Christmas Gnome Part 2

So, like I did last week, I made a gnome this week! As I said last week, I wanted to work on keeping my increasing stitches consistent as well as keeping the stitch size consistent. So I started researching and came across the MOST helpful video, please if you crochet, watch this video.

This video is amazing! Even though I know how to crochet, this video still taught me a few neat tricks. She explained each tip/common mistake then showed examples of what it can look like, and how to use the correct technique. The video was clear, and perfectly explained everything.

The first thing she went over was tension. Tension is the amount of pull on the yarn while crocheting. If you look at the image the string  that the red arrow is pointing at, that string is connected to your ball of yarn. The pull on the yarn, is how hard you tug on that string as you’re crocheting. If there is too much tension, then the piece will become firm and unmovable. If there is not enough tension, then there will be holes in your piece. When I was talking about stitch size, the tension is what I meant.

She also mentioned that a common mistake is going over instead of under. Looking at the yellow arrow is going under to grab the yarn, the green arrow shows how the hook goes over the yarn. I realized watching this video that I have been going over instead of under, which actually isn’t too much of an issue. It simply changes how your stitches look.

So after learning more about tension and understanding how it works, I focused on keeping a consistent tension on the yarn. I also focused on my increasing stitches as I said last week. So for this week I decided to make another gnome, without looking at the first pattern and making a new one to see my improvement!

Here is my pattern for my second gnome!

Body

R1: with red, chain 4, ss into 1st chain, chain 2, then hdc 10 into small circle

R2: inc x10 (20)

R3: BLO hdc x20 (20)

R4: (hdc x4, inc) x4 (24)

R5-R7: hdc x24 (24)

Fasten off

Arm X2

R1: with desired skin color, hdc 6 into magic circle

R2: 6 hdc, inc (7)

R3: switch to red, hdc x7 (7)

R4: hdc x7 (7), Fasten off leaving long tail to sew

Nose

R1: with desired skin color, chain 4, ss into 1st chain, chain 2, then hdc 10 into small circle

R2: hdc x10 (10), Fasten off leaving long tail to sew

Hat

R1: with green, chain 3, ss into 1st chain, chain 1, then hdc 6 into small circle (6)

R2: hdc x6 (6)

R3: switch to white, (2 hdc, inc) x2 (8)

R4: hdc x8 (8)

R5: switch to green, (3 hdc, inc) x 2 (10)

R6: hdc x10 (10)

R7: switch to white, (4 hdc, inc) x2 (12)

R8: hdc x12 (12)

R9: switch to green, (5hdc, inc) x2 (14)

R10: hdc x14 (14)

R11: switch to white, (6 hdc, inc) x2 (16)

R12: (7 hdc, inc) x2 (18)

R13: switch to green, (8 hdc, inc) x2 (20)

R14: (9 hdc, inc) x2 (22)

R15: switch to white, FLO inc x22 (44)

After comparing both patterns, I made the hat almost 4 rounds larger than the first. This is because I steadily increased the hat, instead of increasing and adding a ton of stitches right away, I slowly added stitches which made the hat a nice smooth shape. The tension on this gnome is amazing though, I feel like I did a great job to keep the tension consistent. Although I do not like the arms for this gnome, if I were going to make another one, I would have made the arms smaller and less bulky.

I think the second gnome turned out great… except for the arms, we can ignore those! The hat is amazing, I secured it down so it would look floppy and it’s super cute!

Gnome 2!!!