Gemma 
Welcome to the fourth post in my Year of Gnomes series, where I’m documenting my experience participating in the Year of Gnomes, a knitalong run by Imagined Landscapes (aka Sarah Schira)!
My April gnome had the added fun of being a mystery gnome, which I made as part of a separate KAL, also run by Schira. Because this was an MKAL (mystery knitalong), I didn’t want to post about it in April and potentially ruin the surprise for other knitters, but, naturally, I then promptly forgot to post about it when May rolled around (I guess I was too busy rolling around in a wedding cake-induced coma). So, finally, just in time for… June… here is my April gnome (and a post on my May gnome will be coming very soon too!).
Please welcome, then…
Professor Gortabello Fungi!
Professor Fungi likes to think of himself as one of the ‘cool’ teachers at Undergrowth University. In fact, Gortabello’s favourite mid-lecture digressions often involve him regaling his students with surprising anecdotes from his own time as a student at the university, in which certain… psychedelic ‘shrooms’… feature heavily. Unfortunately, he also has a tendency to fall asleep mid-sentence during lectures, which (paired with his rather troll-like snoring) does rather negate his cool factor…
Table of Contents
- My First Ever MKAL
- The Yarn
- Thoughts on the Pattern
- Changes/Adaptations
- Things I Loved!
- Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
- Final Thoughts
My First Ever MKAL
Professor Fungi was my first foray into the world of mystery knitalongs, so it was a completely new experience for me. At times, I was vaguely (read: very) uncomfortable with the concept of having no idea what I was making, but at other times, I really loved the process and found it super fun and exciting!
For the MKAL, there’s a pre-arranged schedule of pattern ‘drops’, with each one including instructions for various ‘mystery pieces’, which, eventually, come together to form a finished gnome (in this case, Professor Fungi). Having made a few gnomes already by this point, I could tell what some pieces were just from the instructions (the arms, nose, feet and beard in particular), but there were other pieces that kept me in suspense right until the last moment (I was convinced the basket was a mini mushroom situation, but that’s on me…).
The one thing I did struggle with with the MKAL was the colour choices. I definitely like being able to pick my colours much more intentionally ahead of time (but, in this case, it was only a problem because I went rogue and picked a blue shade for a mushroom-inspired gnome like a crazy person).
The Yarn
As I said, I went a little rogue with my colour choices (as in, I realised part of the way through the MKAL that I had completely ignored some of the pre-KAL colour advice… oops?). In my defence, I just happened to hold the red and teal yarns together and fell in LOVE, so, really, I had no choice.
Just like with my other Year of Gnomes projects, I was committed to using up leftover scraps of fingering weight yarns for Professor Fungi, so I don’t know the exact yarns I used. The colours, however, were as follows:
- Yarn A: Teal (the main colour for the body and my rogue choice. As instructed, I also used this for the feet and the arms).
- Yarn B: A speckled cream colour (the contrast shade, which was supposed to be just a little darker than Yarn A… I got a bit confused and convinced myself this would be the shade for the polka dots on the mushroom cap, which, unsurprisingly, it was not AT ALL, so I did have to do a bit of fudging with the colours later… I have to say though, I don’t hate the high-contrast result on the body?!).
- Yarn C: A pale grey (this is quite similar to my contrast shade, but up close you can see the difference!).
- Yarn D: red (it had to be done, right?).
Thoughts on the Pattern
Professor Fungi is definitely the most complicated gnome I’ve made, both in terms of the MKAL process and the actual design. Then again, I have been working exclusively from the Gnomes of Grimblewood book up to this point, which I think makes a special effort to feel approachable and less overwhelming for any beginners. Having said that, no part of Professor Fungi felt overly challenging to make (partly, as always, because, even in MKAL format, Schira’s instructions are so clear and calming— sometimes I think she could talk me through an open heart surgery and I’d be absolutely fine)(I am, of course, joking— you should not trust me and my shaky hands with a scalpel).
I feel like I learned so many new (gnome-related and other) techniques through this MKAL, so I am really glad I participated in it. It was definitely a new experience for me, but, having completed it, I’d definitely be up for another gnome MKAL again (which is good, because I’m pretty sure there’s another two lined up in the schedule for later on this year).
Changes/Adaptations
With this being a mystery gnome, I was in absolutely NO position to be making changes/adaptations, because, to be honest, I had no clue what was going on most of the time.
However, while I followed the pattern exactly, I did make a colour switch (because of the aforementioned colour choice conundrum). In the pattern, it instructs you to use the beard/nose colour to make the spots on the toadstool cap. Because I had, quite literally, picked my Yarn B under the mistaken impression that it would be for the spots, I decided to throw caution to the wind and use Yarn B instead of Yarn C. I have to say, i’m glad I did— my Professor Fungi has a perfect toadstool cap now!
If I were to make Professor Fungi again, though, there are a few little elements I would be tempted to switch up/incorporate…
- The Basket
I don’t love the mottled, two-tone effect of the basket: it feels quite busy (though that is definitely because of my high-contrast yarn choices on the body, which makes the body busier than it should be, thus leaving less room for a busy basket)(go on, Gemma. How many times can you say ‘busy’?). I think if I made Professor Fungi again, I’d be tempted to use two strands of the same yarn to make the basket instead. I also think, that way, you’d be able to see the texture of the basket more, which I think is a bit lost in its current state.
- Glasses
I’ve seen a few Professor Fungis online that have these SUPER cute, tiny little spectacles (see here for an example, which also features a single-colour basket)?! I’m OBSESSED. Where do they come from? Do I make them myself? Is there a tiny-gnome-glasses supplier out there? Perhaps as I make more gnomes, I’ll stumble upon some spectacle-related intel that I can apply to my next Professor Fungi, because he just feels like the kind of gnome that should be bespectacled, right?
- Hat
First let me say that I absolutely LOVE Professor Fungi’s toadstool cap as it is (more on that later), but I did see someone on Ravelry (loisbemis: you can see the project here) who made the caps on their Professor Fungi pointier (a different variety of mushroom, perhaps?) and I’m kind of obsessed with it? I’m not entirely sure how they did it, but I’d LOVE to give it a go!
- Colour Choices
As happy as I ended up being with my… unusual… colour choices, I would still really like to give making Professor Fungi with the intended yarn choices a go! Something with a little less contrast, perhaps more of a realistic mushroom colour palette, you know?
Things I Loved!
Professor Fungi was definitely a slowburn for me: I couldn’t visualise how he was going to turn out (though I feel that is literally the whole point of an MKAL), so I wasn’t sure how I felt about him until he was finished. Now he’s done and sitting on the mantelpiece, though, I can safely say that he has multiple features that I really love:
- His Mushroom Cap
Why is his absolutely MASSIVE mushroom hat so perfect?! I’m so happy I picked red for the hat colour, because it turned out so beautifully toadstool-y, I think it’s truly my favourite thing about Gortabello. Also, the technique for adding the polka dots is so simple and magical, it just made me even more impressed with Schira’s creativity.
- The Pattern on the Body
I know that my Professor Fungi’s body is a bit… unusual, as a result of my high-contrast colour choices, but I really do like how it turned out. There’s something about the colour choices/texture combination that just really works for me (though I’d love to try a lower contrast Fungi and see how I feel about the body when it’s made as intended!).
- The Short Rows
Ah, short rows, my old friends! I love working short rows: I just think they’re so magical and surprisingly easy to work up! I love how they’ve been used in Professor Fungi, to tip the cap back a little and make him more of a mushroom-inspired gnome than a gnome-inspired mushroom. Long live the short rows!
- Cardboard Circles
Professor Fungi incorporates two cardboard circles (one at his base and one at the base of his cap), to help him keep his shape after stuffing. I think this is a really clever way of helping him stay structurally sound (particularly with that humongous hat)!
Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
- The Cardboard Circles
I know, I know, I just told you how much I loved these and I do! I love the effect they give and they do feel like an unavoidable part of the pattern but they were just… an extra step, you know? Like with any handmade toy, it’s always the assembly that I have to steel myself for and knowing that I had to go find some cardboard, cut out the circles and work with them? It just felt like a lot. I was definitely dreading this stage and, while it wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be, it was still a little bit of extra faff that added to my assembly-induced lethargy.
- The Beard
I tried SO hard to get my beard curly: I even paid special attention to my tension to try and help it along, but, alas, my poor Professor Fungi is a wavy boy, not a curly boy… I was scrolling through the other gnomes on Ravelry and some people have got the CURLIEST beards I’ve ever seen and I’m SO jealous! I’m not sure how to rectify this: perhaps a different yarn would help?
- The Nose
Even as I made the ‘Mystery Piece’ that would eventually become the nose, I could tell it was a nose and I could tell it was significantly bigger than any of the other gnome noses I had made. I get it, some gnomes have bigger noses (and I do think, in this case his big nose helps to keep his hat at the right angle) and I don’t want to be nose-ist, but… it’s just so big? I think, maybe, I need to make another gnome with a larger nose, so Professor Fungi doesn’t stand out quite as much in my collection?
- The Basket
I mentioned this already, but I do think the marled, textured basket is a little busy for my Professor Fungi. I think you lose the basket texture when you use two colours like that, which is a shame, because it’s actually a pretty intricate (though not at all difficult to work up) pattern that gives a lovely, basket-y effect.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m actually really happy with my Professor Fungi. I know he’s a little unusual (whoever heard of a red and teal mushroom?!), but he’s mine and I love him. This was such a new experience for me and it was definitely challenging at parts (not necessarily from a knitting perspective, but more from a ‘I have no idea what this is going to look like and I am uncomfortable‘ perspective, but I feel you really just have to embrace the MKAL, follow the instructions and let Schira take control of your needles. Honestly, it was kind of freeing!
I’d definitely like to make another, more complex gnome soon though, because Gortabello definitely stands out amongst my other three Year of Gnomes projects! Perhaps that’s a sign to challenge myself a little more and branch out into a more intimidating gnome? Hmm…
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my experience making Professor Fungi and participating in my first ever MKAL! I’ll also be posting about my May gnome later soon, so stay tuned for that!
If you’re interested…
You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.
You can find the pattern for Professor Fungi on Ravelry here.
You can find my Ravelry project page for Professor Fungi here.
Gemma
xxx
