Sometime ago I saw Alan Dart's "Yuletide Gnomes" knitted up on a blog or some other such place and fell in love, but since it was in a UK magazine and the pamphlet is now under high demand (IOW - $$), I had written it off as never being able to get my hands on the pattern.

Well a couple weeks ago my mom managed to obtain a copy!! It was sent to her by a lady in the UK (thank you kind lady in the UK!). I, of course, immediately commandeered it before it had a chance to be tucked behind all the other patterns on the piano (I was doing it a favor - it didn't want to be stuck on that dusty ol' pattern shelf. And mom was already working on a project!)

I ended up grabbing some Jeager Matchmaker yarn, a 100% merino super-wash in an aran weight, a little heavier than called for, but it worked nicely, though may have knitted up a little larger than gauge.

The only long eyelash yarn I had around in a decent beard color was the stuff I'd used to trim my cousins illusion knit scarf, it was some glittery black Lionbrand 'Festive Fur' so I selected colors to go with this. I figured gnomes are tuff enough to stand a little pixie dust in their beards anyway.

He knitted up pretty quick, most of the pieces were done by the end of the first day. The biggest hold up was getting some plastic beanbag type pellets to weight the bodies, arms, and legs, and give them their floppiness.

Here he is going under the needle... some brain and head surgery was called for, stitches over staples were chosen to close. He was also in great need of a stuffing transfusion.... poor guy. He's had a rough beginning...

And here's the poor dude without a beard. There really is no end to the humiliation. A gnome without a beard? That's like a cowboy without a horse! Or a bird without feathers! (a knitter without yarn!!) How embarrassing... I'm blushing for him... no really I am.

Once I had the pellets he went together pretty quick. In all, he took no more than two days to make, though they weren't consecutive days because of the lack of materials.

I don't usually enjoy piecing things. Though right after I'd made the body I realized I could be knitting this in the round on DPNs, and that helped a ton in the amount of sewing I had to do in the end.

I saved the unavoidable piecing for stitch meet (which I only recently started going to, explaining why you hadn't heard of it before now). In the end piecing actually went pretty quick, and as the excitement of seeing him finished mounted, it seemed to go even faster!

Here he is fresh off the needles. I just love him to bits!

He's already whispered his name to my mom - apparently his name is Jerome. I haven't heard any other name myself, so it must be Jerome!

I thought I'd also show you some other angles, he has such personality that it can't be caught in just one picture!

This one was so much fun to make, I've already almost finished another! I think though that I'd like to wait for a different eyelash yarn for the beard, right now he's sporting a temporary variegated pepper-gray curly beard, a toupee for gnomes of sorts... until his brown bushy beard - that has already been ordered - can get here.

And finally - the finished gnome was relocated to his natural habitat! A happy day for all gnome preservationists everywhere.

One of the cute people of the house (this particular cute person would probably greatly resent me calling him that) said that he must work in a silver mine and so he gets silver dust stuck in his beard, making it sparkle. That must be it...