I’ve been seeing gnomes everywhere these days. They didn’t really grab me at first, but I must say I have come to love them. They are basically a pom pom with a little hat added to the top. I made mine in a brown to put on my front porch where I am hoping to have a natural look, but you could easily make them to match your decor. To start the project, I made a my pom poms. The yarn you choose will make a difference in your final project; but I chose a regular, inexpensive skein in white from Hobby Lobby. It was 50% off and cost $2.50. I began by wrapping the yarn around the handles of my hole punch. You could use anything that gives you the size you would like. It helps if you can bend or in my case, squeeze the handles together to make it easier to get the yarn off the handles. I wrapped the yarn approximately fifty times around the handles.
I then moved the yarn to my fingers to cut and tie it off.
After tying off the yarn, you will have a looped tassel or ball.
Simply cut the yarn approximately half way from the center where you tied your yarn off. After cutting the yarn, you will have a messy pom pom. Just trim the ends until your pom pom looks nice and neat.
I did all my pom poms before moving on to the hats. Depending on your style, you may want to complete an entire gnome before doing another, however; I wanted to make a themed tree, so my intention was to make several. I loved how cute they were, so decided to make the whole skein into pom poms and give away the extras as gift toppers or with cookie plates we deliver around Christmas time.
Next, I moved on to the hats. These were a little more time consuming, but once you get in that groove, things move pretty smoothly. I was able to do 40 hats in about six hours. To make the hats, I cut a toilet paper roll into eight pieces. They weren’t perfectly straight, but close enough for this project.
I again picked an object to wrap my yarn around. I used my phone. The case is a little bigger than the phone, so my scissors easily slipped into the gap between my case and phone making the cutting of the yarn a simple task.
Once I had several strips of yarn, I folded them in half and wrapped them around the piece of toilet paper roll I had cut. I made a loop and slipped the two ends through allowing the yarn to dangle off the roll.
Once the entire roll was covered, I turned the yarn inside out by pushing the ends through the middle of the roll and pulling the ends tight.
Then I took one of my strands of yarn and tied it tightly around the top of the ends of the hat. Be sure you tie it as tight as you can, so the ends don’t slip through your knot.
Next, I filled the center of the hat with a cotton ball and trimmed the tied ends to form a small pom pom on top of my hat.
The hats were so cute. I‘m trying to think of other projects to use these hats, but that will be another blog and another time. LOL
Finally, assemble your gnome by hot gluing your hat to your pom pom and adding a wooden bead for the nose. This part went fast and was very satisfying as the little ornaments began to fill my basket. Here is the finished product. I love these little guys!!
These were such a fun project. Although a little time consuming, it was easy to watch a few holiday movies while I worked and the result was so worth it. I will be using them as gifts by tying another strand around the top of the hat to serve as ornaments and also two themed trees for my front porch. I will show you that later. You could also make a cute little garland for your fireplace or a shelf. I might do that as well, but maybe in a different color. If I do, you will definitely get a peek. Hope you enjoy the project and stop by again.
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