Rainbow Gnomes

A couple of weeks ago I had the bright idea of designing a little knitted gnome for Christmas. That'll be quick and easy I thought. Obviously, I was wrong. The actual designing took me a whole day which was far too long for me to work at one time and left me with a temperature again and a ridiculously bad night. 

I (well, actually my son and daughter) have now instituted a timer system where I set a timer for half an hour before doing something that I know makes me ill - anything requiring concentration, especially involving the computer.

So ... I had knitted one little green gnome and was quite pleased with him.

I think he has quite a lot of character, considering he's basically a pear shaped piece of knitting with a few added bits and bobs. He's a few inches tall and fits nicely in your hand.

Of course, I couldn't stop there could I? I thought how much nicer it would be to have a whole set of brightly coloured gnomes so, after a lot of production line knitting, meet my parade of Rainbow Gnomes.

I absolutely love these. I have resisted the temptation to decorate my new craft room for Christmas but don't the gnomes look nice lined up on the mantelpiece in there? Here they are, complete with the lights I've put in the grate.

As normal, the pattern for the Rainbow Gnomes can be downloaded free from my ravelry store. The gnomes are worked in the round and stuffed as you go with a combination of bean bags and toy stuffing. The beard, nose and hat brim are knitted separately and sewn on and the whole thing is finished off with a little jingle bell on the top of the hat. There's still time to knit one for Christmas and I look forward to seeing lots of brightly coloured gnomes popping up online.

Apart from the gnomes, I did manage to hang up one of my Christmas embroideries next to my new (as yet, empty) desk.

Those short needles are the ones I use most. The pot they're in was painted by my Mum; there's a poppy on the other side too.

The other decorations up there are these wonderful snowflakes on the door that my daughter's partner sent me when she came to visit at the weekend. He cuts the most incredible original designs each year.

One particularly detailed one was designed with my two cats in mind as it features all the things they would like to catch.

There are birds and fish and the wiggly things round the edge are feathers on a string (of course they are!) Aren't they wonderful?

My timer is ticking down so I need to stop now. I haven't forgotten about the tour of the knitting shelves; I just need to take the photos on a day when it's not as dingy as it's been lately.

In the meantime, have fun with some knitted gnomes.