How to Crochet a Gnome, Step by Step

A crochet gnome has no face, no arms and no legs. It is a cone, a hat, a nose and a beard — four pieces, none of them difficult. Which means the whole thing lives or dies on proportion, and that is where most first gnomes go wrong.

The rule that makes it read as a gnome: the hat comes down far enough to cover where the eyes would be, and the nose sits just below the hat brim. Get those two right and almost anything else you do looks intentional.

What you need

• Worsted-weight yarn (yarn weight chart) in three colors — body, hat, and a skin tone for the nose
• Something fluffy and pale for the beard: a boucle, a fuzzy yarn, or plain worsted cut into strands
• A hook a size or two smaller than the yarn label suggests, often a US G/6 (4.0 mm), so the fabric is dense enough to hide stuffing. See the hook size chart
• Stuffing, plus something heavy for the base — dry rice, lentils, or pie weights in a small fabric bag
• Yarn needle and a stitch marker

US abbreviations throughout. The abbreviations chart covers anything unfamiliar.

The four pieces

1. Body — a cone, worked in the round from a small circle upward.
2. Hat — a second cone, worked the other way, wide at the brim and closing to a tip.
3. Nose — a small ball.
4. Beard — fringe or a crocheted shape, attached under the nose.

Treat the stitch counts below as a shape recipe rather than a promise of a finished height. Yarn thickness, hook size and how hard you stuff all change the final size, so measure your own first gnome and write the number down for the next one.

Body: a weighted cone

Work in a continuous spiral and mark the first stitch of every round.

Rnd 1. Magic ring, 6 sc. (6)

Rnd 2. 2 sc in each st around. (12)

Rnd 3. *Sc in next st, 2 sc in next st; repeat from * around. (18)

Rnd 4. *Sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in next st; repeat from * around. (24)

Rnd 5. *Sc in next 3 sts, 2 sc in next st; repeat from * around. (30)

That flat circle is the base the gnome stands on. Now stop increasing every round and start building the cone: work two rounds even, then one increase round, and repeat. Increasing every third round instead of every round is what turns a bowl into a slow, gentle taper. More on why the six-per-round rule behaves this way is in increases and decreases.

Keep going until the body is roughly twice as tall as the base is wide, then work even to the top and fasten off, leaving the last round open.

Weight the base before you stuff it. Put your rice or pie weights in a small fabric bag, drop it in first so it sits flat on the bottom, then stuff above it. A gnome is top-heavy by design — a big hat on a narrow cone — and an unweighted one tips over on any surface that is not perfectly level.

Hat: the piece that does the work

The hat starts at the tip and grows downward, which is the reverse of the body.

Rnd 1. Magic ring, 4 sc. (4)

Work several rounds even with no increases at all. This long skinny tube is the floppy tip, and the longer you make it the more character the gnome has. Two inches is conservative; four is where it starts to look deliberate.

Then begin increasing: work an increase round, then one or two rounds even, and repeat, until the opening is slightly wider than the body at the point where you plan to sit it. Slightly wider matters — a hat the same width as the body perches on top like a party hat instead of sitting down over it.

Do not stuff the hat. A stuffed hat stands up stiff and loses the flop that makes the whole thing charming.

Nose

Rnd 1. Magic ring, 6 sc. (6)

Rnd 2. 2 sc in each st around. (12)

Work two rounds even, then sc2tog around, stuffing lightly as it closes. Fasten off with a long tail for sewing.

Make it bigger than feels right. A small tidy nose looks like a mistake; an oversized one looks like a gnome. If you are torn between two sizes, use the larger.

Beard

The fast method is fringe. Cut strands roughly twice the length you want the beard to hang, fold each in half, and pull the folded loop through a stitch on the body with your hook, then pull the ends through the loop — the same knot used for a tasseled scarf edge. Work a row of these in an arc across the front of the body, then trim the bottom straight or to a point.

The tidier method is to crochet a beard shape: a half circle worked in rows, decreasing at each end, then sewn on. It is neater and takes longer, and on a fuzzy yarn nobody can tell the difference.

Either way the beard goes on before the nose, so the nose sits on top of it and hides the attachment line.

Assembly, in order

1. Sew or glue the weighted, stuffed body closed at the top.
2. Attach the beard in an arc across the upper front of the body.
3. Sew the nose on, centered, just above the top of the beard.
4. Put the hat on so the brim comes down and touches the top of the nose. Pin it, look at it from a few feet away, adjust, then sew it on around the brim.

That last step is the one to take slowly. Everything about whether it looks like a gnome is decided by where the hat brim lands.

Mistakes that spoil the gnome

A hat that sits too high. The single most common problem. If you can see a band of body fabric between the hat brim and the nose, the gnome looks like a cone wearing a hat. The brim should touch the nose.

A nose that is too small. Second most common. The nose is the only facial feature, so it has to carry the whole face.

No weight in the base. It will stand up on your table while you are admiring it and be face down by morning.

Stuffing showing through the body. The fabric is too loose. Go down a hook size — amigurumi wants a denser fabric than the yarn label suggests, which is the opposite of most crochet.

A beard too thin to read. Fringe looks generous in your hand and sparse on the gnome. Use more strands than you think, then trim.

Increasing the body every round. That makes a bowl, not a cone. The taper comes from spacing the increase rounds out.

Frequently asked

Why does mine lean to one side?

Either the weight bag is sitting off-center in the base, or the increases stacked up in a line instead of spiraling. Increases worked directly above each other on every round create a visible seam that pulls the cone crooked. Offset them by a stitch or two as you go.

Do gnomes need a face?

No, and that is the point of the design — the hat covers where the eyes would be. Adding eyes below the brim turns it into a different character entirely. If you want eyes, put them on a Santa instead.

Can I make one without a nose?

You can, but it will read as a small decorated cone. The nose is doing more work than any other piece.

What yarn is best for the beard?

Anything fuzzy, pale, and a bit unruly. This is one of the few places where the fluffy yarn that makes learning crochet harder is exactly the right choice, because the fuzz that normally hides your stitches is the effect you want. There is more on which seasonal yarns are worth the trouble in yarn for Christmas crochet.

What should I make next?

For something flat and quick between gnomes, crochet snowflakes use a completely different skill set — open thread work and blocking rather than dense shaping.