This page documents a bunch of gnomes I knit to sell at my daughter's store in Woodstock, NY. The first 14 flew out the door, so I did six more. I don't usually knit toys, but I wanted to up my game in knitting small circumferences and there is nothing like the challenge of small pointy hats on tiny needles to increase one's comfort level, though sometimes the experience was like trying to wrestle with a porcupine.

For this design I used most of the supplies in the Verdure collection release (on sale now!), starting with the template, which I especially valued for the lace and gold layers that helped me disguise some of the awkward edges where my photo met (or didn't meet) the Fotoblendz—and there were quite a few sharp edges. To extend other edges, I also clipped duplicates of my photos to a few of the template stains. Then I added a frame from the Artplay Palette to contain another photo and added word art, also from the Verdure collection. The background is Verdure Solid paper 5 over Artsy Paper 4 over 3 over 1, on multiply and overlay blend modes. I embellished with Multimedia Branches 16, Artsy Transfers, Threadz, and elements from the Artplay Palette, and finished off with a burgundy gradient at reduced opacity on color blend mode.