This is a small Christmas gnome — an 18 cm figure in a green cardigan and green underpants, wearing a Christmas tree for a hat. The tree is the joke: it is a 90-stitch cone, worked plain round after round with a ring of increases every other round, and it is held upright by a piece of wire that runs from the inside of the hat into the pompom on top.
Almost everything is glued rather than sewn: eyes, nose and feet are flat pieces worked in YarnArt Jeans and fixed to the face with second glue. That makes it a two-evening project, and the only fiddly part is the cardigan, which is worked top-down in double crochet with chain arches for the raglan.
Every round is written out below.
What you need
- Yarn: YarnArt Jeans in white 01, and shades 56, 69, 88, 40 for the tree, cardigan and underpants
- Hook: 2 mm
- Notions: filler, thin wire, two small buttons, second glue, black contour paint, two black beads
Abbreviations
ch chain, sc single crochet, hdc half double crochet, dc double crochet, inc increase, dec decrease, MR adjustable ring.
The tree hat
- R1: 6 sc in MR (6)
- R2: (sc, inc) x3 (9)
- R3: (2 sc, inc) x3 (12)
- R4: (sc, inc) x6 (18)
- R5: sc, inc, (2 sc, inc) x5, sc (24)
- R6–7: 24 sc — 2 rounds
- R8: (3 sc, inc) x6 (30)
- R9: 30 sc (30)
- R10: 2 sc, inc, (4 sc, inc) x5, 2 sc (36)
- R11: (5 sc, inc) x6 (42)
- R12: 3 sc, inc, (6 sc, inc) x5, 3 sc (48)
- R13–16: 48 sc — 4 rounds
- R17: (7 sc, inc) x6 (54)
- R18: 54 sc (54)
- R19: 4 sc, inc, (8 sc, inc) x5, 4 sc (60)
- R20: 60 sc (60)
- R21: (9 sc, inc) x6 (66)
- R22: 66 sc (66)
- R23: 5 sc, inc, (10 sc, inc) x5, 5 sc (72)
- R24: 72 sc (72)
- R25: (11 sc, inc) x6 (78)
- R26: 78 sc (78)
- R27: 6 sc, inc, (12 sc, inc) x5, 6 sc (84)
- R28: 84 sc (84)
- R29: (13 sc, inc) x6 (90)
- R30: 90 sc (90)
Fold the wire in half, push it through the hat from the wrong side and fix it without going all the way: the two ends come out at the top and go into the pompom.
Pompom
- R1: 6 sc in MR (6)
- R2: 6 inc (12)
- R3: (3 sc, inc) x3 (15)
- R4–5: 15 sc — 2 rounds
Insert the wire ends, then continue:
- R6: (3 sc, dec) x3 (12)
- R7: 6 dec (6)
Stuff, close the six stitches, then wrap the whole wire with the same yarn and fix it with a drop of glue.
Nose, feet and eyes
- Nose: 8 ch, inc, 5 sc, 4 sc in one loop, 5 sc, inc (18); R2 (2 sc, inc) x6 (24); R3 24 sc. Paint a white stripe across it.
- Feet (2): 10 ch, inc, 7 sc, 4 sc in one loop, 7 sc, inc (22); R2 2 inc, 6 sc, 6 inc dc, 6 sc, 2 inc (32). Paint white stripes.
- Eyes (2): 6 sc in MR, 6 inc (12), (sc, inc) x6 (18).
Glue the two white eyes slightly overlapping, ten rows down from the top of the hat, then the nose, then the feet at the base. Add the black beads, embroider the mouth and the eyebrows.
Cardigan
Worked sideways in double crochet, with a chain arch (hdc, ch, hdc) as the raglan line.
- Foundation: 45 ch — 10 dc, arch, 5 dc (sleeve), arch, 10 dc, arch, 5 dc (sleeve), arch, 10 dc
- Row 2: 2 ch, turn, 11 dc, arch, 7 dc, arch, 12 dc, arch, 7 dc, arch, 11 dc
- Row 3: 2 ch, turn, 12 dc, 3 ch, skip 10, 16 dc, 3 ch, skip 10, 12 dc (46)
- Row 4: ch, turn, 9 sc, (inc, 2 sc) x9, 10 sc (55)
- Row 5: ch, turn, 10 sc, (inc, 3 sc) x9, 9 sc (64)
- Rows 6–10: ch, turn, 64 sc — 5 rows
- Rows 11–12: white, 64 sc — 2 rows
Button loops along the side: 4 ch, skip 3, 10 sc, 4 ch, skip 3, slst in the last stitch. Sew the two buttons opposite.
Underpants
Green, in turning rows.
- Foundation: 33 ch, 32 sc
- Rows 2–3: ch, turn, 32 sc
- Then decrease one stitch at each end every row: 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14
- Last 10 rows: ch, turn, 14 sc
Assembly
- Pull the hat over the head and fix the wire inside.
- Dress the gnome in the underpants, then the cardigan, and close the cardigan with the buttons.
- Check that the tree stands straight — it is the wire, not the stuffing, that holds it.
Notes
The tree cone is the whole silhouette: work the increases loosely, otherwise the hat pulls into a mushroom shape instead of a fir tree. If you want the stripes on the feet to line up, paint them after the glue has dried, one coat only — YarnArt Jeans takes paint unevenly when it is wet twice.
More Christmas makes: Ghost with a Pumpkin Hat is the Halloween one, Christmas Bear is the plush one, and Doll Boo is the doll that wears a dress. Everything is on the patterns page.
Pattern source: Christmas Clothes, English crochet pattern for an 18 cm gnome.