Last year I knit three gnomes and thought, “Oh, I can see this getting to be addictive”, but put the joy of it away for this year.
Then this year, as I began a green tall gnome, I realized that I could add colourwork and got nearly lightheaded with the possibilities. To fit the colourwork bands in between the increases, they had to be spaced a little farther apart, and so this first one grew into a more stately ‘grandpappy’ sort of gnome. And then there was a nice midnight blue gnome.
And of course, what’s a grandpappy without a wee baby?
I left off the arms to make this one a little more delicate. Rainer liked it, but thought I could maybe go smaller. Less of a preschool gnome, more of a wee baby. My second try turned out more toddler-sized. So this morning I whipped up a wee, wee gnome. Possibly Brazil-nut sized or smaller. And utterly sweet.
Here’s a current family photo:
Hard to imagine that just a few days ago there were three.
We are going to be naming them. Germanic names. Ernst. Sven possibly. And Gerswinda (a concubine of Charlemagne’s). We’re accepting name nominations – should that be gnominations? Male and female names, because we’ve decided that, like dwarves, they’re all bearded.
Stay tuned. I can’t imagine this is a final family photo.
Here’s the link should you want 3 Gnomes of your own. Or 6. Or a baker’s dozen… (note that I made mine of fingering weight and therefore smaller than the pattern samples)
Handmade Homeschool 
Where did you find the pattern??? These are adorable!
How silly of me! It’s called 3 Gnomes and it’s on Ravelry. I’ll go put a link in the post.
They are adorable. I wish I had a few less knitted gifts to finish before Christmas. There’s always next year.
I’m calling mine snow gnomes – they’re out from the first snow in fall, til the last snow in the yard melts. That gives you time to work on them in January!
Any chance you’d make one to sell? I would love one to be our tree gnome for next year. He’d have to be small enough to fit on the branches of a Manitoba black spruce. They are so cute and I can’t knit this kind of thing yet.
Leanne, are you sure you can’t knit this? It is really, really simple. All you have to be able to do is knit in the round. It’s all really simple techniques that add up to look adorable. If you can knit in the round, you can do these little fellows. If you can’t, well, knitting in the round is easy too! I bet you that by next November you’d find that if you knit a hat or two, or a pair of socks, you’d tackle these and laugh that you were intimidated!
So adorable! Happy new year!