Roly-Poly Winter Gnome

 

I have to admit, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the winter season. It’s cold, dreary, and then there’s the whole snow thing… did I mention it’s cold? There are very few things I enjoy about the season. I’ve been cold since birth and I’m just not at my best during winter, folks. My idea of fun in winter is a mug full of hot liquid to sip on, rewatching The Great British Baking Show, and, of course, yarny things. Aside from that, I’m pretty much obsessed with all things cute, so throw in all the gingerbread, snowman, and gnome characters of the season and I’m happy. That’s why I decided to make this little crochet winter gnome!

He’s cute and a little bit chonky, and has poly-beads in his flat little bum so he sits nicely unaided. His hat can either be lightly stuffed, but to be honest, I like to leave it unstuffed. This way, you can make it into the classic gnome hat shape or squish it down to give his hat a more “lived-in” look.

There is a complete photo tutorial at the end of this post to help you make your roly-poly crochet winter gnome. Leave a comment if you have any questions! I’d love to know what you think!

 

Materials

  • Worsted weight yarn in colors of your choice – colors needed are for body/hat/sleeves, shoes/gloves, nose color, and beard color.
  • Size E (3.5mm) crochet hook
  • Poly-fil
  • Poly-pellets
  • Yarn needle
  • Stitch marker

 

Abbreviations Used

sc (single crochet)

hdc (half double crochet)

dc (double crochet)

inc (increase): Make 2 single crochet stitches into the same stitch.

dec (decrease): Insert hook under front loop only of next two stitches, yarn over, draw through through first two loops on hook, yarn over, draw through remaining two loops to finish.

st (stitch)

BLO: back loop only

 

Notes

Gauge is not terribly important here as long as you are producing a nice, tight fabric so that the polyfill won’t pop through your stitches.

This pattern is written using US terminology.

Pieces are made in continuous (spiral) rounds.

Completed gnome measures approximately 6″ tall.

Please note that I crochet left-handed and my photo guides may reflect this. If you crochet right-handed (with your hook in your right hand), all the stitches are the same and will look the same, you will simply be working in the opposite direction as I am.

Please do not copy or sell my pattern in any way. You are most welcome to sell finished objects made using my pattern. I only ask for you to please credit me and link back when applicable so that other makers can find my patterns as well. Thanks!

 

Pattern

 

Head/Body

Rnd 1: Using color selected for the body, make 6 sc into magic circle.

Rnd 2: Inc in each st (12)

Rnd 3: [Sc 1, inc in next st] 6 times. (18)

Rnd 4: Sc 1, inc, *Sc 2, Inc, repeat from * to last remaining stitch, sc 1. (24)

Rnd 5: [Sc 3, inc in next st] 6 times. (30)

Rnd 6: Sc 2, inc, *sc 4, Inc, repeat from * to last 2 remaining stitches, sc 2. (36)

Rnd 7: [Sc 5, inc in next st] 6 times. (42)

Rnd 8: Sc 3, inc, *sc 6, Inc, repeat from * to last 3 remaining stitches, sc 3. (48)

Rnd 9: [Sc 7, inc in next st] 6 times. (54)

Rnd 10: In BLO, sc all. (54)

Rnds 11-12: In both loops, sc all. (54)

Rnd 13: (Sc 7, Dec) 6 times. (48)

Rnds 14-15: Sc all. (48)

Rnd 16: Sc 3, dec, *sc 6, dec, repeat from * to last 3 remaining stitches, sc 3. (42)

Rnds 17-18: Sc all. (42)

Rnd 19: (Sc 5, dec) 6 times. (36)

Rnd 20: Sc all. (36)

Rnd 21: Sc 2, dec, *sc 4, dec, repeat from * to last 2 remaining stitches, sc 2. (30)

Rnd 22: Sc all. (30)

Rnd 23: (Sc 3, dec) 6 times. (24)

**At this point begin, stop and pour poly-beads into the gnome body. Pour enough so there is about 1/2″ of beads at the bottom. Now stuff the rest of the body with polyfill.

Rnd 24: Sc all. (24)

Rnd 25: Sc 1, dec * sc 2, dec, repeat from * to last remaining stitch, sc 1. (18)

Rnd 26: (Sc 1, dec) 6 times. (12)

Rnd 27: Dec all. (6)

Cut 6-inch yarn tail, thread yarn needle and pass through remaining stitches, pull tight to close.

 

Hat

Rnd 1: Using hat color, make 4 sc into magic circle. (4)

Rnd 2: [Sc 1, inc] 2 times. (6)

Rnd 3: [Sc 2, inc] 2 times. (8)

Rnd 4: [Sc 3, inc] 2 times. (10)

Rnd 5: [Sc 4, inc] 2 times. (12)

Rnd 6: [Sc 5, inc] 2 times. (14)

Rnd 7: [Sc 6, inc] 2 times. (16)

Rnd 8: [Sc 7, inc] 2 times. (18)

Rnd 9: [Sc 8, inc] 2 times. (20)

Rnd 10: [Sc 9, inc] 2 times. (22)

Rnd 11: [Sc 10, inc] 2 times. (24)

Rnd 12: [Sc 11, inc] 2 times. (26)

Rnd 13: [Sc 12, inc] 2 times. (28)

Rnd 14: [Sc 13, inc] 2 times. (30)

Rnd 15: [Sc 14, inc] 2 times. (32)

Rnd 16: [Sc 15, inc] 2 times. (34)

Rnd 17: [Sc 16, inc] 2 times. (36)

Rnd 18: [Sc 17, inc] 2 times. (38)

Rnd 19: [Sc 18, inc] 2 times. (40)

Rnd 20: [Sc 17, hdc, dc, hdc] two times.(40)

Rnd 21: Sc all. (40)

Finish off, leaving a long enough tail to sew hat to the body.

**Note that the hat will have two “dips” on the side. These “dips” of the hat are meant to be placed so they are on each side of his face – think of it as placing them where his ears would be.

 

Glove/Arm Combo – Make 2

Rnd 1: Using glove color, make 6 sc into a magic circle.

Rnd 2: Inc in each st. (12)

Rnds 3-4: Sc all. (12)

Rnd 5: (Sc 2, dec) 3 times. (9)

Change to sleeve color

Rnds 6-8: Sc all. (9)

Finish off, leaving a long enough tail to sew to body.

 

Thumbs – Make 2

Rnd 1: Using the same color as gloves, make sc 4 into a magic circle.

Rnds 2-4: Sc 4.

Finish off, leaving a long enough tail to sew to glove.

 

Nose

Rnd 1: Using nose color, make sc 6 into a magic circle.

Rnd 2: Inc in each st. (12)

Rnds 3-4: Sc all. (12)

Finish off, leaving a long enough tail to sew to body.

 

Feet – Make 2

Rnd 1: Using boot color, make 6 sc into a magic circle.

Rnd 2: Inc in each st around. (12)

Rnd 3: (Sc 1, inc) 6 times. (18)

Rnds 4-5: Sc all. (18)

Rnd 6: (Sc 1, dec) 6 times. (12)

Finish off, leaving a long enough tail to sew to body.

 

Assembly – Photo Tutorial

 

Sewing on gnome nose
Put the hat on the gnome, making sure the two “dips” on each side (where you placed the hdc, dc, hdc) are on opposite sides of the face. Place nose so that the top lines up to the brim of the hat and the bottom lines up in approximately row 16, pin in place, and begin to sew on. Once you are halfway finished sewing the nose on, stuff lightly with polyfill and finish sewing to the doll.

 

Take your gnome thumb and sew it right on the border of the color change between the glove and arm (Left). Sew up the sides so that the thumbs lie flat with the gloves (Right).

 

  • sewing gnome arm closed
  • sewing arm on crochet gnome
Making sure the thumb is facing either the front or back, press the ends of the arm together, making sure yarn tail winds up on one side and sew shut. (Left). Sew arm using the left over tail so that it lies right under the brim of the hat. In my case I sewed the arm to row 16.

 

  • sewing feet on crochet gnome
For the feet, lightly stuff and then sew flat as you did for the arms (Left). Attach to body on row 9, just above the ridge created by your BLO row, approximately 8-9 stitches apart. You want them wide enough apart for the beard to rest in between, so that the shoes are still visible (Right).

 

Attaching the Beard

 

  • pinning crochet gnome's hat in place
Now for the beard! First things first, place your hat how you will sew it (again, make sure the “dips” are on each side of the face – imagine placing them over where his ears would be) and stick some pins in so it stays in place and doesn’t shift around on you. This is used as a guide of sorts, to see how far up you’ll go with the strands of the beard. Your hat should sit on your gnome’s nose (Left). Cut about 40 or so strands of the color you’ve chosen for the beard, each roughly 8 inches in length (Right).

 

Insert your hook approximately 3 stitches away from the nose in the row just below the brim of the hat (Left). Fold one of the beard strands in half and place on hook (Right).

 

  • attaching yarn for beard
  • attaching yarn strands for gnome beard
Pull loop through stitch (Left). Yarn over and pull through loop (Right).

 

  • how to make a yarn beard
  • attaching yarn strands for gnome facial hair
Pull strands tight (Left). Now, for the top row make three beard strands on each side of the nose. Note that the innermost strands on each row must lie as close to the nose as possible – it should cover up the body color, but don’t worry – if in doubt you can always add to it later (Right).

 

  • Gnome beard
For the second row, place strands in the same row as the first row, but make one extra at the outermost (Left). Next, on the third row, four on each side of the nose, corresponding with the position of the stitches from row two (Right).

 

For the fourth row, make three strands directly into the bottom of the nose (Left). On the fifth row, start in the same position as where you started on the third row and continue the line all the way under the nose and to the opposite end of the beard. For my gnome this was ten strands (Right).

 

  • how to make a crochet gnome beard
  • making a yarn beard for crochet winter gnome
On the sixth row, I wanted to cut down on some volume but still provide some coverage so the body color wouldn’t show through the beard, so I only did four strands, leaving a stitch in between them (Left). For the seventh row, I made nine strands, keeping them within the same boundaries as the previous rows (Right).

 

Now straighten out your gnome’s beard and take a look to see how you like the beard coverage. Do you notice any bare spots? Is the body color poking through by the nose? If you notice any areas not to your liking add a strand or two to those areas. The yarn I used was pretty full (I used Red Heart Super Saver in Aran) so I was happy with the coverage (Left). For the final touch, I like to add a row just underneath where the hat lands. This will help achieve that classic winter gnome look where it looks like the hat is resting on his beard. Wiggle your gnome’s hat up a bit and add three or four strands to each side, leaving a gap above the nose (Right).

 

This is the finished row under the hat (Left). Next, trim your gnome’s beard up to desired length (Right).

 

sewing gnome hat on
Lastly, pull the hat down so that it rests just over the top beard row you made. Leave it unstuffed in order to play around with the shape. Thread your yarn needle and sew the gnome hat on.

 

Leaving it unstuffed makes it so you can have any shape hat you want. On the left, I shaped the hat in the classic gnome hat shape, and on the right I smooshed it down to give it a little more of a “lived-in” look!  Have fun playing around with it! 

I hope you enjoy your Roly-Poly Winter Gnome!

 

 

 

 

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