After hunting high and low for first DK, then fingering yarn in a nice skin tone, I think I finally found some I like.
02-28-2018
I finished the torso. Now I need to pick out the colors for his clothing and start his britches.
03-02-2018
I got the left leg completed today right down to the adorable pointy shoe. I finished the right britches leg. Time for bed. Maybe I can get the body done tomorrow.
03-04-2018
I finished his other leg last night and got the arms knitted tonight.
I knitted the arms before stuffing, because I plan to put a pipe cleaner armature in him. We’ll see how that goes. I’m going to use the directions from the knitted Hitty pattern. I also plan to do the thumb needle sculpting from those directions too. I need to take a picture of him tomorrow. He looks so cute already.
03-05-2018
I got the body wired and mostly stuffed this morning. It went well, but was a bit stressful for some reason. On to his head.
03-05-2018
2:16 - Head knitted, nose stitched. I went ahead and sewed the neck on since I made the armature and the stuffing needs to be around it. I may still put a dowel inside his neck although it seems pretty sturdy with just the pipe cleaner. I also stitched his thumbs. Looking good!
9:45 PM - I finished his hat. I took a look at the ears and decided to wait until morning for them. I’m thinking the last few rows of the hat would be easier to knit as icord. The hat went quickly. Some of my dolls will need hats for gnome day I’m sure.
03-06-2018
The ears are knitted. They are definitely morning work. I’ll wait to stitch them on until I do his face and beard. On to the coat which should be smooth sailing.
03-07-2018
8:45 PM - I finished the jacket and started his belt. I’ve put off making his face about as long as I can. Hopefully I’ll tackle it in the morning.
I asked Mohairyone about his Groovy Gnome’s vest. He said the pattern came from Fiona Goble’s book, Knit Your Own Zombie. It’s Dracula’s waistcoat. I checked Look Inside on Amazon and the pattern was on one of the pages shown. Yay! Now, of course, he needs a vest.
03-08-2018
I finished the vest. It fits perfectly. The only change I made was in using fingering yarn and #2 needles. I also did a three needle bind off for the shoulders instead of casting off and stitching up.
03-09-2018
And finished! I sewed on his hair the same way I did the beard, by doing a lark’s head knot with the short strands over a longer strand and sewing that to his head. Then I finished up the belt icord, so that I could make his “between the legs” strip. I think it might have been easier to knit the strip before stuffing and then sew it up after he was finished. I don’t know who had it worse during the knitting me dealing with a doll who kept glaring at me with his pinhead eyes, or the doll who was disturbed at the affront to his dignity. I was calling the strip a codpiece to myself, until I had a peek on google at what they actually looked like. Talk about disturbing! Now that it’s finished it does resemble a codpiece, but a very tasteful one.
Once the hair and codpiece were safely taken care of there was nothing left but the eyes and eyebrows. It just so happened that it was the perfect time to tackle them. When the time is right, I just seem to know. I’m pleased with how they turned out.
05-03-2020
I was just reminiscing with another group about all the fun we had with Sara’s Forest Gnome KAL. I had to do a bit of searching to find some of the wrap up photos, so I thought I would link them here.
Gnome Poster - click on the poster to see them better
Gnaked Gnomes Calendar - a biggish pdf file
Gnome party
All the photos from the Forest Gnome KAL thread
All the photos from the Gnome Halloween Costume Contest
April 5, 2022
Big news! Rupert is thrilled to have his portrait on the landing page for Sara’s new site.
Be sure to check it out: https://www.rabbitholeknits.com/