Yarn Gnomes

I had fun today making an adorable yarn gnome!

For this little cutie, you will need white yarn, colored yarn, scissors, glue (or glue gun), 1 small round wood bead and a toilet paper roll.

First we will make the hat. Cut a piece off the end of the toilet paper roll less than an inch wide. Anywhere between 1/2″ to 3/4″ is fine.

Next you’ll need to cut a bunch of pieces of yarn 8-9″ long. It will depend on the thickness of your yarn how many pieces you will need. I used around 34 pieces for my hat.

To begin making the hat, take one piece of yarn and fold it in half.

Slide the folded end of the yarn through the cardboard ring you cut off the toilet paper roll.

Take both ends of the piece of yarn and feed them through the folded end of the yarn.

Pull it up snuggly, but be careful not to bend the cardboard ring.

Continue adding pieces of yarn in the same manner until you have filled up the cardboard ring.

Push the yarn close together so you don’t see the cardboard underneath.

Made it all the way around!

Now push all the ends of the yarn through to the other side of the ring.

Cut another piece of yarn to tie all the ends of yarn together.

Trim the longer piece of yarn down to the same size as the top of the hat. You can trim the hat tassel more evenly if you like. Wad up a tissue into a small ball and stuff it into the hat to give the hat some shape.

Now on to making the gnome’s face/beard. You will make a pom pom in the following manner: wrap the white yarn around your hand (or a piece of cardboard) at least 50 times. Again, it depends on the thickness of your yarn. The more times you wrap the yarn, the fuller the gnome’s beard will be.

Carefully slide the yarn bundle off your hand, holding the yarn together as it’s wrapped. Cut a piece of white yarn and tie it tightly around the middle of the yarn bundle.

Cut the loops in half on both ends of the yarn bundle.

One half done…

Now fluff the pom pom up using your hands to move the loose ends around.

If you like, you can trim the pom pom down into a smooth ball shape or because it’s a gnome, you can leave his beard looking at bit scraggly. I went with scraggly. 😉 Put a good amount of glue inside the bottom of the hat.

Push the white pom pom against the hat and hold in place for a little bit.

Lastly, glue the wood bead in place to be the gnome’s nose.

Allow the glue some time to dry before handling the gnome too much. You can trim his beard to look the way you like it. All done and you have an adorable gnome of your own! 🙂

If you want to hang your gnome up, you could use a piece of matching yarn or thread and run it through his hat. Or make it a magnet by gluing a magnet on the back. I hope you will enjoy your new friend! 🙂