her sticky gingerbread recipe: she’s determined to finally win the award for Best in Loaf at the Grimblewood Fair one day!

Table of Contents

• Choosing August’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing August’s Gnome

Throughout my gnome-making adventures this year, I’ve nearly managed to knit my way through the whole of The Gnomes of Grimblewood— at the start of August, there were just two gnomes I had yet to make: Gnectar the Marbled Gnome and Gnoodles the Smallest Gnome. I’m aiming to knit all of the gnomes from the book at least once by the end of the year, so I decided to tackle one of them for August!

I chose Gnectar (mainly because I figured Gnoodles would be a super quick knit, so I decided to do future Gemma a favour and save him for a busier month!).

The Yarn

Another gnome, another instance of me going off-piste and spontaneously making ill-advised colour choices… I just can’t help it! On the plus side, I’m back to using up scraps of fingering weight yarn with Gnectar (which has been my aim throughout this series— I’ve done it for all but one of my gnomes!).

I was mostly considering the hat when I made my choices, so I picked 3 shades of pink, along with a gingerbread colour to marl with them, to give my Gnectar a vaguely autumnal, pinkish candy corn vibe! I love this in theory, and it does look good close up, but I feel like the lightest and medium pink shades look a little too similar from afar, so I didn’t quite get the defined stripes that I was looking for.

I had initially planned to marl the gingerbread colour with a white yarn for the body, but I suddenly panicked that the white beard/nose/hands would disappear into the body if I did that, so, at the last minute, I decided to use the palest pink colour instead. I definitely feel like I should have followed the pattern suggestion (shocker!) and used a completely different contrast colour in the body, because I think my Gnectar looks a little… same-y? She’s lovely, but I just think she could use a little more definition! A little more contrast! A little more pizazz!

Thoughts on the Pattern

I really enjoyed coming back to a book gnome pattern after a few months of knitalong style patterns: I find that they are a lot clearer and easy to follow, which makes the gnome-making process even more enjoyable for me!

Gnectar is worked with the yarn held double for everything except the beard, which is knitted with a single strand of yarn. This allows you to achieve that marled effect, but it also makes the fabric much firmer (even though you work on larger needles, to compensate for this!). The firmer fabric definitely makes the stuffing process easier, as each of the pieces are more inclined to hold their intended shape. However, I don’t love knitting with the yarn held double: I always seem to drop loops here and there and I do find it quite hard on my fingers! The pattern does mention that a ‘not-so-hidden’ ninth gnome can be made by knitting Gnectar with a single strand of yarn, so I’m tempted to try that instead next time!

Because of the yarn-held-double situation, and the general roundedness of Gnectar‘s body, she is quite a large gnome. She’s just slightly shorted than Gnolan (but quite a bit stouter!). In terms of circumference (so sorry, Gnectar), she’s more comparable to Gnatalia.

Changes/Adaptations

Aside from my aforementioned, ill-advised colour choices, I didn’t make any (intentional) changes to my gnome. This was my first time making Gnectar, so I wanted to make her according to the pattern!

However, I definitely did (completely accidentally) make one of the i-cord toppers on Gnectar‘s hat longer than the others, which I guess is a change, but was not intentional and honestly bugs me A LOT, so I will definitely be making a conscious effort not to do that again the next time I make a Gnectar!

Things I Loved!

There’s always so much to love about Schira’s gnomes, but here are my favourite things about Gnectar:

• The shape of her hat.

I love the perfect cone shape of Gnectar‘s hat (made even more perfect by the more rigid fabric, which makes the hat super easy to stuff and means it keeps its shape much better!). Gnectar‘s hat is very similar to Gnorri‘s hat (my first ever gnome), but it was much easier to stuff!

• The rolled brim on her hat.

I think this is only my second rolled brim (I believe Gnolan was the first!) and I really do like how they look. In fact, I think it looks even better on Gnectar than on Gnolan (sorry, Gnolan) because the fabric is thicker, so it’s a little more defined!

• The colour combo of the hot pink and the gingerbread.

I may have had some issues with my colour choices, but I think the hot pink shade, marled with the gingerbread shade, looks really great! I think it also helps to add a bit of spice to Gnectar, who, otherwise, it’s true— does look a little same-y!

• The contrast of the beard/nose against the body.

I really love how stark the beard/nose look against the marled body: there’s a lot of marbling going on with Gnectar and, while that’s definitely her thing, it’s nice to see a large block of solid colour as well.

• The size of her nose.

The yarn is held double for the nose as well, which makes it extra big and perfectly round. Because Gnectar‘s a pretty big gnome, I think the big nose looks really good on her!

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

Naturally though, there are a few parts of Gnectar that I didn’t enjoy quite so much, or just think I could do better next time:

• The colour choices.

I’ve talked about this in depth, so you don’t need to hear it again: I went crazy with my colour choices and I don’t think they quite worked out. Love some of them, love the idea, but don’t love the final result!

• The i-cord hat toppers.

I was so excited for these, because I think they look so good on the sample Gnectars in the book, but I think I just didn’t execute them very well because mine don’t look… right? I think I made them a bit too long, so they’re a little sad and floppy (not to mention uneven, but that was definitely my mistake). I don’t know, I just had such high hopes for these and I’m a bit disappointed in them! I will definitely give them another go though, because I do think they make Gnectar extra special.

• The single pocket.

I think this might be a result of my colour choices, but the single pocket just… isn’t working for me here? The pockets look so good on the sample Gnectars (which makes me think it definitely is my colour choices), but I think my pocket gets a bit lost on the body and just feels quite small in comparison to the very large gnome?

• Sewing in the ends.

Yet another reason to dislike knitting with the yarn held double: twice. as. many. ends. That’s it.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be honest here, Gnectar isn’t my favourite of the gnomes I’ve made so far for the Year of Gnomes, but I take full responsibility for that, because I’m 99% sure it’s because of my colour choices! I took a risk and it didn’t quite pay off. However! I think there’s definitely potential there: I love the hot pink/gingerbread combo, so maybe if I replaced the pale pink shade with a cream (?) on the hat, to get a proper ombré effect, then used a different contrast colour for the body, I could get my vision to work?

I’d love to make a recreation of the red sample from the book, because I think those colours look great together and really bring out the best in the pattern. Also, I’d love to get the topper right, because it just has so much potential!

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnectar on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnectar the First here.

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post, though, is all about my July gnome!

Introducing… Gneville the First!

Gneville the First is a tremendously festive fellow: if it were up to him, Christmas really would be every day. The rest of the year, though, Gneville works as a beard-dresser for the other gnomes. He’s especially talented at braiding and is very particular about beard maintenance: he believes that a beard is a gnome’s most important feature. Perhaps as a result of this, he has a deep-rooted fear of goatees (and, honestly, who can blame him?).

Table of Contents

• Choosing July’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing July’s Gnome

This month had a special prompt: ‘Gnome for the Holidays‘, where you knit a gnome with some seasonal spirit (whatever holiday you may be celebrating/planning to celebrate!).

About 6 years ago, my mum made a couple of Gneville gnomes, using the Here We Gnome Again pattern by Schira, as Christmas presents/decorations and I fell in LOVE with them. This was long before my own gnome-knitting days (those particular gnomes are actually what inspired me to start gnome-ing!), so the idea of making my own Gneville, with his complex cables and fiddly little features seemed far too outlandish and I was forced to just admire them from afar.

Tragedy struck a couple of Christmases ago when (yarn-lovers, turn away now!), the original Gneville gnomes were felled by some moths, who flew undetected past our (copious) defences. Safe to say, I was heartbroken and we, as a family, were left Gneville-less (and with renewed vigour in our crusade against the moths of the world).

When I saw the prompt for July, then, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to brave making a festive, replacement Gneville myself (with all of my new, gnome-ing expertise and (admittedly still very minimal) cabling experience)!

The Yarn

In an effort to make my Gneville as similar to his predecessor as possible, I actually used the exact same wool that my mum did (Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in the shade Tart)! She (very kindly) went stash-diving in the ‘special’ section of her collection (i.e. the section that I am forbidden from going through willy-nilly in my ploys to create general gnome havoc) and found this perfect, Christmas red fingering weight yarn for me, just like OG Gneville. How magical!

I paired the red with a slightly mottled cream shade, which I used for the hands, nose/beard and pompom. I’ve been using this particular shade quite a lot for my gnomes recently: I used it for Gnoddy‘s beard/nose/hands, as well as some of the colourwork detail on Professor Fungi. the mottled shade does make the beards look a little dirty, but I think it gives the gnomes a sort of rustic charm!

As I was using fingering weight yarn (and thus making a Gneville, rather than a Gnancy, I believe?), I used the recommend 2.5mm and 2.75mm needles for that weight. These are slightly larger needles than Schira’s gnomes typically call for, which I assume is because of the cables and seemed to work out fine!

Thoughts on the Pattern

This was my second attempt at venturing away from the gnomes in the Gnomes of Grimblewood book (not including Professor Fungi, who was a mystery gnome) and I am definitely noticing that the individual gnome patterns are significantly more challenging than those in the book. If you’re new to the world of gnome-ing, I would definitely recommend starting with a book gnome, not an individual gnome, because of this.

My main issue with Gneville is his stability: he’s got quite a skinny base (and a very large hat), so, even though his body is fully stuffed with weighted stuffing, he just isn’t quite as stable as my other gnomes and does have a tendency to fall over if not positioned just so. I’m not sure how to go about fixing this for future iterations of Gneville: perhaps stuffing him more densely with the weighted stuffing? Perhaps a cardboard circle at his base? It’s hard to know!

The hat, body and beard all feature some combination of cables and twisted rib (I had some previous experience working cables, none at all working twisted rib!). The instructions for these parts are given in both a written and charted format. Typically, I tend to follow written patterns (charts always seem so overwhelming and, anyway, I am excellent at blindly following clear instructions). However, I’ve decided that I want to start learning how to understand knitting charts, so I challenged myself to use only the charts in this pattern. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it worked out and I felt so much more confident with chart-reading by the end of the project. I did find that charts were particularly helpful with the complex cable patterns because it clearly shows you which way the cables are going, so I think this was a really good pattern to work on my chart-reading abilities with!

Changes/Adaptations

I didn’t make any changes to this pattern this time around: the only thing I did do that might be of note is that I used the beard/hand colour for the pompom on the hat. The pattern doesn’t specify a particular colour for the pompom, but the gnomes pictured use a) a different colour altogether and b) a two-tone blend of the body and beard colours. I really wanted to embrace the Father Christmas-y vibes with my Gneville, so I used the cream beard colour for mine.

I also worked really hard to make a super fluffy pompom! Homemade pompoms are kind of… the bane of my life? They never seem to be as fluffy, dense and secure as I want/expect them to be, which always drives me mad. To make this pompom, I used the 1-inch pompom maker from Clover (the purple one in this pack). I wound the yarn so that the maker was pretty full (I aim for a semi-circle shape of yarn on each side, rather than a macaroni shape, if that makes sense), tied it off super tightly with a double knot, then used a sharp sewing needle to push the two ends back and forth through the centre of the pompom, to help secure it. I then went through an aggressive cycle of trimming and rolling the pompom between the palms of my hands, continuing on until I was pretty happy. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best I’ve managed to achieve so far, so I’m taking that as a win!

Things I Loved!

I already knew I’d love Gneville, due to his special backstory and festive place in my heart, but there were a few things about him that made me extra happy:

• Beard

I am obsessed with the twisted rib detail in Gneville‘s beard: I think it makes him look SO fancy, but also kind of rustic/folksy? I just love it— I think this might be my favourite gnome beard yet!

• ‘Bobble in Beard’ Nose

As if this beard needed any extra points in its favour: the nose is literally knit into the beard?! That means less sewing, less casting on, less time and LESS EFFORT! I’m obsessed with this method.

• Pompom

The pompom may have been a trial to make, but that’s just me and my pompom trauma talking. I think, here, the pompom really adds to Gneville‘s overall vibe: it definitely makes him feel extra Father Christmas-y, but it also gives a lovely finish to his hat!

• Cable pattern (particularly on the hat!)

This is definitely the most complicated series of cables I’ve ever worked and, while I don’t love working cables, I am absolutely obsessed with how they look on the hat: they’re just so beautiful and festive and cosy-looking! I’m not quite as in love with the honeycomb-style cable pattern on the body, but it’s still pretty cute!

• Colour

Red & cream Gneville is just SO FESTIVE and Santa-coded: I love it.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

• Working the cable pattern

Okay, okay. I love how the cables look (I actually love how all cables look!), but I just… don’t like working cables?! Is that, like, a blasphemous thing to say in the knitting community? Regular, simple cables are bad enough but… my goodness, there’s a lot of complex cabling in this little gnome and, as a result, the whole knitting process for Gneville is very, very slow. That hat? It felt endless. He definitely required the longest amount of knitting hours of all my gnomes, and the process wasn’t the most enjoyable, but I still love him and I’m still stupidly tempted to make a Gneville the Second, so make of that what you will.

• The hat brim

I feel like there’s something funny going on with Gneville‘s brim, and I thought it was just on my Gneville, but, on closer inspection, I think it’s on the Gneville (and Gnancy) in the pattern too! The brim is worked in alternating rows of knit/purl, to give a mock garter stitch effect. When you pick up the stitches for the body (much lower down on the brim than for other gnomes, interestingly!), I find it really pulls the brim and exposes the knit stitches (as opposed to the purl bumps) more than I would like. I’m not sure how I’d go about addressing that, or whether it’s a design feature in itself (thought I find that it’s the one place where my hat stuffing pokes through a little, which bothers me no end): maybe a slightly larger brim/slightly higher location for the body pick-up might help?

• Stuffing the hat

I love the look of a floppy gnome hat, but I really do not enjoy stuffing the hat with the ‘firm ball of stuffing’ that Schira talks about to get that partially-stuffed effect. It feels like a lot of pressure to get the right size/shape/firmness of the stuffing, I’m not entirely sure what I’m aiming for AND the stuffing can move at any moment once Gneville‘s sewn up, all of which make me slightly anxious and uncomfortable. I wish I could get to grips with this technique (in fairness, it’s only the second time I’ve done it!), but, currently, it plagues me.

• Gneville‘s stability (or lack thereof…)

I mentioned this earlier, but Gneville is definitely the least stable of my gnomes, despite his whole body being filled with weighted stuffing. As I said, I think it must have something to do with the relative skinniness of his body (or perhaps I didn’t stuff him enough?) but he sits perfectly well on my palm, then immediately flops over backwards when I set him on a flat surface (unless I spend a little while carefully positioning him). He can stand upright, he just needs a little arranging (but all my other gnomes seem to fare perfectly well, so this is definitely a Gneville problem!).

Final Thoughts

Gneville isn’t perfect, but he’s exactly what I wanted from this month’s gnome: he’s a tribute to the reason I started gnome-ing, he’s festive and Christmassy and fun and he makes a lovely addition to my ever-growing gnome collection.

It was really fun getting to grips with reading knitting charts with this project: I’m fine following colourwork charts, but I’ve never taken the time to understand cable charts and this felt like the perfect, low-stakes opportunity for that. I definitely feel much more comfortable with the process now and, even though I know I’d still have to double-check the symbols, I think I could work from a chart again in the future without too much bother!

Also, I know I’ve said it before, but Gneville‘s beard might just be my favourite thing I’ve ever made. I’m in love with it (and him), and that’s my main takeaway from this project!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this month’s gnome! I’m still deciding which gnome to knit next month… probably something without cables…

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Here We Gnome Again on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gneville the First here.

Gemma

xxx