Well this little dude, that happens to be another of Alan Dart's 'Yuletide Gnomes', sat there (in a slightly more pulled together state...) with his pepper gray beard waiting for the new yarn to come... and waiting.... and waiting... until finally I started to like the pepper gray, my Grandmother came to visit (who was to be the recipient of this particular gnome), and my patience was worn, so out came the needle and thread and on went this beard permanently.

I went for a more woodsy look this time with the greens and tan, it seemed fitting since I was pairing him with a fall 'centerpiece' (if you can call it that) and wanted something earthy.

I like how he turned out, though I had intended to put on a long straight brown beard and ended up with a bushy pepper gray beard. By time I sewed him together he seemed pretty happy with his beard, so all is well (because not liking ones beard must be a terrible thing for a gnome).

This is the 'small' size gnome done on a size US3 needle and a double strand of a regia wool sock yarn and some recycled wool in tan for the boots and cream for the head. I like toys to be knit tight, and if they're knit real tight I'm less likely to need to line the boots before I fill them with the plastic pellets.

For those of you still looking for this pattern, I used Alan Dart's Yuletide Gnomes pattern out of the insert that came with a Christmas issue of Simply Knitting, they recently put up instructions for how to get your hands on this pattern here on their blog the exchange rate a couple weeks ago for US Dollars was almost double the British Pound, 1.8 to 1 or something like that... an internet search on it would be the fastest way to find the most current exchange rate.

Thanks to everybody who left comments on the last gnome I made! I think it broke a personal record for most comments received on a single post!

And I'll leave you now with a picture of the latest Gnome sitting among the toadstools...

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...