Christmas Gnome

This was a fun … and very frustrating … project.

The beard is made with crochet LOOPS .. that was the easy part.
The legs. well that is another story. I tried 4 different strategies but ended up with a long tube.
Because i didn’t have the black yarn handy, I started at the top of the legs and worked my way down to the feet .. then I had the challenge of creating a “foot” shape…. argh.. oh and I did mention that I ran out of red yarn about half way down the second leg? It was one frustration after another.

I saw one similar online but the instructions were in Russian. The translation provided by google wasn’t too helpful as I couldn’t figure out what “6 tablespoons” meant in crochet terms.
So I worked it out on my own, creating my own version.

The Main Body/Head:
BASE
magic ring; 8 dc
2 dc in each stitch (around)
2 dc; 1 dc; 2dc (around)
sc around
NOTE: next time I would do the dc stitches in red, to match the first ring of red in the legs. It would look better.

BEARD
How I held the yarn (sorry, right-handers – I’m a lefty)

[yarn labels: yarn for the “yarn over” and the two parts of the loop, (front & back labelled for tutorial purpose only)]

To make the loop, I put my hook through the next stitch (a sc from row below) and put it IN FRONT of the front loop and BEHIND the back loop and pulled it through the sc, putting two strands on the hook.

Next, I did a yarn over (hooking onto the yarn by my baby finger) and pulled it back through all the strands on the hook, finishing the stitch.
-—

I did 4 rows of these elongated loops .
Stuff the body/head.
change to red yarn
sc around
with each row after this, decrease stitches gradually, to create the peaked hat. I did the decreases randomly so I don’t have a pattern for you.
Stuff the hat as you go, as it will get harder to put the stuffing into the smaller hole at the top.
Finish off.

Nose:
Magic ring with 5 sc
decrease around, creating a small ball.
Sew onto face.

Legs:
Start with the boots (I didn’t and so wish that I had)
(Note I didn’t do this, so I am guessing at the shoe base)
magic ring: 12 dc
sc around
dc, decreasing around to leave 8 stitches.
change to white
dc around
change to red
dc around
repeat pattern for the desired length of legs
attach to underside of the body/head.

I had thought about putting some kind of weight in the bottom (bag of rice, perhaps) but it seems to sit well without it.

And here is the one that I saw online: http://grukhina.ru/iblock/schema/igrushki/zmeja-amigurumi—simvol_2013_goda/
It is a lot cuter than the one I created so if you can figure out (or read the Russian) instructions then lucky you!!!
I love it.