The Gnomes of Grimblewood - 6 January 2025

I was incredibly happy when I received the awaited Gnome knitting book in the post. I have written about the gnome I knitted recently here and here so when the book arrived I wasted no time and started reading it. I’ll give you a few of my first impressions of this book below.

The full title of the book is The Gnomes of Grimblewood by Sarah Schira and was published by Search Press last year. The author / designer is very active on Ravelry where she sells patterns and on social media including Instagram and on You Tube where she regularly produces tutorials. Schira recently declared 2025 as the Year of Gnomes and will be organising competitions where one can enter a knitted gnome from her book or other patterns in a sort of monthly raffle. I doubt I’ll get organised for any of that but it’s nice to know there’s so much enthusiasm out there.

I paid just over £11 or about 66 Steem for the book of nearly 100 pages. I see this book very much as a manual on how to knit the 8 gnome patterns. I feel that the book is aimed at anyone who can knit ideally in the round with double pointed needles (dpns) as when making a pair of socks. I suspect you can make the patterns flat or using other types of needles but from what I've read and seen it's easier to use dpns. The patterns are fairly simple and while there are specific techniques; these are described clearly and are supported by You Tube tutorials.

I personally liked the simplicity of the patterns. and the techniques I'll be learning. I also like how the author / designer makes the book very accessible and the patterns clear, for instance there are charts for the sizes depending on the yarn thickness used. She also groups the parts (arms, hat, feet) and explains them so you can then apply that to specific patterns.

Each gnome has a name which begins with Gn- like Gnoodles, Gnatalia or Gnorry. Also each gnome has a short backstory; some are gardeners or just like having tea or reading.

This gnome has pockets on his beard !

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What I’m not so keen on is the book format. This is not the author’s or even the publisher’s fault I should imagine. I personally find it a bit awkward to follow a pattern from a book. In fact when I need to use a book to make a pattern I tend to make copies of the sheets I’m using. That way I can easily make notes or even doodle. I can also fold the pages and carry them around with me. A book on the other hand can get damaged if you treat it like that.

I personally wanted to own this book to see and learn from the author / designer the specific techniques used to knit the beards and the hats and to see how they were shaped. I guess I could have waited until the patterns were sold individually on Ravelry, but that doesn’t always happen. Actually the price per pattern is normally around half the book price and as the book has 8 patterns I reckon that’s a bargain.

My plan is to make each gnome at least once.

Thank you for reading !